1976 California Golden Bears football team

1976 California Golden Bears football
ConferencePacific-8 Conference
Record5–6 (3–4 Pac-8)
Head coach
Home stadiumCalifornia Memorial Stadium
Seasons
← 1975
1977 →
1976 Pacific-8 Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 2 USC $ 7 0 0 11 1 0
No. 15 UCLA 6 1 0 9 2 1
Stanford 5 2 0 6 5 0
California 3 4 0 5 6 0
Washington 3 4 0 5 6 0
Washington State 2 5 0 3 8 0
Oregon 1 6 0 4 7 0
Oregon State 1 6 0 2 10 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1976 California Golden Bears football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Berkeley in the Pacific-8 Conference during the 1976 NCAA Division I football season. Under fifth-year head coach Mike White, the Golden Bears compiled an overall record of 5–6 and 3–4 in conference.[1][2]

The leader of the previous season's team was quarterback Joe Roth, a junior college transfer, who was a Heisman Trophy candidate as a senior in 1976. Roth had a great start, however halfway through it his performance started to drop. Unknown to almost everyone, he was diagnosed with melanoma the most dangerous form of skin cancer; only head coach White and his closest friends knew about it. With Roth continuing to play, he still had a strong season and was named an All-American. His last game was in January 1977 at an all-star game in Japan and he died several weeks later in Berkeley.[3][4] His former locker is dedicated in his honor and the annual home game against UCLA or USC is known as the Joe Roth game.[5][6]

  1. ^ "1976 California Golden Bears Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  2. ^ "California 2015 Football Information Guide" (PDF). CalBears.com. Cal Golden Bears Athletics. p. 165. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 26, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  3. ^ "Cal's Roth dies of cancer at age 21". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). UPI. February 20, 1977. p. 2C.
  4. ^ "Cal's Joe Roth loses long battle with cancer". Indianapolis Star. Associated Press. February 20, 1977. p. 10, sec. 2.
  5. ^ "Remembering Joe Roth / Cancer took dynamic QB 30 years ago". SFGate. February 19, 2007. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
  6. ^ "Joe Roth Locker Dedication Nov. 9". calbears.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.