This feature originally appeared in the football game program from the Big Game on Nov. 19.


For three freshman members of the Golden Bear women's swimming & diving team, being students at the University of California is truly a family affair.
 
One newcomer can talk of both parents and 32 aunts, uncles and cousins who have graduated from Cal. Another's predecessors include a longtime professor and a silver-medal winning father. And the third has joined her older brother and sister as a Cal student and has a father who earned two degrees from the University.
 
But don't let it be said that it was a foregone conclusion that any one of the trio – Aislinn Light, Maddie Murphy or Courtney Mykkanen – were headed to Cal from the start. Despite family history, each was able to make her own decision and chose to study and compete in Berkeley for her own reasons.
 
"Honestly, my family would have been just as proud if I went anywhere else, but the fact that I can call myself a student-athlete at Cal is something that cannot be beat," said Light, whose brother, Austin '12, was a men's basketball team manager and older sister, Audrey, is a current student. "Having all three of us (siblings) attend Cal is not taken for granted and is very special to our family."
 
Murphy, the one with so many parents, aunts, uncles and cousins with Cal degrees, grew up in Orinda in a family that has owned football season tickets since before she was born. There's even a Cal flag flying outside her home. Her father, Matthew Murphy, was a two-time NCAA champion on the men's water polo team while a Golden Bear. Still, she was encouraged to find her own place for college.
 
"My parents really wanted me to make my own decision and not have an influence on me," Murphy said. "Don't let us impact your decision. Stay open-minded. I tried to really take my time and look at each school I was interested in and talk with the coaches. Cal just clicked. I guess that was natural."
 
Added Mykkanen, whose father, John, won a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1984 Olympics: "It was ultimately my decision, and they supported every other school possible. We took trips and gave everyone a fair share of our attention. When it came down to it, my last trip was Cal. I came and everything clicked immediately and I knew that this was where I needed to be."
 
Mykkanen's family connection to Cal dates back nearly 100 years to her great grandfather, Harmer Davis, who earned a degree in civil engineering in 1928. He served as a professor of civil engineering in Berkeley for 43 years, and the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library, housed inside McLaughlin Hall, features one of the preeminent transportation collections in the United States and gives her family a permanent spot on campus.
 
For all the history contained in the Light, Murphy and Mykkanen families, Aislinn, Maddie and Courtney are just beginning their own journey at Cal and they are prepared to establish a little history of their own.