The Big Game between Cal and Stanford has produced many odd occurrences since its inception in 1892. Here are some of the unforgettable and unbelievable oddities:

• The very first game, in 1892, was delayed more than an hour as folks frantically sought out a sporting goods store. It seemed no one had remembered to bring a football.

• In 1902, a Cal halfback named Warren “Locomotive” Smith had returned for his senior season after leaving school for a year. It turned out Locomotive had an unfair advantage, having moonlighted as a football coach at the University of Oregon, and getting paid, during his time off. There were no rules against such a thing in those days, but Stanford, aware that Smith had run wild against them in the 1899 Big Game, refused to play unless he was banned. Some punishment. Smith’s replacement, Bobby Sherman, scored on a 105-yard punt return as Cal won 16-0.

• Four days before the 1956 game, one of the greatest of all Cal coaches, Pappy Waldorf, announced that this Big Game would be his last. The Cal band showed up that night in full uniform at Waldorf’s Grizzly Peak home to serenade the coach, who greeted them in his pajamas.

• In Cal’s 1969 game against Washington, quarterback Steve Curtis got hurt and there was only one backup, Randy Humphries, on the bench. Spotting third-stringer Dave Penhall in the stands, assistant coach Truck Cullom called Penhall down to the field and told him, “I hope you haven’t been drinking, son, because you might have to play quarterback today.” He wasn’t needed, but Penhall became the starter later that year, and over the course of two Big Games — a loss and a win — he held his own against storied Stanford QB Jim Plunkett.

• Imagine the uneducated fan coming across this line in an account from the 1970 game: “Penhall lofted a jump ball into the end zone, in the vicinity of two Bears and two Indians.” What? That was Stanford’s nickname until 1972, when it was changed in the name of political correctness.

• Chronicle sportswriters and Cal grads Dave Bush and the late Al Moss were devotees of the Big Game and the Bears’ rich history. When Stanford apparently clinched that 1982 victory before The Play, they were among a media group eager to get down to the locker room before the exodus became unwieldy. As Cal’s astonishing touchdown unfolded, fallen trombonist and all, Bush and Moss were riding the press elevator.

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• At the close of an abysmal 1986 season, Cal was a 21-point underdog. Coach Joe Kapp, never short of an original idea, tried to fire up the players by bringing a 74-year-old former yell leader and Big Game fixture, Natalie Cohen, into the locker room to lead the “Axe yell” before they took the field. Nice move, Joe. The 1-9 Bears pulled off a 17-11 upset.

• Kapp was carried off the field on his players’ shoulders that day, a sight fairly common in passionate football settings and a scene reminiscent of Waldorf’s last game 30 years earlier. It worked a bit differently in 1976, when Stanford coach Jack Christiansen learned of his dismissal the week of the game. His players cared so much for Christiansen, he was carried onto the field before kickoff — and the Cardinal won 27-24.

• And who succeeded Christiansen? A fellow named Bill Walsh, who put together two winning seasons, beat Cal twice and engineered a couple of bowl victories before moving on to the 49ers in 1979.

— Bruce Jenkins