UC Davis rolls past rival Cal Poly in a milestone game for the Aggies
Saturday marked the 1,000th football game in the storied 102-year history of the UC Davis Aggies. With no fans present because of the coronavirus pandemic, it was still a milestone moment in front of an empty UCD Health Stadium, contested under cloudy skies with soft breezes.
Fans missed out on a 73-24 Aggies throttling of Cal Poly in a Big Sky Conference spring game that still as hard to fathom amid the COVID-19 roller coaster that led to this season and game.
Ulonzo Gilliam Jr. rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown, Hunter Rodrigues passed for 265 yards and three touchdowns for the No. 21 Aggies. UCD had 773 yards of offense. UCD is 2-1 and Cap Poly is 0-2.
About the only ones on hand besides the teams were the sea of cardboard cutouts of fans and dogs dotting the berm below the scoreboard. Even they looked bored. UCD was too good, too balanced, too quick to the ball on defense and too motivated to lose this one, punctuated by coach Dan Hawkins telling his troops at halftime on the field before hustling into the locker room in high decibel to “live up to the standards” of UCD’s legacy and lore.
And there was Bob Dunning. If there’s a man who can size up the UCD experience, it’s the Davis Enterprise’s wildly entertaining columnist/Aggies football beat man since 1970. Dunning has covered every home and away UCD football contest since Jim Sochor took over as coach in 1970, with follow-up coaches Bob Foster, Bob Biggs, Ron Gould and now Hawkins, the spirited Aggies fullback from the early 1980s. That’s 479 games over 51 seasons for Dunning, known as “The Wary I” with his colulmn.
Dunning also watched nearly 100 UCD home games as a fan growing up in Davis, from 1951 through 1969, before it became a big part of his job and life.
“Oh geez, I’ve seen a lot, and I went to home games when they only sold hot dogs,” Dunning said.
The comedic columnist joked that he might not get a statue for his years of service, but perhaps a name plate or cardboard image might do, “over by the beer gardens or the latrines, probably.”
UCD is 526-441-33 all time. It is 24-20-2 against Cal Poly and 10-7 since the rivalry was branded as “The Battle For The Golden Horseshoe.”
Hawkins is 8-0 lifetime against Cal Poly, four as head coach, three as an assistant coach, and once as a player.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 4:23 PM.