Sept. 15, 2008

By Taylor Eastman, Media Relations Student Assistant

On Sept. 19, 1953, the Baylor Bears made its first appearance in Berkeley, Calif. in the program's history. Thirty-four thousand fans filed into Memorial Stadium to witness the first meeting between the two teams, as No. 20 Baylor shutout No. 14 Cal 25-0 to notch the victory in the Bears' season opener.

Despite only having 14 working days prior to the game, coach George Sauer was delighted with his team's performance.

"We didn't know what we'd be like, but we were very pleased with the game," Sauer said. "Whether this is the best Baylor team we've had, remains to be seen."

What they saw in Berkeley seemed to be a good start for the Bears.

Senior quarterback Cotton Davidson played a prominent role in the Bears victory. Davidson completed 8-of-15 passes for 236 yards.

In the first half, the Bears had twice as many yards as their opponent and 12 first downs; three times as many as California. With these dominating statistics, Baylor went into halftime with a 13-0 lead.

In the second half, the Bears took advantage of California's mistakes to amplify their lead. They capped off their first win of the season with a touchdown in each quarter making it a 25-0 victory.

Waldorf thought it came down to experience and was not at all discouraged with his team's performance. He believed that it was the small mistakes that made the big difference between them and Baylor.

"Many times when plays should have gone for us, we missed one man and those were the big mistakes."

Even after the Baylor Bears' shut out the University of California, Baylor head coach George Sauer still saw potential in Head Coach Pappy Waldorf's team.

"Give Cal some time and they will have a good ball club."

He particularly saw impending talents in Cal's young quarterback, Maguire Larson, following a debut that most would rate as poor. He completed 7- of-16 passes but only threw for 91 of Cal's 283 net yards in the game.

"I think people expected too much of him in his first game as quarterback. I can tell he's going to be a whiz in the backfield."