Remembering Cal "Way Back When"
by William Fujita, Class of 1939
THOSE WHO attended Cal from 1935-40 may well remember those years as "the good, old days." The registration fee was $25 per semester, athletic privilege cards were $10 and entitled one admission to all home football games (including the Big Game), basketball, baseball and other Cal athletic events.
|
| Bill Fujita, Nug Madakoro and Leo Saito strolling down Telegraph Avenue, 1938. Photo courtesty of Bill Fujita. |
For those of us who commuted to Cal across San Francisco Bay on the ferry boats and the S.P. (red trains) and the Key Route System (yellow trains), the commute books were $6.50 for 20 rides and the street car fare was 5 cents. Extra thick milkshakes (three scoops of ice cream) at Jules on Telegraph Avenue were 15 cents and a four-course Sunday dinner at the Black Sheep Restaurant on Bancroft Avenue was about $1.50 including dessert and coffee!
Generally, the Nisei students at Cal were carefree, naive and innocent. Playing bridge at Stephens Union any time of the day was a popular pastime. The Nisei students from out of town lived at the Club House on Euclid Avenue or the Women's Club House on Hearst Avenue. Perhaps the most outstanding and remarkable occurrence during this mid-30s period was the emergence of prominent Nisei athletes who left their mark on Cal sports history.
Never before nor since has there been four Nisei athletes who were first string players in varsity sports within one four-year period. The four were Ted Ohashi of Stockton, basketball; Kiyo Nogami of Alameda, baseball; George Tanaka of Alameda, tennis; and George Kido of Alameda, track & field (broad jump). There was also Sam Rokutani, a south-paw pitcher for the varsity baseball team, and Dan Shinoda, a coxswain for the varsity crew.
During the years 1937-39, the U.C. Men's Students Club basketball team, which included Kayo Senzaki (Los Angeles), Sus Takei (Oakland), Mike Sakamoto (San Jose), Leo Saito (Oakland), and myself (San Francisco), dominated the S.E Bay Area Nisei basketball scene.
In 1938, we were the Northern California Japanese Athletic Union champions, losing only to the L.A. Cardinals in the state championship game.
Yori Wada will be remembered as the editor of the Daily Cal, a student and campus publication, and for his activities at Stiles Hall, the citadel University YMCA.
Dress codes, mores and attitudes of the students who experience memorable years on the UC Berkeley campus change from generation to generation. However, over the years, the Campanile, Sather Gate, Hearst Gym for Women, and "tightwad hill" behind Memorial Stadium on the rugged Eastern foothills remain as everlasting and deep-in-tradition landmarks of Cal Berkeley.
Who will deny that those who enjoyed and survived those unforgettable years on the Berkeley campus are more rounded and enlightened individuals because of their experiences at Cal.
