When I was a kid, I dreamt of attending either Stanford or Cal. Based on my grades... Stanford was never going to happen. And by high school... I realized Berkeley wasn't going to happen either.
I was off to De Anza... and eventually San Jose State. Let's go Spartans!
2012 Upper Deck College Mascots Patch #CM-12
However I was really stoked when my nephew decided to go to UC Berkeley. Last weekend, he graduated as part of the Class of 2024 and today is his graduation party.
I won't be able to attend... as I caught something yesterday. The last thing I want to do is be that guy who goes to the party and gets everyone sick.
That being said... I wanted to celebrate by showing off my favorite items in my Cal PC:
#1: 1982 The Big Game Program
#2: 2003 Sports Illustrated for Kids #315
Natalie Coughlin won two gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The following spring... she graduated from UC Berkeley.
In 2008 in Beijing, she'd bring home another Olympic gold medal. By the time she hung up her swimsuit, she had been to three Olympics and finished with 3 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 5 bronze medals... which ties her (with Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres) for most Olympic medals won by U.S. female athletes.
#3: 2007 Sage Aspire Autograph #12A
Marshawn Lynch is Cal's #2 all-time leading rusher. But I didn't turn into a big Beast Mode fan until he played a big part of the Seattle Seahawks success from 2012 to 2015. It's also important to remember that he was born and raised in the East Bay.
#4: 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Autograph #A-SW
Okay. This isn't technically a piece of Cal memorabilia... but Steve Wozniak graduated from Berkeley in 1986... right about the time I was graduating from middle school.
#5: 1995 Classic Superior Pix Autograph #NNO
Back in college... I sometimes rode VTA's light rail to school. Situated in between the Paseo de San Antonio station and SJSU was a small card shop. Sometime in the fall of 1994... I started buying packs of 1994-95 basketball in hopes of pulling Jason Kidd cards. This wasn't a card I pulled back then... but it is a reminder of the part Kidd played on my card collecting timeline.
Okay, it's your turn...
Do you have any college PC's? If so, who?
Congratulations Kobe... and to the rest of the Class of 2024! Go Bears!
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
13 comments:
Congratulations to your nephew. Graduating from Berkeley is no mean feat!
I don't have any college-related collection. I went to Northwestern, so that would be the place, but it's not something I've pursued. Would certainly pick up any NU baseball cards if I came across them cheap (like maybe from Panini Draft Picks) but I'm not really interested in collecting other sports to speak of at this point.
No college PCs for me.
I'd rank them like this:
1. Game program.
2. Coughlin
3. Woz
4. Kidd
5. Marshawn
Do I have any college PCs…
I've only just been picking up cards of guys AT Stanford. Has been mainly them as professionals or Olympians. But the allure of SI for Kids cards is too much. And heck BowmanU is kind of cool too. I'm actually a bit jealous of Cal though because Joe Kapp shows up in all the 1960s CFL card sets and there's no Stanford alumnus in there for me to get.
Oh and that 1982 Program is fantastic.
I didn't make it past community college here in Sacramento(America River JC) but the big FB star when I was there 78-80 was Gerald Willhite ,as you know he transferred to SJS and then had a great career with the Broncos ,unfortunately I could never find any college cards of him.
That Wozniak is off the chain Professor Fuji! Also Partial to the Kidd graph as he brought respectability to the laughing stock that was the New Jersey Nets. As I originally hail from Dirty Jersey I also Follow and Collect Seton Hall Pirates, Including but not limited to;
Terry Dehere
Andre Barrett
Shaheen Holloway
Anthony Avent
Sandro Mamukelashvili
Arturas Karnishavos
Craig Biggio...
I Tend to steer Clear of the more controversial alumni such as Luther Wright and Eddie Griffin as I do with most of my Personal Collection.
Didn't get a chance to make it to the post office on Thurday so I'll likely get your care package shipped Monday. I'll email 📧 you the tracking post haste.
I have some cards of players that played football at Ohio State and some other colleges here in Ohio that I have connections to. Lately I have tried to get rookie cards of the various Buckeye football players.
Outside of a scattered card here or there of a college player (or alumni) that I find interesting, no. College sports, in general, don't interest me and for a couple of them (mainly football), I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to follow them for my job anymore.
I love those college patches! You've got some extremely cool non-card items like the Cal/Stanford program. Congrats to your nephew, and I'd happily root for your SJS Spartans over the ones from my state.
As for whether or not I have a college collection, do you think I should start one? ;) College football continues to be vastly better than the pros in my opinion and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
When and where I grew up it seemed that few cared about college sports with the exception of St. John's during the Lou Carnasecca era. It wasn't until I grew up & moved out of state that I could begin to understand rooting for a college team when nobody from your family attended that school. :-D
I technically have a collection based on my alma mater, but since I went to a D3 school not known for sports the cards are very few and far between.
I have a small UF collection. Go Gators! Congrats to the nephew! My youngest graduated 10 days ago.
Congrats to your nephew!
I pick up a few Syracuse autographs here and there, but nothing really defined or consistent. Speaking of which...Cal is now in the ACC...which is just weird!
Congrats on your nephew and in my book if you went to college in California, it's a win no matter where you went.
Also funny, I don't collect PCs but the one set I want to collect is the first one you showed - the college patches. One of these days I'll see if I can find someone to trade for Dubs, Tusk, Smokey, Peruna, Renegade, and Ralphie.
Post a Comment