i am a super loyal fan. i grew up in the bay area so my teams have always been the cal bears, the niners, the warriors and the A’s (billy ball!) back before the TV networks determined the times of the games and scheduled them for all different crazy times, the cal game was always saturday at one. fall saturdays were spent cheering for the bears (GRRRR - RAH! GRRRR - RAH!) in the “family section” of the stadium. you didn’t have to sit anywhere particular once you were in so it felt like an extension of high school where we roved around and chatted about the party from the night before. we didn’t have to pay too much attention to the game because the bears were never very good (save a few glorious moments like THE PLAY when we beat stanford - i WAS present for this unbelievable touchdown but didn’t understand what was happening until i heard the cannon go off, indicating that cal had scored.) sundays were frequently spent at candlestick cheering for the niners… they WERE good, so good that they brought home FOUR superbowls under joe montana. he still makes my heart flutter (i seriously considered becoming a flight attendant after i read that he met his wife, jennifer in the air!) we were always dressed properly (blue and gold for cal, red for the niners) except for one unfortunate saturday when my dad mixed up his gear and sported a red niners shirt at the cal game. he had to endure hollers of “TAKE OFF THAT RED SHIRT” (stanford’s color) for the entirety of the game. so fierce was my loyalty that i was stunned when a dear friend of mine decided to attend stanford. never mind that it was and is one of the BEST schools in the country, i just couldn’t wrap my head around how she could cheer for a team whose mascot is a walking tree after a lifetime of growling for the bears. she managed… in fact she LOVED it, but did admit recently that she never felt comfortable wearing any stanford stuff when she was home in berkeley… not even a hat.