Passionate Cal Fan Determined to `Tell the Whole Damn World!'

How “Tell the Whole Damn World!” was hatched

Sirafinejad and a long-time friend and fellow Cal grad rose before sunrise and walked to the jam-packed Memorial Glade on campus to attend the College GameDay program that ESPN later called one of its most successful episodes ever.

“The first thing we heard was Ahmad Anderson up there on the stage, yelling, `You know it, you tell the story . . .’  It just reawakened something in me,” he recalled. “This passion I’ve always had for Cal . . . just kind of all bubbled back up to the surface. 

“I knew I had to do something.”

A couple weeks later, the notion of the podcast came to him “in a vision.” His wife, affirming his love for his alma mater, encouraged him to follow through. And Anderson’s chant fell in his lap as the obvious title.

“I kind of realize, along with every other Cal fan on the planet, that we are facing an existential crisis, with conference realignment and this idea that Cal could be left behind when it comes to being a major player in the world of collegiate sports,” Sirafinejad said, referring to concerns that a would-be college football super league might not have a place for Cal. 

“I just felt like it was time to do something, to do my part to contribute to that.”

Sirafinejad said Anderson has been a perfect co-host and that Mitchell’s contributions have been significant. He wants the focus of his podcast to be broad.

“The vision for this podcast has been to extend that Bear Territory chant to telling the whole damn world how awesome the University of California is,” he said. “All of our academic accomplishments. All of our sports accomplishments. Just making sure we do not get pushed aside when the next round of conference realignment comes around.”

A couple of favorite podcast guests

Among the more than two dozen podcast guests so far, Sirafinejad said a couple stand out.

Sirafinejad talks in the video above about their interview with Pawlawski, the Bears’  starting quarterback during his first two seasons as a student. The 1990 team won the Copper Bowl — its first postseason victory since beating Alabama in the 1938 Rose Bowl — and the ’91 team won the New Year’s Day Citrus Bowl.

“It just showed what Cal could be,” said Sirafinejad, adding that Pawlawski triggered his enthusiasm for Cal football. 

“There was this intangible quality about Mike Pawlawski and just his brash confidence in himself. As a student, I was like, `Wow, I wanna be like this guy in life.’ He was just such an inspiration,” Sirafinejad said. 

Rivera, a former All-America linebacker and NFL head coach and currently the general manager of the Cal football program, appeared with his wife, Stephanie, also a former Golden Bears athlete.

“Everyone wants to just talk to Ron Rivera about football,” Sirafinejad said. “But our podcast is really more about why are you so passionate about the University of California? They both have that. I felt it was important to have them both on.”

Anderson asked Rivera to identify his “Bear Territory” moment and Rivera knew just where to take the conversation.

“Ron picked it right up and talked about the eve of the Big Game in 1982 when Ahmad Anderson first released the Bear Territory chant (at the bonfire rally) and how incredible that was. And how it got under everyone’s skin.”

Dealer’s choice interview subjects

I asked Sirafinejad to name three guests he would choose for his program if he could pick anyone — dead or alive — with an affiliation to Cal.

My choices might be Andy Smith, who coached the football "Wonder Teams" of the 1920s, Archie Williams, who won a gold medal in the 400-meter dash in front of Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and quarterback Joe Roth, who played his final season knowing he had terminal cancer.

Watch the video above to hear who Sirafinejad chose.

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