Tightwad Hill

I earlier posted a brief note and link about how the Memorial Stadium renovations could affect Tightwad Hill. The blog "Tightwad Hill" just posted a great entry today about the history of the hill and how it will be impacted. Here is an excerpt...

...That said, the University and City should do whatever they can to "design around" Tightwad Hill. The Hill is an important part of the history of the university, not just the football team, and it's a tradition worthy of respect. Look, I revel in the fact that Cal is now a winning program. But I love my alma mater much more than I love this football team. Berkeley is a quirky, chaotic and unpredictable place. It's the one place in America where current and future members of The Establishment can feel like they're thumbing their noses at, well, themselves just by walking under Sather Gate. It's a school where football fans cheer as loudly for Nobel laureates as they do for DeSean Jackson. It's the only university that could have produced the inspired anarchy of The Play.

In this light, Tightwad Hill is the perfect symbol of the University of California, Berkeley. Dragging a sofa up a hill to watch a free football game is hard work - akin to finding freshman housing or dodging panhandlers on Telegraph Avenue or passing Organic Chemistry. It also doesn't make a lick of sense, which is why it's undisputably Berkeley. Tightwad Hill is folks with enough stock options to buy several rows at Memorial who insist on going the skinflint route for tradition's sake. Perfect.

Click here for the entire article.