2024 EVENTS

 MIDWEST ALUMS TAKE IN LA BOWL

For the second consecutive year, Cal football played in a bowl game. Chicago alums hosted the season’s final game watch at Hurley Tap, while a number of alums supported the Bears in Los Angeles for the LA BOWL. We’ll have more information in summer about upcoming football game watches and road trips for 2025. Congrats to the Golden Bears on another competitive season and continued progress.

MIDWEST ROAD TRIP:
SOUTH BEND FOR WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2/9/25

Cal Alumni Club of Chicago cordially invites you to attend the Cal vs Notre Dame Women’s Basketball Game, Sunday, February 9, 2025. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00pm EST at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, Notre Dame, Indiana.

Cal Women’s basketball is off to a fantastic start! The Bears are ranked #24 nationally and are off to an 11-1 start, including a blowout win over Stanford and an upset of Alabama. We are organizing a road-trip from Chicago as the Bears take on #3 Notre Dame. Depending on interest and availability, we will likely buy tickets in the upper tier ($11 each) and the middle tier ($60-70 each).

If you are interested in attending, please email Nelson Lin at nplin1@yahoo.com and provide your name, email, phone, number of tickets, and if you’re interested in carpooling to/from the game.

SCHEDULE FOR ACC MEN’S BASKETBALL THIS WINTER

Below is a calendar that shows the Bears’ opponents for their first season of men’s basketball in the ACC, one of the most competitive leagues in the sport. We’ll update this page for any upcoming game watches we’ll schedule throughout the winter. Already this season, alumni from the Midwest met up at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo., to take in the Golden Bears’ game against Missouri.

BIG GAME 2024 - CAL KEEPS THE AXE!!!

Cal fans in Chicago reveled in the Golden Bears’ 98-yard game winning drive and touchdown in the closing minutes of the 127th Big Game.  Final score Cal 24- Stanford 21.  With this fourth consecutive win over Stanford, Cal becomes BOWL ELIGIBLE!!  GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  BEARS!!!!!!

MIDWEST ALUMS ROAD TRIP TO WAKE FOREST

Midwest alums spread the ground attack again this year. A group traveled to Winston-Salem for the Wake Forest football game. Alums met with old friends, athletics staff, and the head coach of the Golden Bears.

CAL GAME WATCHES IN CHICAGO ALL FALL

Below is the schedule with results for the fall 2024 season:

Aug. 31 – UC Davis (Chicago game watch party, Cal wins 31-13)
Sept. 7 – at Auburn (Chicago game watch party, Cal wins 21-14)
Sept. 14 – San Diego State (Chicago game watch party, Cal wins 31-10)
Sept. 21 – at Florida State (Chicago game watch party, Cal falls 14-9)
Oct. 5 – Miami (Game watch party, Cal falls 39-38)
Oct. 12 – at Pitt (Game watch, Pittsburgh wins 17-15)
Oct. 19 – North Carolina State (game watch, Cal falls 24-23)
Oct. 26 – Oregon State (Chicago game watch, Cal wins 44-7)
Nov. 8 – at Wake Forest (Chicago game watch, Cal wins 46-36)
Nov. 16 – Syracuse (Chicago game watch, Cal falls 33-25)
Nov. 23 – Stanford (Chicago game watch, Cal wins 24-21)
Nov. 30 – at SMU (Game watch, Cal falls 38-6)

TWO UC BERKELEY FACULTY MEMBERS,
TWO ALUMS RECEIVE NOBEL PRIZES

This year’s unveiling of the Nobel Prize recipients once again featured former UC Berkeley teachers and alumni being honored for their work and research.

David Baker Ph.D. ’89 (Nobel Prize in Chemistry) —  A biochemist who worked as a Ph.D. student with professor and fellow Nobel laureate Randy Schekman, Baker shares the prize “for computational protein design.” His research group, as this UC Berkeley article explains, has produced proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials, and tiny sensors.

Gary Ruvkun ’73 (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) — A geneticist, Ruvkin shares the prize “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.”

James Robinson (Prize in Economic Sciences) — An economist and political scientist at Berkeley from 1999 to 2004, Robinson co-won the award for research on why some nations are rich and others poor.

John Hopfield (Nobel Prize in Physics) — A physics faculty member from 1961–64 and now a biophysicist, Hopfield shares the prize “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”

MIDWEST ALUMS PARTICIPATE IN
CAL ALUMNI MENTOR PROGRAM

In 2023 the Cal Alumni Association launched the Alumni Mentor Program, where alums are able to connect with students and recent graduates who are looking for assistance in beginning their careers. Cal Alumni Club of Chicago members have been actively taking part in this program in its infancy, offering career advice and introducing students who are interested in exploring certain career activities. This program has been recognized as a particular benefit to those students who might be the first in their families to attend college, or come from an underserved secondary school environment.

To get involved you can visit the link above or go to the Berkeley Career Network, which manages the program.

About

We are an officially chartered chapter of the California Alumni Association bringing together Cal alums form the greater Chicagoland area and surrounding Midwest states. 

The Cal Alumni Club of Chicago organizes social activities, game watches and volunteer events for Alumni throughout the year. We also work with the University to coordinate and host a Summer Welcome Party for the new Midwest Cal students.

If you are interested in getting involved, sign-up for our events  and please email us at  calalumniassociationchicago<at>gmail.com.  Sign-up for our monthly newsletter below.