When you think of the University of California, you might think of groundbreaking discoveries, world-class education … but how about some Super athletes?
UC’s football programs at Berkeley, Davis and UCLA have all sent players to the most popular sporting event in the United States — the Super Bowl. In fact, UCLA is among the top 5 colleges to feature alumni in the Super Bowl, with 115 players suiting up. And Cal alumni boast the fourth-most points scored in Super Bowl history (and they would have had six more if Pete Carroll would have run the damn ball).
There’s no shortage of UC history in connection with the NFL’s marquee event, with hundreds of players and coaches involved in its now 59 Super Bowl championships. So here’s a bit of UC Super Bowl lore to help you impress your friends when the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs face off, no matter who you’re rooting for during the game (a rematch of two years ago!) this Sunday.
A Bruin, a Bear, and a ... gator in the bowl?
This year's Super Bowl in New Orleans features two former UC players, both on the Chiefs. Former Cal Bear Nikko Remigio has been a vital role player for the Kansas City Chiefs after earning a ring last year for the Chiefs while on injured reserve. His 44-yard punt return in the AFC championship against the Buffalo Bills was a big play in the tightly contested game that led the team to the Super Bowl.
Below, a glorious slideshow of Remigio helping defeat Stanford in 2021.
There is only one UCLA Bruin in the bowl, but he is a colorful one, and no, the gator is not a reference to the University of Florida and its mascot. Kansas City Chiefs running back Carson Steele made a splash in his Sunday Night Football debut against the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 22, 2024, rushing for 74 yards. He also carried to fame his unusual pet — Crocky-J, a pet alligator.
Chiefs' Carson Steele and his pet alligator Crocky-J are the duo we didn't know we needed! #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/9iXCqRjDL7
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 6, 2024
His longtime, newly social media–famous companion also provided moral, if not on-field support, while Steele played at UCLA. (“Glad he made the decision to leave him back in Indiana,” said then-coach Chip Kelly. “If it was here, I think we'd all know.”) For better or worse, Crocky-J will not be paddling around the bayous of Louisiana during the Super Bowl, although he will be watching the game, per Steele.
Later alligator! Chiefs rookie Carson Steele says his beloved pet alligator Crocky-J didn’t make the trip to New Orleans for #SuperBowl
— Cydney Henderson (@CydHenderson) February 4, 2025
“He’s back in Indy, but we got a TV turned on for him to make sure he’s watching.” pic.twitter.com/WXdtcF6pc4
May the best humans win.
Recent Bears and Bruins in the bowl
Two UC alums got some hardware out of last year’s Super Bowl — Kansas City’s defensive tackle Matt Dickerson won a Super Bowl ring with Kansas City and Nikko Remigio won a ring while on injured reserve.
The game also featured a UC alum in one of the most important roles on the field — center for the San Francisco 49ers. A three-time team captain while at UCLA, Jake Brendel started 52 games for the Bruins, a school record, and graduated in 2015 with a degree in business economics. At UCLA he earned a number of honors, including being named to the first-team All-Pac-12 academic team his senior year. Brendel bounced around the league a bit before finding a home with the 49ers and becoming a starter, earning a four-year contract extension in 2023. Cal alum and tight end Jake Tonges was also in Vegas, helping the 49ers as a practice squad player.
Score bleeping points*
He might not be in the booth calling the game, but Troy Aikman will always be part of Super Bowl history as a three-time Super Bowl champion and MVP of Super Bowl 27. UCLA’s first Davey O'Brien Award winner as the nation’s top quarterback, Aikman has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
New York Jets quarterback and famed former Cal Bear Aaron Rodgers will continue his quest to earn his second Super Bowl ring next season. (There must be something about the Jets and UC — Ken O’Brien of the famed 1983 draft class played for the UC Davis Aggies and while he never made it to the Super Bowl, he made it to the Pro Bowl twice.)
Of course, football isn’t just about the passing game, even in this big play-dominated era. Cal Bear and Oakland native Marshawn Lynch has one ring from his time on the Seattle Seahawks, where he earned the nickname Beast Mode for his forceful running style. He could have had two, depending on how harshly you judge Pete Carroll’s play call near the end of Super Bowl 49 (called the “dumbest call in football history”).
And Lynch is not the only Super Bowl running back from the UC system: Cal Bears C.J. Anderson (Denver Broncos) and Shane Vereen (New England Patriots) both have rings.
The battle is in the trenches
Cal Bear and Super Bowl winner Mitchell Schwartz will be keenly watching and offering commentary on offensive line play as his former team, the Chiefs, goes for its third straight ring. Schwartz was an All-Pro offensive tackle who enjoys explaining the nuances of the position (and the officiating of it) on Twitter. He and his brother, Geoff, also an offensive lineman, teamed up to write a book, “Eat My Schwartz: Our Story of NFL Football, Food, Family, and Faith,” about their journey to become the first Jewish brothers in the league since 1923.
Ok let's break down this #Chiefs vs. #Eagles Super Bowl matchup. Eagles opened as slight favorites and have remained there. It's about what I figured. Would have been a lot higher I think if not for Mahomes. Might as well dive right into the QB matchup.
— Mitchell Schwartz (@MitchSchwartz71) February 11, 2023
UC Davis has produced its own brother combo along the offensive lines, Brad and Cory Lekkerkerker, as well.
Old school Niners fans (I’m talking Montana era) might remember UCLA alum Randy Cross, a three-time Super Bowl champion and center/guard on those legendary teams. Other UCLA linemen with rings include Jonathan Ogden, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 2001. Like Ogden, UC Berkeley's Tarik Glenn was a first-round draft pick and lineman and won a Super Bowl ring in 2007, with the Indianapolis Colts. Rings for the team that left Baltimore and the team that replaced them — a good wrinkle for your trivia efforts.
Defense wins championships
While the UC system has churned out no shortage of flashy skill players (Tony Gonzalez, DeSean Jackson, anyone?), a dream team made up of UC defenders could lock them down. Cal linebacker Tully Banta-Cain won two rings with the New England Patriots, the team later defeated in 2017 by Cal linebacker Mychal Kendricks’ squad, the Philadelphia Eagles. (Mychal’s brother, Eric, a UCLA alum, plays for the Minnesota Vikings). Perhaps because it’s the most cerebral position on defense, the UC system seems to be some sort of linebacker factory — Ken Norton was a Pro Bowl linebacker on the Dallas Cowboys’ Super Bowl-winning teams in the 90s.
A number of other UC defensive players have been Super Bowl champions, too, including Carnell Lake (defensive back on the Pittsburgh Steelers) and Brandon Mebane, the Cal Bear who went on to anchor the defensive line on the famed “Legion of Boom” defense of Marshawn Lynch’s Super Bowl-winning team.
Special teams gives an edge
Special teams helps give you an edge as a player fighting for playing time; it also can make a huge difference in the outcome of games. Naturally, UC has produced some remarkable special team players. UC Berkeley longsnapper David Binn played on the San Diego Chargers Super Bowl team in 1995; he was defeated in that game by Niners placekicker and former Cal Bear Doug Brien. Most famous of all (though technically not a Super Bowl player) is UC Davis kicker and zoology major Rolf Benirschke, who went on to become the NFL Man of the Year in 1983 and have a successful public speaking career; he overcame surgeries for ulcerative colitis to become a successful pro player.
Have the right gameplan
Of course in football, coaches play an outsized role, particularly coordinators. New Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan was the offensive coordinator for the Bengals from 2019 to 2023, helping to get the Bengals to their first Super Bowl in decades. UC Davis’ Ejiro Evero made it to the Super Bowl as the safeties coach for the Los Angeles Rams (on the 2018 Jared Goff-led team); he is now one of the hottest names in the coaching circuit as a potential head coaching candidate. And “Riverboat Ron” Rivera, part of the Cal linebacker factory, is one of the most well-respected coaches in the game, having won a Super Bowl on the legendary Ditka-coached 1985 Bears team and led the Carolina Panthers to the Bowl in 2015.
Learn from the legends
UC’s football history dates back well before the modern NFL — we’re talking leather helmets here. The first “Big Game” between the Cal Bears and Stanford, played in 1892, predates the NFL’s big game, the Super Bowl, by more than 70 years. And it truly was big — organizers, including Stanford’s Herbert Hoover, expected 10,000 fans to show up, and had to scramble to collect admissions fees for the 20,000 that actually arrived.
Fast forward to those early Super Bowls, and it’s no surprise a veteran of the original Big Game was a star. Joe Kapp, Cal QB, led his team to the Rose Bowl in 1958 and went on to be drafted late by the Minnesota Vikings the following year. What followed was a decade in the Canadian Football League, where his play would earn a spot in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. The Vikings managed to roster Kapp in 1967 and he led them to a Super Bowl appearance during the 1969 season and tied a record for the most touchdown passes in a single game along the way. In 1970, he made the cover of Sports Illustrated, dubbed “The Toughest Chicano” by the magazine, an achievement in visibility for Latino players in its own right. Kapp, who returned to UC Berkeley to coach in the 80s, passed away last year of Alzheimer’s. Proceeds from his memoir go to support scholarships for first-generation Latino/a students at UC Berkeley.
UC Riverside may no longer have a football program, but its alumni have still made Super Bowl history. Michael McColly "Butch" Johnson played a pivotal role in the 12th Super Bowl as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. At the end of a bomb from none other than Hall of Famer Roger Staubach, Johnson laid out for a diving 45 yard touchdown, helping the Cowboys seal the game against the Denver Broncos. The following year, Johnson also nabbed a touchdown from Staubach in the Super Bowl. Although the Cowboys lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers that year, it made Johnson only the second player to score back-to-back touchdowns in the NFL’s biggest game.
There’s no doubt players we missed that would make it on your UC fantasy football team — but there were only so many names we could draft in one piece. Let us know your favorites and your NFL history deepcuts (Craig Morton?) and enjoy the game!
Bonus: Are you watching for the ads? If so, show off your psychology acumen by brushing up on this UC Davis study about what Super Bowl commercials work, and why. Curious how an event as massive as the Super Bowl comes together? Check out this interview with UC Davis alum and Allegiant Airlines CEO Maurice Gallagher ‘71. He served as chair of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, and the game was played in his company’s (very, very swanky) backyard — Allegiant Stadium.
*Former UCLA coach Chip Kelly, paraphrased
Joe Kapp, the “Toughest Chicano.”
