1st College Game Day pregame at UC Berkeley draws crowd of thousands

BERKELEY, Calif. - Cal’s first home ACC matchup is Saturday night when they take on the #8, Miami Hurricanes.

UC Berkeley hosted ESPN’s College Game Day for the first time Saturday morning. They came in droves for the first-ever national pregame show at Berkeley.

"It’s game day baby!" said Karan Vazirani, who is not a Cal student but drove up from San Jose to soak in the pregame excitement. 

From current students to alumni, Golden Bears spanning generations rallied ahead of Saturday night’s matchup against Miami.

"Oh, we’re going to go all out," said one Cal student. "It’s going to be crazy. I’ll be at the game even though probably should be looking for a job."

Many of them arrived 24 hours ahead of the 6 a.m. pregame show and camped out to beat the crowd; a sea of Berkeley blue and California gold, among them, everything from a Cal a themed lucha libre outfit to a full-on banana costume.

Freshman Clare Antonow got in line at midnight and waited for hours to get a good spot at the pregame show. 

"I haven’t drank water. I haven’t slept," said Antonow, as another student quickly handed her a bottle of water. "Oh my God! I got water!"

It’s considered a huge honor for the national broadcaster to come to Berkeley for the first time in 38 seasons.

"Back in the 2000s, there were three or four different times we thought game day was coming and I was so hyped up about it, and then it didn’t happen for one reason or another, so the fact that it came this year was kind of insane," said alumnus Gary Lentz.

"In my era, back with Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch," said another alumni member, Juan Contreras. "I was on campus when Aaron was here, we've had so much talent come out of our campus."

Alumni member Pepe Davis rolled up in his 1954 Ford Thunderbird to pump up the team.

"This is the Cal car!" said Davis. "There’s no other one like it. So, I had it for over 30 years, proposed to my wife at a big game in this car."

So much tradition on campus, and so much hope for a victory after pulling an all-nighter.

"We will be at the game," said Junior Alexandra Mendez. "We’re going to go home and sleep for a couple of hours, and then we’re going to be at the game."

A spokesperson for UC Berkeley told KTVU the pregame show crowd grew to more than 3,000 fans.

Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.