It can unnerve visiting teams. It startles flocks of birds up to two miles away and some residents near Memorial Stadium have even mistakenly called the police thinking a bomb had gone off. But for fans of Renegades football, it’s sharp report signals good news. The Bakersfield College victory cannon has been a Renegade tradition for over 40 years.
“We fire every time BC scores,” said John A. Medvigy, current gun crew captain. “We also fire at the end of the national anthem and at the end of each quarter.”
Medvigy has a long history with the cannon. “I was a freshman back in 1972,” he said. “Back then I was the only one on the gun crew that wasn’t a veteran.”
After graduating with a liberal arts degree, Medvigy went on to serve in the Navy. After an injury forced him to retire, he returned to Bakersfield in 1992.
“I had to do something so I came up here to take some classes,” he said. “Before I even got my classes I was the gun captain because I had experience with it.”
According to Medvigy, a group of veterans built the first victory cannon back in the mid 1960s “They used that cannon until the mid 1980s,” he said. “Then we got this one in the late 1980s.”
The current victory cannon was donated to the school by professor Thomas Yale, of the BC biology department. Yale, also a civil war reenactor, used the cannon for re-enactments at Ft. Tejon before donating it to BC.
The cannon was given a modified breach assembly and a custom firing mechanism to accept the special, hand-loaded shotgun shells that it fires. “We fire a 190 grain black powder charge,” Medvigy said.
Medvigy also pointed out that placement of the cannon is crucial to the experience. Over the years they have experimented aiming it in different areas to get the maximum acoustic effects out of Memorial Stadium. “If we have it aimed right we can bounce four echoes off the stands,” he said.
The crew for the cannon is made up of BC students, mostly recruited from word of mouth. “I had a couple of friends on the crew,” Tim Chernabaeff, a BC agriculture student, said. “They talked me into joining. That was three years ago.”
Medvigy is serious about picking crew members. “The first thing I’m looking for is people who are safe,” he said. “We haven’t had an accident with this gun in 34 years, and I want to keep it that way.”
The cannon used to travel with the team, and has even made an appearance in the Junior Rose Bowl, but due to the large number of complaints to police departments during away games it is mainly used in Memorial Stadium these days. “People that aren’t used to hearing it would call the cops thinking bombs were being set off,” Medvigy said.
When it is not belching fire and thunder at BC home games, the cannon is kept at 3-Way Chevrolet. They built the caisson, the wheeled base the cannon sits on, and they also sponsor the cannon for the college.
Nick Crossan, a BC business major, served his first game on the gun crew. “It was really fun,” he said after firing the cannon for the first time. “I didn’t know what to expect. It was shocking.”