For Joe Starkey, a last Big Game

BERKELEY — The band was on the field. Forty years later Joe Starkey said it again, although this time it was only as an off-the-air reference. Yes, it was that ragtag Stanford band, and it was the same end zone at Cal’s Memorial Stadium. But now it was in the final minute of pre-game warm-ups, not in the closing seconds of one of the most historic of college football games.

This has been Joe’s week, memories and farewells. There will be one more Cal game to announce, but Saturday was his last Big Game, the rivalry that because of that crazy ending and Joe’s alert call — “The band is on the field!” — seem a perfect way to close.

I didn’t hear Starkey’s emotional description on Nov. 20, 1982 — I was in the press box — but I’ve heard it since, again and again, as have many people, involved in sports or not. A great way to be remembered.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but these words do surpass any photo.

For the 125th Big Game, in which Cal overcame a deficit to win 27-20, there was no better place to be located than the Joe Starkey Broadcast Booth, dedicated in November 2016. Joe was prepared and professional, sounding a bit subdued when Stanford was in surprising control and a bit elated at the end.

Through the seasons, Joe’s been through it all, the surprises, the upsets, the sheer enjoyment of being, well, involved in a business that makes you think of John Madden’s line when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: “I never worked a day in my life.”

Joe Starkey worked a lot of days and nights, calling football, Cal and the 49ers, and ice hockey, and he touched a lot of lives. On Saturday, he and analyst Mike Pawlawski, the former Cal quarterback, offered a commentary aimed at Cal fans but acceptable for everyone.

“Stanford hasn’t done anything on offense,” Starkey pointed out early in the second half when the Cardinal had a 17-6 lead. He reminded us that it had done enough on defense.

Later, a two-fumble play resulted in a Cal touchdown, and if it didn’t remind you of “The Play,” it at least injected a little excitement into a game that needed some.

Starkey and Pawlawski weren’t sure what had happened until they — and the officials — had video verification.

When it was over, both on the field and in the broadcast booth, Starkey was asked what he will miss most about probably never broadcasting another Stanford-Cal after missing one in more than 40 years.

“It’s so soon after this one,” he said, “and I do have Cal-UCLA next weekend. “It will be the competition between the two schools in the Bay Area who both emphasize academics and respect the rivalry. I imagine when the teams start practicing in the spring and start playing games next season, it will hit me.”

As the game finished, many of the 51,892 (an announced sellout) began climbing down to the gridiron. Too bad Joe Starkey also had finished, or he could have said, “The fans are on the field.”