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Berkeley's udder defeat The "from an earlier era" picture of Bob Hoagland milking a cow (spring 1999) brought back memories of the real milking challenge Bob was preparing to meet in that photo--one for which I was responsible. I was head of the 1965 Picnic Day Publicity Committee and, as such, had been making the rounds of Sacramento TV stations, doing radio spots and press releases and dragging photographers around to shoot "typical" Aggie scenes. It was fun, but here we were, promoting an event in the middle of the '60s, and frankly, it lacked pizzazz. Truth be told, whether you only read about the '60s, participated fervently in them or just dimly recall them, no one, not even those of us who were there, thinks, "Oh, yes, the '60s: UCD!" Davis was safe. Better yet, it was sane in the '60s. As Aggies we had our own style: We liked our administrators (uncool), we rode bikes (very uncool). We wore underwear (or at least pajamas) to public rallies long before Madonna thought of it. Needless to say, at all-Cal events, our sister campuses were mortified to be seen with the "hicks" from up north. We played into it. Even a history major such as myself could launch into a technical discussion of "How to Loose Stack Hay" or whether the American or Portuguese grip was preferred for cow milking. (Sure, my facts were shaky, but they were unlikely to be corrected by someone from UC Santa Barbara!) Thus it was that, from an Aggie standpoint, the idea of conducting a cow milking demonstration in Berkeley's Sproul Plaza seemed to flow naturally as a Picnic Day publicity stunt. We reasoned: Everyone else was demonstrating there; why not us! We billed it as a milk-off between the two student body presidents and ran ads in the Berkeley papers to hype the event. (The picture you printed was used to show that "our boy" was taking the challenge seriously and practicing!) On the big day, in what was probably the most politically incorrect demonstration ever seen in Sproul Plaza, we showed up with a reluctant Holstein and signs milking every bad pun we could think of: "We're pulling for Hoagland!" "Berkeley: Udderly Defeated!" "A Bum Steer for the Bears!" As we marched through to our assigned spot, our chants punctuated by frequent plaintive moos from the Holstein, we literally drained the life (and the TV cameramen) out of the three other demonstrations going on at the time. As to the outcome of our milk-off? Given that the UCB president had had a heck of a time finding a cow on which to practice, the Aggies won, hands down. ("Hands down" being, as I recall, the Portuguese grip.)
Patt Schwab '66
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