The Seer wrote:
Put the house on Cal. No way Ucla wins this game.
I see "The Seer" working...
OT:
Just In Case "The Seer" Has Forgotten...
I will never let this die!!!
"BIG C"
"Big C" is traditionally the first song of the pregame to which the Band marches its signature Flying Wedge formation, and it is unquestionably the most famous and controversial Cal Song. "Big C" was written in 1913 by Harold P. Williams, with words by Norman Loyall McLaren. It was written to commemorate the large cement C built "on our rugged Eastern foothills" in 1905, and also as a result of the Daily Californian's annual song competition. In the Fall of 1913, the competition was stiff; but the Rally Committee managed to narrow the field down to two songs, "Big C" and "Stanford Jonah." "Big C" took the prize and "Jonah" won the next year.
The controversy around the song has its roots in the "All University Weekend," an annual event which began around 1948 and lasted into the 1960s. This event was a double header football game that pitted Cal against UCLA and UC Davis against UC Santa Barbara. The games were played alternately in Berkeley one year and in Los Angeles the next year. Bands from all four of the schools would perform together in one giant, combined halftime show. In one of the last "All U Weekends," F. Kelley James, then Associate Director of the UCLA Band and alumnus of the Cal Band wrote an arrangement of "Big C" for the combined halftime show.
Afterwards, UCLA kept using his arrangement of "Big C," adding its own lyrics and renaming it "Sons of Westwood." The UCLA Band began playing it regularly as the new fight song. James Berdahl, then director of the Cal Band, was incensed over what he felt was a violation of the sanctity of Cal Songs. A bitter exchange ensued between Berdahl and James for the next several years concerning the legal and ethical grounds under which "Big C" was appropriated. The matter came to a head in February 18, 1969, when Irwin Coster, working on behalf of the UCLA cause, received official word from the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress that "Big C" had never been copyrighted, and thus it was in the Public Domain. Public Domain status meant that only adaptations and arrangements of the song could be copyrighted, so UCLA had every legal right to "steal" the song. Some regents and UCLA administrators thought it quite reasonable that this "little sister" of Cal maintain "Sons of Westwood" as an affirmation of the University of California's solidarity. However, ardent students and alumni at Cal were never happy with the situation, especially Berdahl, who continued to fight for the abolition of "Sons of Westwood" through the remainder of his tenure as director. Ironically, uninformed people recognize "Sons of Westwood" as UCLA's song due to their successful football program and exposure on televised games and wonder why Cal plays UCLA's fight song so much.
Hey fUcla - get our own DAMN mascot and your own DAMN song!!
m2
