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Cal sure seems to be cashing in on the tragedy of quarterback Joe Roth · Best of: Features

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  Cal sure seems to be cashing in on the tragedy of quarterback
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  Joe Roth. This article is being read by
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  an automated voice, generated by Everlet. There's a reason Joe Roth has
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  the only retired number in Cal football's history. Following a prolific junior
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  season that saw him lead the Golden Bears to the best offense
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  in all of college football and a Pac-8 co-championship, Roth entered his
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  senior campaign, a Heisman favorite, and the likely first pick in the
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  1977 NFL draft. Just two games into his final season, Roth was
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  diagnosed with a recurrence of melanoma, a cancer he'd hoped he'd beaten
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  a couple of years earlier. He kept the terminal diagnosis to himself
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  as it ravaged his body during a final year that saw him
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  improbably finish ninth in the Heisman voting while he was fighting the
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  disease. News of his condition finally leaked two months after the season
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  ended, while he was preparing for a college football All Star Bowl
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  game in Japan. After the bowl, he spent time at UC San
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  Francisco getting chemotherapy before doctors suggested amputating both of his legs to
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  keep the cancer at bay. Roth declined, checked himself out of the
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  hospital on february eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, and, upon returning to Berkeley,
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  was carried up three flights of stairs by his teammates to his
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  apartment. Roth died the next day. Roth's courageous story united the college
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  and led to a yearly Joe Roth Memorial Game in Berkeley, played
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  between Cal and UCLA or USC annually until the Bears moved to
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  the ACC, a fund that has supported countless Cal football scholarships through
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  the years, and currently supports two full ride football scholarships each season,
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  as well as a Joe Roth Team Award for the player who
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  best demonstrates courage. Attitude and sportsmanship. This season, nearly fifty years later,
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  it also led to the first ever Joe Roth collection, a capsule
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  of three shirts celebrating Roth, including, one with his face on it,
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  the first time his likeness has ever appeared on Cal Merchandise, Associate
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  Athletics Director Jonathan O'Kaney's confirmed to S F Gate. The collection was
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  heavily marketed by the Athletic Department ahead of the return of the
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  Joe Roth Memorial Game on september fifth, Cal's season opening forty five
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  twenty four loss to UCLA, and sold both at the stadium and
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  at the student store on campus. To the surprise of Tom Roth,
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  Joe's now eighty two year old brother, none of the proceeds from
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  the Joe Roth collection go back to Melanoma Cancer Research, or even
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  to the Joe Roth Scholarship Fund. Cal instead is pocketing all of
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  the revenue, and Roth hasn't heard from Cal for months since the
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  school first contacted him about the Roth Collection. I haven't heard from
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  the university in quite some time, Roth told S. F. Gate via
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  phone. According to O'Connes, there was a text exchange with Roth and
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  an Athletic Department staffer about the collection that ended on july second.
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  There hasn't been any communication since, including leading up to the Joe
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  Roth Memorial Game against UCLA or after the launch of the collection.
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  Equally surprised was Menlo Park's Bob Ryder, the Bay Area filmmaker behind
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  Don't Quit, the Joe Roth Story, an award winning documentary about Roth
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  life, though Ryder said his greater surprise is that someone reached out
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  to Tom. Roth at all. According to Ryder, a different Cal football
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  staffer told him that then thought Tom Roth was dead. Got a
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  call from Cal Football Director of Career Development Ron Coximelio. He was
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  a freshman on the team when Joe was a senior, reaching out
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  wanting to find out if there was anyone they could talk to
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  about merchandising for the memorial game because he wanted to reach out,
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  said. Ryder, who became close with the Roth family during the making
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  of the film. And I said, I'll talk to Tom. He's the
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  guy to talk to about a licensing agreement. It's easy to do.
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  He's gonna say yes, then he'll sign something and you're good. Then
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  Ron said, I
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  think Tom's dead. Ryder went into a mild panic after the call.
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  First he dialed Tom Roth's number, no answer, then called Tom's son,
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  also named Joe Roth. Joe calls me back and says, No, I
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  was just with my dad this weekend, Ryder said. Then I finally
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  talked to Tom. He's alive, he's still here. Ryder's best guess is
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  that someone in the athletic department died. A cursory Google search for
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  Tom Roth and found a different Thomas Roth, who lived in Washington,
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  and died in twenty fourteen. Joe Roth's very much still alive brother
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  Tom, who lives in Seattle, said he never heard from Cacamelio in
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  the end. I think it's disingenuous in this era, Ryder said, alluding
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  to the NIL era, which has seen college football players personally generate
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  millions of dollars for usage of their name, image, and likeness. At
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  the end of the day, they can do what they want to
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  do. Several universities actively partner with and raise money for foundations, or
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  scholarship funds established in memory of college athletes who tragically died. At
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  Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons have held a Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund
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  Drive since nineteen eighty with event shirts of Piccolo, who died at
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  twenty six of an aggressive form of testicular cancer. Along with a
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  fun run and a dance-a-thon, Wake has generated more than five million
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  dollars for cancer research in four plus decades. At Ola Miss, the
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  Rebels license replica jerseys and custom apparel in honor of Roy Lee
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  Chucky Mullins, who was paralyzed during a 1989 college football game and
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  tragically died two years later due to complications from a blood clot.
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  The licensing royalties help support the Chucky Mullins Memorial Scholarship Fund, which
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  has provided financial assistance for more one hundred and twenty five Ole
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  Miss students with physical disabilities, or exceptional financial need through the years.
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  For his part, Tom Roth only wants transparency from Cal on where
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  the Joe Roth collection revenue is going, and of course, for his
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  brother to be remembered. Support Melanoma Research or drop it into the
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  fund and tell people what you've done, Roth said. The scholarship has
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  been there since nineteen seventy seven, and there was lots of communication
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  early, as you would know, but as ten years go by a
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  little less. Then a little less. Former Cal head coach Mike White
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  was a personal friend of mine. There's a new coach now there's
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  been a ton of coaches since. They get the benefit, but you
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  can’t expect them to carry the torch and go crazy. Someone in
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  the fundraising thing has to keep track. Tom Roth said he previously
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  received yearly statements about the Joe Roth Memorial Scholarship Fund, but somewhere
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  along the way, he stopped receiving those as well. According to O'Kaney's,
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  they stopped doing printed reports in twenty twenty two and went digital
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  only, unfortunately for the eighty two year old. With that last printed
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  report, donors were informed we were going digital only, and a QR
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  code and URL was included that took them to a form to
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  submit an email address to be used for reports moving forward, O'Kanes
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  explained. I understand the university, the President turnover, Cal is now in
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  the ACC, Tom Roth said. I get all that. Over the years,
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  you can't pass this tiny thing along and have it be as
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  good as it was with new people. Certainly not with major college
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  football conference realignment. One of the things lost to Cal's move to
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  the ACC in 2024 was the yearly cadence of the Joe Roth
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  Memorial Game as USC and UCLA moved to the Big Ten. The
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  game has been temporarily back thanks to a four-game non-conference agreement with
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  UCLA stretching through 2029. But assuming that isn't renewed, or college football
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  further realigns in twenty thirty, it remains in a tenuous state, something
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  that frustrates Tom Roth almost as much as the new collection. If
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  I was the athletic director, I'd make it the second football game
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  at home, play it before October. That's the Joe Roth Memorial Game
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  deal, Roth said. If it's a temporary deal, it's a slap fix
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  situation, and I'm not for that. After receiving S F Gates request
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  for comment, O'Connie said the university is now again trying to reach
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  Tom Roth, who, as of this publication, remains alive and well.