BearTalk

 In the 100th season of Cal basketball, we continue our countdown of the greatest teams in school history. Today: No. 5

5. 1956-57.
   Team’s record: 21-5.
   Achievements: PCC champion, NCAA tournament.
   Record vs. Stanford: 2-0.
   Record vs. UCLA: 1-1.
   Coach: Pete Newell.
   Top players: F Larry Friend (18.9 ppg), G Earl Robinson (12.1 ppg), C Duane Asplund (11.4 ppg).
   Bottom line: In his third season, Newell wins his first PCC title and gets the Bears into the second round of the NCAA tournament, losing 50-46 to a post-Bill Russell team from USF. Losses also include to top-ranked Kansas with Wilt Chamberlain and to UCLA _ the last time Newell is defeated by John Wooden.

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   News of the world: Soviets crush revolt by Hungary; Toyota begins selling cars in the U.S.; the Frisbee is invented; Soviets launch the Sputnik I satellite.
   U.S. president: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
   U.S. population: 172 million.
   Elvis sighting: Presley receives his military draft notice, but gets a one-year deferment so he can finish filming “King Creole.” Also, he makes final his appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, shown only from the waist up.
   AP Athletes of the Year: Ted Williams (baseball) and Althea Gibson (tennis).
   Elsewhere in Bay Area sports: Beloved Cal football Pappy Waldorf posts just a 3-7 record in his final season in the fall of 1956; the soon-to-be defunct San Francisco Seals win the ’57 Pacific Coast League pennant the year before the Giants come to town.