Tom Roth doesn’t talk about his younger brother Joe like a myth. He talks about him like a real person - because that’s exactly what Joe was.
In a Monday phone interview, Tom Roth said the quarterback’s legacy has lasted for more than 50 years not because people should think of him as some larger-than-life figure.
Some people, Tom said, “fabricated that maybe he's this person who dropped out of the sky and saved Berkeley. That's not true. …
“He was just a good-hearted, open-book guy. There was no big agenda about anything.”
That plainspoken description fits the way Joe Roth is still remembered around Cal: not as a legend built on hype, but as a gifted quarterback whose impact ran through family, teammates, friends and the wider Berkeley community. Roth starred as a junior on Cal’s dynamic 1975 team, then died on February 19, 1977, after a recurrence of melanoma during his senior season. He was 21.
The Bears first honored him that October by turning their home game against either USC or UCLA into the Joe Roth Memorial Game. Cal opened the tradition with a 17-14 win over 10th-ranked USC.
That game disappeared for the past two seasons after Cal moved to the ACC in 2024 and USC and UCLA went to the Big Ten. Now it’s back for Saturday night’s 2026 opener, with the Bruins visiting Memorial Stadium.
For Tom Roth, who is now 82 and lives in Seattle, the memories still come quickly. He played quarterback at Washington State from 1963-65, but once Joe transferred from Grossmont College to Cal before the 1975 season, he was all-in on the Bears.
He remembered “great, enjoyable, sensational memories of all the games. We went to all of 'em. Then you'd go to Spenger's and have that fried shrimp,” he said, pointing to the longtime fish restaurant near University Avenue and Interstate 80.
Joe Roth’s play gave Cal plenty to celebrate. He took over as the starter in the fourth game of the 1975 season and went 7-1 in that role, steering an offense built around Chuck Muncie, Steve Rivera and Wesley Walker.
That team finished first in the nation in total offense, the only time Cal has ever done it. Even more striking, the Bears were perfectly balanced: 2,522 rushing yards and 2,522 passing yards.
Roth’s own numbers led the Pac-8 in several categories. He threw for 1,880 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also pacing the conference in completion percentage at 55.8 and efficiency rating at 139.9. Those figures may not jump off the page now, but in 1975 they carried real weight.
Heading into 1976, Roth was seen as a Heisman Trophy candidate. Then, after two strong games, he learned the cancer he believed he had beaten years earlier had returned.
Even as his condition worsened, he finished the season and kept the diagnosis within a small circle of family and friends. In the days before his death, he was at UCSF Medical Center before returning to his Berkeley apartment.
Tom Roth said, “Everybody stepped up. Everybody,” crediting the people at UCSF as well as the teammates and friends who tried to support Joe.
Joe, Tom said, dealt with everything “with a heck of a lot of courage and dignity,”
Joe Roth’s No. 12 remains the only retired number in Cal football history, and current Travers Family Head Football Coach Tosh Lupoi wants his team to understand what that number stands for.
“If we have the majority of the team representing the principles and values of Joe Roth,” Lupoi said, “we're probably going to be in a position to win a lot of games.” He said Roth embodied “what a Cal Bear is all about.”
The Bears will also wear throwback jerseys Saturday night that mirror the look Roth and his teammates wore in 1975. Cal calls them Roth Throwbacks.
Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele said wearing them “on the field with my brothers is going to be exciting. We're just ready to represent this school and represent him and the legacy that he built when he was here.”
In 1977, Cal honored Roth with a commemorative patch that carried three words: “Faith,” “Humility” and “Courage.”
Tom Roth said, “Those are three good words for him.”
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