California Golden Bears Athletics
The 1991 Cal football team celebrates its 35th anniversary this weekend.
Depths To Heights
9/25/2026 12:00 PM | Football, Inside The Lair, Inside Cal Football
Celebrating The 1991 Golden Bears
Eight players from the 1991 California football team have been inducted into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame.
That '91 team went 10-2, tying it with six others for the modern-era program record for wins in a season.
The '91 Bears finished the season ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll, still Cal's highest season-ending AP ranking since the 1950 team was No. 5.
And the 1991 Cal season actually ended Jan. 1, 1992, when the Bears overwhelmed Clemson 37-13 in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. With the Tigers coming to California Memorial Stadium to face the Bears on Friday night for the teams' first meeting since that New Year's Day matchup, the 1991 team held a reunion dinner Thursday. The '91 Bears will have a tailgate Friday, then will be honored during that night's game.
The players are certain to share memories of a truly memorable season.
Season setup
Led by quarterback Mike Pawlawski, running back Russell White and wide receivers Sean Dawkins and Brian Treggs, the Bears went 7-4-1 in 1990, a season capped by a 17-15 victory over Wyoming in the Copper Bowl in Tucson.
With those four men returning, the '91 team expected to flourish in head coach Bruce Snyder's fifth season.
"We were indoctrinated in Bruce Snyder's system," said Pawlawski, the longtime analyst on Cal football radio broadcasts. "So, we grew in belief year after year as we practiced it."
Pawlawski and a few other key players -- including offensive linemen Troy Auzenne and Steve Gordon and linebackers Cornell Collier and Jason Wilborn -- had been with the Bears since Snyder took over the program after the 1986 team had gone 2-9.
Those five-year players took a strong sense of pride in lifting a program from the depths to the heights.
"When we were freshmen, we wanted to make sure we made a difference somehow in the program," Collier said. "We kept making progress."
Collier added that he and his fellow fifth-year men "fought the fight and stayed committed to the program."
Pawlawski, the leader
Pawlawski would pass for 2,517 yards and 21 touchdowns in the '91 season as he shared the Pac-10's Offensive Player of the Year award with Washington wide receiver Mario Bailey.
Not only did Pawlawski perform extremely well directing offensive coordinator Steve Mariucci's attack, but he also inspired a number of his teammates.
"The reality is 1991 was Mike's team. Period," linebacker Jerrott Willard said. "He drove the ship, man. I (recently) sent him a text saying that I was just a passenger on your boat."
"Pawlawski was an amazing quarterback and an amazing leader," offensive lineman Todd Steussie said.
Willard said that a team "ends up jelling behind a personality and the team takes the shape of that personality – and that's what happened with that team. It took Mike's personality."
Pawlawski's personality included an endearing brashness that his teammates appreciated.
"You want to be great? Then this is what it costs," Pawlawski recalled, regarding how he and his teammates thrived in their physical and mental preparation. "You can't love the success without loving the work -- and that team loved to do the work together."
Pawlawski "was the right guy at the right moment for Cal and, frankly, we were fortunate to have him," Willard said. "He had a way of getting people to play harder than they knew they could play.
"He has a great way of giving people confidence, which is a gift. Not everyone can do it."
'It was sooo loud'
The Bears won their first five games of '91, blowing out Pacific (86-24) and Purdue (42-18) at Memorial, getting late game-winning field goals from Doug Brien at Arizona (23-21) and at UCLA (27-24) and then stomping visiting Oregon (45-7).
Cal had risen to seventh in the AP poll and was set to host No. 3 Washington. The Huskies were the defending Rose Bowl champs and would go undefeated in '91, grabbing a share of the national title.
"I just remember how big a game it was going into it," Wilborn said. "I'm not even sure we appreciated how big a game it was at the time."
A packed Memorial Stadium "was electric," Willard said. "It was sooo loud. It was amazing."
The Bears hung with the Huskies the entire way, but Washington pulled out a 24-17 decision. On the game's final play from the Washington 23, Pawlawski's pass intended for Treggs in the end zone fell incomplete.
Then as the Bears headed off the field, they received something a losing team hardly ever gets: a standing ovation from the home fans.
"It gives me chills thinking about it now," Wilborn said.
Pawlawski said, "I think the Berkeley community had always lived in hope, not belief: We hope our team can be great.
"But that day, we rewarded that hope with a team that at least went out and went toe to toe with what ended up being the best team in college football that year."
Rest of regular season
The Bears rebounded nicely from their loss to Washington, dispatching San Jose State (41-20) and USC (52-30) at Memorial, prevailing at Oregon State (27-14) and then handling Arizona State (25-6) in Berkeley.
The victory over the Trojans was particularly satisfying for the Bears. The 52 points were the most USC had allowed in any game to that point. White ran for 229 yards, the most USC had allowed a rusher in any game to that point. Pawlawski and Dawkins combined on three TD passes as Cal built a 52-14 edge before the Trojans made it deceptively closer in garbage time.
Cal ended the regular season on a sour note, playing its worst game of '91 in a 38-21 loss at Stanford. The disappointment of the Big Game provided the Bears with fuel as they got ready to face Clemson in the Citrus Bowl.
"It was all about, 'That Stanford game is not who we are. That is not how we play,' " Brien said. "We took it out on Clemson. That was very fulfilling."
Said Wilborn: "We were still really smarting from" the Big Game. "I definitely feel like we wanted to right the ship and right the record on our team."
Citrus Bowl
Cal entered the Citrus Bowl ranked 14th in the country by AP, one spot behind Clemson. Though the teams theoretically were evenly matched, the Tigers might have been overlooking the Bears.
Collier recalled meeting some of the Clemson players in the lead-up to the game. "They were trying to brush us off. Telling everybody, 'We'll get those guys from Hollywood.'
"And we were like, 'Hollywood is in Southern California. So, your geography is kind of off.'"
Wilborn said, "I remember feeling like, You know what? They don't really know who we are. …
"We played Washington. We played USC. We played UCLA. They didn't quite realize that we had played those teams and that they were in our conference."
Said Pawlawski: "It was so funny because all their fans, everybody in the media, were like, 'Oh, it's so nice you got to come down here. Too bad you're going to get your ass kicked.'
"And we were like, 'We are going to throttle these guys. You have no idea. We are going to put it on 'em.'"
Put it on 'em is exactly what the Bears did. Cal scored on its opening possession, rolling 76 yards on a 10-play drive capped by a 1-yard TD run by Greg Zomalt.
Later in the first quarter, Treggs returned a punt 72 yards to the end zone to give the Bears a 17-0 lead. Because Clemson was primarily an option team, it wasn't necessarily built to rally from significant deficits.
"We knew that if we could get up on 'em, we could very likely control the game," Willard said, "which is pretty much what happened."
White gained 103 yards on 22 carries against what had been the nation's No. 1 rushing defense, a defense that featured future NFL players such as Brentson Buckner, Levon Kirkland and Chester McGlockton.
Guard Eric Mahlum also ran for 16 yards on a "fumble-rooskie," a now-banned play on which the center would snap the ball and leave it on the ground. As most of the offensive players would fake running a play to one side of the field, the guard – in this case, Mahlum – would grab the ball and run to the other side.
Mahlum also had a successful fumble-rooskie run against USC.
Pawlawski was named the Citrus Bowl MVP as he completed 21 of 32 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown, a 23-yard connection with Dawkins late in the third quarter that accounted for the game's final score. Pawlawski nearly slipped on his dropback, then steadied himself and lofted a beautiful pass to Dawkins, who made a diving grab near the back right corner of the end zone.
"My favorite pass of my whole career," was how Pawlawski described it.
The 1991 season remains the favorite of many Cal fans.
"We were always out for each other, not for ourselves," Collier said. "That team was special, man, because no one was out for themselves."
Wilborn said, "You think about Cal football going back to leather helmets and that kind of thing." He added that the program has "ebbed and flowed, but we have great football tradition, and it feels special to be a part of that."
Notes
The eight Cal Hall of Famers from the 1991 team are Auzenne, Brien, Dawkins (who passed away in 2023), Pawlawski, Steussie, Treggs, White and Willard. … White led the Pac-10 in rushing yards in '91 with 1,177. He remains Cal's career leader in rushing yards with 3,367 and rushing touchdowns with 35 … Brien led the Pac-10 in field goals (19) and extra points (41) in '91.
That '91 team went 10-2, tying it with six others for the modern-era program record for wins in a season.
The '91 Bears finished the season ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll, still Cal's highest season-ending AP ranking since the 1950 team was No. 5.
And the 1991 Cal season actually ended Jan. 1, 1992, when the Bears overwhelmed Clemson 37-13 in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. With the Tigers coming to California Memorial Stadium to face the Bears on Friday night for the teams' first meeting since that New Year's Day matchup, the 1991 team held a reunion dinner Thursday. The '91 Bears will have a tailgate Friday, then will be honored during that night's game.
The players are certain to share memories of a truly memorable season.
Season setup
Led by quarterback Mike Pawlawski, running back Russell White and wide receivers Sean Dawkins and Brian Treggs, the Bears went 7-4-1 in 1990, a season capped by a 17-15 victory over Wyoming in the Copper Bowl in Tucson.
With those four men returning, the '91 team expected to flourish in head coach Bruce Snyder's fifth season.
"We were indoctrinated in Bruce Snyder's system," said Pawlawski, the longtime analyst on Cal football radio broadcasts. "So, we grew in belief year after year as we practiced it."
Pawlawski and a few other key players -- including offensive linemen Troy Auzenne and Steve Gordon and linebackers Cornell Collier and Jason Wilborn -- had been with the Bears since Snyder took over the program after the 1986 team had gone 2-9.
Those five-year players took a strong sense of pride in lifting a program from the depths to the heights.
"When we were freshmen, we wanted to make sure we made a difference somehow in the program," Collier said. "We kept making progress."
Collier added that he and his fellow fifth-year men "fought the fight and stayed committed to the program."
Pawlawski, the leader
Pawlawski would pass for 2,517 yards and 21 touchdowns in the '91 season as he shared the Pac-10's Offensive Player of the Year award with Washington wide receiver Mario Bailey.
Not only did Pawlawski perform extremely well directing offensive coordinator Steve Mariucci's attack, but he also inspired a number of his teammates.
"The reality is 1991 was Mike's team. Period," linebacker Jerrott Willard said. "He drove the ship, man. I (recently) sent him a text saying that I was just a passenger on your boat."
"Pawlawski was an amazing quarterback and an amazing leader," offensive lineman Todd Steussie said.
Willard said that a team "ends up jelling behind a personality and the team takes the shape of that personality – and that's what happened with that team. It took Mike's personality."
Pawlawski's personality included an endearing brashness that his teammates appreciated.
"You want to be great? Then this is what it costs," Pawlawski recalled, regarding how he and his teammates thrived in their physical and mental preparation. "You can't love the success without loving the work -- and that team loved to do the work together."
Pawlawski "was the right guy at the right moment for Cal and, frankly, we were fortunate to have him," Willard said. "He had a way of getting people to play harder than they knew they could play.
"He has a great way of giving people confidence, which is a gift. Not everyone can do it."
'It was sooo loud'
The Bears won their first five games of '91, blowing out Pacific (86-24) and Purdue (42-18) at Memorial, getting late game-winning field goals from Doug Brien at Arizona (23-21) and at UCLA (27-24) and then stomping visiting Oregon (45-7).
Cal had risen to seventh in the AP poll and was set to host No. 3 Washington. The Huskies were the defending Rose Bowl champs and would go undefeated in '91, grabbing a share of the national title.
"I just remember how big a game it was going into it," Wilborn said. "I'm not even sure we appreciated how big a game it was at the time."
A packed Memorial Stadium "was electric," Willard said. "It was sooo loud. It was amazing."
The Bears hung with the Huskies the entire way, but Washington pulled out a 24-17 decision. On the game's final play from the Washington 23, Pawlawski's pass intended for Treggs in the end zone fell incomplete.
Then as the Bears headed off the field, they received something a losing team hardly ever gets: a standing ovation from the home fans.
"It gives me chills thinking about it now," Wilborn said.
Pawlawski said, "I think the Berkeley community had always lived in hope, not belief: We hope our team can be great.
"But that day, we rewarded that hope with a team that at least went out and went toe to toe with what ended up being the best team in college football that year."
Rest of regular season
The Bears rebounded nicely from their loss to Washington, dispatching San Jose State (41-20) and USC (52-30) at Memorial, prevailing at Oregon State (27-14) and then handling Arizona State (25-6) in Berkeley.
The victory over the Trojans was particularly satisfying for the Bears. The 52 points were the most USC had allowed in any game to that point. White ran for 229 yards, the most USC had allowed a rusher in any game to that point. Pawlawski and Dawkins combined on three TD passes as Cal built a 52-14 edge before the Trojans made it deceptively closer in garbage time.
Cal ended the regular season on a sour note, playing its worst game of '91 in a 38-21 loss at Stanford. The disappointment of the Big Game provided the Bears with fuel as they got ready to face Clemson in the Citrus Bowl.
"It was all about, 'That Stanford game is not who we are. That is not how we play,' " Brien said. "We took it out on Clemson. That was very fulfilling."
Said Wilborn: "We were still really smarting from" the Big Game. "I definitely feel like we wanted to right the ship and right the record on our team."
Citrus Bowl
Cal entered the Citrus Bowl ranked 14th in the country by AP, one spot behind Clemson. Though the teams theoretically were evenly matched, the Tigers might have been overlooking the Bears.
Collier recalled meeting some of the Clemson players in the lead-up to the game. "They were trying to brush us off. Telling everybody, 'We'll get those guys from Hollywood.'
"And we were like, 'Hollywood is in Southern California. So, your geography is kind of off.'"
Wilborn said, "I remember feeling like, You know what? They don't really know who we are. …
"We played Washington. We played USC. We played UCLA. They didn't quite realize that we had played those teams and that they were in our conference."
Said Pawlawski: "It was so funny because all their fans, everybody in the media, were like, 'Oh, it's so nice you got to come down here. Too bad you're going to get your ass kicked.'
"And we were like, 'We are going to throttle these guys. You have no idea. We are going to put it on 'em.'"
Put it on 'em is exactly what the Bears did. Cal scored on its opening possession, rolling 76 yards on a 10-play drive capped by a 1-yard TD run by Greg Zomalt.
Later in the first quarter, Treggs returned a punt 72 yards to the end zone to give the Bears a 17-0 lead. Because Clemson was primarily an option team, it wasn't necessarily built to rally from significant deficits.
"We knew that if we could get up on 'em, we could very likely control the game," Willard said, "which is pretty much what happened."
White gained 103 yards on 22 carries against what had been the nation's No. 1 rushing defense, a defense that featured future NFL players such as Brentson Buckner, Levon Kirkland and Chester McGlockton.
Guard Eric Mahlum also ran for 16 yards on a "fumble-rooskie," a now-banned play on which the center would snap the ball and leave it on the ground. As most of the offensive players would fake running a play to one side of the field, the guard – in this case, Mahlum – would grab the ball and run to the other side.
Mahlum also had a successful fumble-rooskie run against USC.
Pawlawski was named the Citrus Bowl MVP as he completed 21 of 32 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown, a 23-yard connection with Dawkins late in the third quarter that accounted for the game's final score. Pawlawski nearly slipped on his dropback, then steadied himself and lofted a beautiful pass to Dawkins, who made a diving grab near the back right corner of the end zone.
"My favorite pass of my whole career," was how Pawlawski described it.
The 1991 season remains the favorite of many Cal fans.
"We were always out for each other, not for ourselves," Collier said. "That team was special, man, because no one was out for themselves."
Wilborn said, "You think about Cal football going back to leather helmets and that kind of thing." He added that the program has "ebbed and flowed, but we have great football tradition, and it feels special to be a part of that."
Notes
The eight Cal Hall of Famers from the 1991 team are Auzenne, Brien, Dawkins (who passed away in 2023), Pawlawski, Steussie, Treggs, White and Willard. … White led the Pac-10 in rushing yards in '91 with 1,177. He remains Cal's career leader in rushing yards with 3,367 and rushing touchdowns with 35 … Brien led the Pac-10 in field goals (19) and extra points (41) in '91.
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