Nov. 23, 2002
Berkeley, Calif. (AP) - Joe Igber ran for 226 yards and a score as Cal beat Stanford 30-7 Saturday in the 105th Big Game, emphatically snapping a seven-game losing streak in the rivalry with a victory that capped the Bears' transformation from punch lines to winners.
Kyle Boller passed for 188 yards and threw two touchdown passes to LaShaun Ward as the Bears (7-5, 4-4 Pac-10) finished their first winning season since 1993 with an overwhelming performance against the Cardinal (2-9, 1-7).
In fact, the biggest skirmishes were fought on the field afterward, when the first sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium since the 1994 Big Game raucously celebrated the end of Cal's longest losing streak against its archrival.
Twenty years after The Play - the five-lateral, 57-yard kickoff return that won the 1982 Big Game for Cal - the Bears didn't need any trickery. After Teyo Johnson caught an 8-yard TD pass on Stanford's opening possession, Boller and Igber led a steady march to the end zone.
Ward, one of the Bears' 15 senior starters along with Boller and Igber, caught touchdown passes of 31 and 22 yards in the first half.
Igber sprinted untouched through the heart of the Stanford defense for a 42-yard score 4:36 before halftime, giving Cal a 23-7 lead and starting the festivities in the stands.
After Stanford fumbled with 11 seconds left, the students rushed the field. The officials waved off the final ticks of the clock, and the fans lifted Boller onto their hands for a bit of crowd-surfing.
The Axe was taken to midfield and carried across the turf by the players, who held it aloft and allowed thousands of students to touch it.
The celebration didn't get ugly until several fans tried to rush the south goal posts, but dozens of security guards fought them off. Moments later, hundreds of students overwhelmed the guards on the north goal posts, tearing them down and parading them through the stadium.
The fans attempted to use the north goal post as a wedge to attack the south posts, and several fans were pulled to the ground, handcuffed and arrested. But the students and fans eventually overwhelmed the guards, tearing down the second set of posts and swarming over them.
Johnson caught five passes for 61 yards for Stanford, which ended its season with a five-game losing streak. .
"I don't know what to think right now. I'm disappointed, heartbroken," Stanford running back Kerry Carter said. "This is probably one of the worst feelings I've had."
Igber had the biggest rushing day in Big Game history, repeatedly slicing through Stanford's defense for huge gains on just 26 carries. Igber finished his Cal career with 3,124 yards, passing Chuck Muncie and Paul Jones to finish second in school history behind Russell White.