A part of Golden Bear history

Mike Sciacca

Vince Strang got mobbed Saturday night in Berkeley, but it’s a moment

he’ll always cherish.

“It happened so fast, in the blink of an eye,” said the 5-foot-8,

145-pound punt returner/wide receiver for the Cal Berkeley football

team. “I was surrounded on all sides, but it was awesome.”

As soon as Tyler Fredrickson’s 38-yard field goal split the

uprights to cap underdog Cal’s 34-31 triple-overtime victory over

third-ranked USC, Cal fans poured onto the field at Memorial Stadium

and engulfed the football team in celebratory fashion.

It truly was a monumental victory in school history: Cal last beat

a Top Five team when it defeated a No. 4 USC team in 1975 and it was

Cal’s first win over a team ranked as high as No. 3 since the Golden

Bears beat bitter rival and third-ranked Stanford in the 1951 Big

Game.

Strang is a 1998 graduate of Huntington Beach High where he was an

All-Sunset League wide receiver.

Richard Schwartz, a graduate of Edison High where he was an

All-Sunset League quarterback, is a backup quarterback for the Golden

Bears.

“For us, it was a payback for last year,” said Strang, referring

to USC’s 30-28 victory in 2002 that included a controversial

touchdown by the Trojans.

That win started USC on an 11-game win streak which was snapped in

Berkeley Saturday.

“They got lucky last year and for us, this was about respect,”

said Strang who, the week before, had a 68-yard punt return for a

touchdown in a victory at Illinois. “The SC players were

trash-talking to us, even to our sidelines. We wanted this game.”

Strang, a senior, returned punts, went five-yards on a reverse

play and played receiver on a couple of pass plays during the triple

overtime thriller.

“This is special and gratifying, knowing that I contributed to

this big victory,” said the American Studies major, who indicated

he’s like to get into teaching, preferably at his alma mater,

Huntington Beach High. “I bet they show this on ESPN Classics for

years to come.”