Cal vs Arizona college football game in progress at University of California Berkeley

Why 2003?

http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/college_football_2003_schedules/california.htm

The Golden Bears home schedule for 2003:

8-30-03 SOUTHERN MISS WON 34-2
9-6-03 COLORADO STATE LOST 21-23
9-27-03 SOUTHERN CAL WON 34-31 (3OT)
10-4-03 OREGON STATE LOST 21-35
10-25-03 ARIZONA WON 42-14
11-15-03 WASHINGTON WON 54-7

It also like noon as the shadows are straight north. There not many cars on the highways and all the schools have empty parking lots. So its a weekend.

Then there is the USS Midway. It arrived in Oakland Oct 7, 2003 and departed May 23, 2004.

During the 2003 to 2004 season Cal played all its games in 2003.

So I assume it is 2003.

The Jack London Square Christmas Tree Lighting was Nov 28. There is no tree yet so I assume it is betwen Oct 7 and Nov 28, 2003 on a weekend.

The unirrigated places (capped landfills for example) are still brown. In 2003 the first rain since Spring fell on Oct 31 so nothing started greening up for a few weeks after that so we're probably talking the earlier part of Oct 7 to Nov 28.


In that time frame Berkeley played only two home games:

October 25 - Arizona
November 15 - Washington (their last home game that year)

I'm guessing that this is The Octobr 25, 2003 game against Arizona.

But...

There may be a flaw in this. In Jack London Square there is a market going on. It looks exactly like the Farmer's Market and that is only on Sundays. All the Cal cames were on Saturday. Maybe the shots were at noon on two consecutive days?

Here's a photo showing crowds at the SE side of the stadium during the 11/15 game vs. Washington:

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=GoldenBearSports&gallery_id=49377&image_id=42

Seems a bit too crowded for the game in the image, whereas this image of the Arizona game on 10/15:

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=GoldenBearSports&gallery_id=41496&image_id=66

which shows the stands at this point at the NW side of the stadium

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=oakland,+ca&btnG=Search&t=k&ll=37.871409,-122.250479&spn=0.000961,0.002704&t=k

seems sparser and more in line with the game in the image.

Also, Arizona has white helmets while Washington has gold helmets.

Not entirely scientific but enough to convince me!

I'd also say the Jack London Square image and the football image were at least taken at different times. Note the angle of the flagpole shadow here at Jack London Square

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&ll=37.794389,-122.277113&spn=0.000962,0.001829&t=k

with the shadow of the light pole beside the stadium here

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=oakland,+ca&btnG=Search&t=k&ll=37.870812,-122.249151&spn=0.000961,0.002704&t=k

I'm convinced.

I figured out the answer for the old image tiles a while back, by measuring the shadow of the Campanile. That narrowed it down to a few days, only one of which was a football day.

It would be harder to use this technique on the new tiles because the Campanile's shadow doesn't fall on level ground, but perhaps some other pointy landmark could be found.

More data:

There is a circus down on the waterfront on Oakport Street. It is the Universoul Circus (compare the tent to this image):

http://www.circusfans.org/images/photos/200501252133230.universoul.jpg

This newsletter (pdf) mentions SFNABA Night at the circus on Saturday Oct 25, 2003.

I just tried out the new Historical Images feature in GE 5.0 It lists the date for this image as February 28, 2004. That does not make sense.