Top 50 Cal Sports Moments — No. 16: Joe Cool, 1977

As the Pac-12 Conference era comes to a close after more than a century, we count down the Top 50 moments involving Cal athletics.

THE MOMENT: Finding an iconic moment involving Joe Roth wasn’t the issue. Limiting the search to just one moment was the challenge while reviewing the late Cal quarterback’s courageous final season. His decision to go out with dignity, on his own terms, is compelling.

THE STORY: Remarkably, the Legend of Joe Roth is now nearly a half-century old. It endures because it’s real and it’s inspiring. 

Roth, as most Cal fans know, came to Berkeley from junior college and led the Bears to an 8-3 record and a Pac-8 co-title in 1975. He was touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate prior to his senior year in ’76 and projected as a possible No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

But Roth also got terrible news from team physician Dr Jerome Patmont on the Bears’ trip to play at Arizona State — the melanoma he thought had been eradicated two years earlier returned.

Roth wanted the news kept private. His family knew, his coaches, his roommate, backup quarterback Fred Besana and, eventually, his girlfriend. But none of his other teammates knew Roth was dying. The public had no idea.

What began as a spot on his lung spread quickly. His weight dropped from 205 pounds to 179 and his performance began to suffer. But Roth continued to play, and was even invited to three post-season all-star games. 

The news finally became public during the week of the Hula Bowl all-star game and Roth’s teammates were heartbroken. “There was nothing but shock and sorrow,” Besana said in an interview with the Berkeley News in 2018. “For a bunch of young men between 18 and 22, that’s a shocker. You think, not that guy. That can’t happen.”

Roth did his best to downplay things. “Really, just figure I’m a normal guy,” he told United Press International. “What if some guy sitting down there on the street corner got cancer? Would everybody make a big fuss?”

In his final all-star appearance, at the Japan Bowl, Roth was 5 for 6 passing. But time was running out. He was soon back in the hospital, where doctors told him they wanted to amputate one of his legs. When they said he needed both legs removed, Roth refused.

Instead, in mid-February 1977, Roth was ready to go home. Teammates carried him up three flights of stairs to his apartment. The next day, Feb. 19, surrounded by family and friends, 21-year-old Joe Roth died.

* Top 50 Moment No. 17: Stadium Debut