Cal Football: The Art of Wrangling Tickets

As the annual Cal game in Los Angeles approaches, so does another tradition. Players getting tickets for their families.

"I have to get 20 or something," quarterback Chase Garbers noted

"I have to get a few, but I think I have at least 50 family members coming," wideout Nikko Remigio added, "something crazy. I have a pretty big family, they all are making the trip, especially after last weekend."

"Hopefully I could possibly get 50," safety Jaylinn Hawkins said, "I'm asking away, asking my teammates, asking the freshmen, asking the people who are out of state."

This is the art of ticket wrangling, a time honored tradition among players of every team in college football. Every player gets four tickets allotted, home or away (as long as they're on the travel roster for away games). Then, the finessing begins.

"People are always asking for (LA) tickets," defensive lineman Luc Bequette said, "that's a hot commodity, then sometimes people will trade tickets for a game if they probably won't have anyone, but they'll need some for another game."

Bequette found himself in that situation early this year, with trip to Mississippi looming. The native of Little Rock, Arkansas hadn't had the opportunity to play close to home and the trip to Oxford (a three and a half hour drive) was the opportunity for family to come see him.

"I think I had to get 25 (tickets), and it was not easy," Bequette noted. "it was not an easy feat. That one came down to drastic measures, because my dad was inviting everyone he came across. It pretty much came down to where I was asking guys who already had a bunch of tickets, I was asking for their extras to see if some of their people couldn't come."

Bequette also had to compete with Jordan Duncan, who had the Ole Miss game circled on his calendar when he came to Cal.

"It was a total of 51," Duncan said, "but that doesn't count my teachers and counselors, they had already bought their tickets last year. I think in total, as far as people I know, it was close to 100."

Duncan got the jump on tracking down the sheer volume of tickets, making sure everyone knew that he asked first.

"I'd been asking since fall camp," Duncan remembered, "writing (names down) on (iPhone) notes. I just had been tallying names, like for instance I would ask Weaver 'hey bro, can I get your tickets for Ole Miss,' and he'd either be like 'I don't know for sure,' or he'd be like 'first come first served,' so I'd be number one on their list if they had to give it away. I made sure I asked before everyone else, because I knew how big that game was, as a lot of people already had family coming to that."

Bequette eventually found some tickets for his family, going another route to find who hadn't used theirs yet.

"I also asked some of our support staff if they could get me a list of everyone who hadn't used their tickets or hadn't assigned their tickets," "so I was going around and luckily I was able to get them all."

"It was one of those things where it was survival of the fittest with the team," Duncan joked.

It's not only players who end up doing this. Offensive line coach Steve Greatwood had to wrangle up 20 or so for the Oregon game, something he noted he was dreading, but the players will have the issues this week. There's 29 players on Cal's roster from the LA area. Not all of them are on the travel squad, but there's still a ton of demand.

"It's tough, just because there's so many people from SoCal," cornerback Cam Bynum said, "and it's even more tough because only the people that travel can get tickets when the game's in LA. Home games I can ask all the people who are redshirting or are injured, whose families probably aren't coming because they're not playing."

Bynum noted the most he'd been able to get for an LA game was 8. Hawkins said 15, though with his uncle, Jeremiah, also on the team, that's just more tickets to get for him to get.

With Duncan, the family he managed to gather saw a career moment, as the senior wideout caught a 9 yard touchdown pass to put the Bears up 21-13 in the second half.

"I knew where my family was sitting, and I wasn't thinking about me," Duncan remembered, "but it was really giving them that moment, I hope it was a proud moment. We've been through so much as far as growing up and getting to this point, so hopefully that was a highlight of the year for them or for that month."

That's the kind of moment one of the players from Southern California will try to give their family, as they look to clinch a winning season with a win over UCLA.