Why is Stanford's nickname the Cardinal?
The short answer is because the 1972 Trustees and president decided that would be the team's nickname.
For many years, the teams had gone by the nickname "Indians." In 1972, North American indigenous people particularly those in the San Francisco Bay Area were protesting their treatment by the majority culture. Some, but not all of these indigenous people felt that that nicknaming athletic teams "Indians" was demeaning. One such person led a successful campaign to remove the "Indian" as Stanford's mascot. It should be noted that this graduate student received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
After the trustees agreed to change the athletic moniker, the student body held an election to decide on a new name. The name that won was "Robber Barons," however, then president Donald Kennedy said he felt that name was disrespectful to the University's founder, railroad magnate Leland Stanford. Other names that garnered votes in the election included Sequoias and Thunderchickens.
Kennedy discovered an old Stanford Daily article that referred to the team as "Cardinals" or "Cardinal," after the color of their uniforms. Since he also happens to be a Harvard alumnus, he liked the idea, and made it the official moniker.
That tree you see frolicking around the playing fields is not an official university mascot; it was the Stanford Band's suggestion for a nickname. It comes from the Palo Alto (tall tree), a pine tree that appears on the official seal of both the city of Palo Alto and Stanford University.
Why is the school also called Leland Stanford Junior University?
Stanford is named for Leland Stanford Jr., son of the former senator, who founded the university. Leland Jr. died of typhoid at age 15. His parents decided that a fitting memorial for a young man that age would be a university. The Stanfords laid the cornerstone for Stanford University in 1887. It opened for classes in 1891.
What is the Directors' Cup and why is it important to Stanford Athletics?
The Director's Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. It is meant to honor the best overall athletic program. It is sponsored jointly by Sears and the USA Today. Only two schools, North Carolina, in the award's first year, and Stanford, in each of the following four years, have ever won the Directors' Cup.
NACDA, gives athletic programs points for their finish in the tournaments of mens and women's sports to determine who wins the award. Because Division IA has no football tournament, NACDA awards points based on the CNN/USA Today Poll. The number of point given depends both on a team's finish and the number of teams playing a particular sport. So, a team is rewarded more for doing well in a sport for which many universities field teams than for doing excelling in an obscure sport.
What is the Champion of Champions?
The Champion of Champions is the NCAA member school with the most national championships in a given year. Stanford has won that honor more than any other school.
Who is this fellow named Cal, and why do you want to beat him?
Cal is Stanford's whipping boy. We've been beating Cal since 1891. Some people claim Cal is a university, but we don't believe them.
Who are the "Vow Boys," the Wow Boys," and the "Now Boys"?
The Vow Boys were a group of football players who played from 1933-1935. They were unbeaten during their freshman year, although their varsity counterparts had completed a mediocre 6-4-1 record and suffered a 13-0 shutout at the hands of USC &endash; its fifth straight loss to the Trojans. The varsity coach, the legendary Pop Warner, had quit and gone to of all places, Temple, because he thought Stanford's admission policy was so stringent that the Indians would never be able to compete with USC.
Warner was wrong. Following the varsity's loss, quarterback Frank Alustiza gathered the freshman squad around him and the team made a vow never to lose to SC. Not only did they not lose to the Trojans, but they played in three straight Rose Bowls. Five of the Vow Boys made All America.
The Wow Boys brought Stanford's famed innovation to the football team. Although the team had won only one game the previous year, they went undefeated in 1940 under new coach Clark Shaughnessy and his T-formaton. They also innovated in the uniforms, bringing out all whites instead of the moleskins that teams typically wore in that era.
Once again, Warner proved a reverse prophet. "If Stanford ever wins a single game with that formation, you can throw all the football I ever knew in the Pacific Ocean," he said. "What they're doing is ridiculous." The team beat Nebraska 21-13 in the Rose Bowl that year.
The Now Boys didn't make it to the Rose Bowl, but many of them shared the conference championship with Washington in 1992. The team got its name in 1991 when coach Denny Green declared that the team didn't want to wait to start winning. Warner was not around to make any prognostications about the team.
Who are the "Thunderchickens?"
Thunderchickens, not to be confused with Haybalers, are members of the defensive line on Stanford's 1971 and 1972 Rose Bowl victories. They include Dave Tipton, Pete Lazetich, Greg Sampson, Larry Butler and Roger Cowan.
The name was taken from a Montana motorcycle gang. It was adopted after the USC defense named itself the Wild Bunch. According to some stories, the name came about because one of the other linemen thought Tipton resembled a chicken when he ran.
Why is the Stanford Band so ... different?
The Leland Stanford Junior (Pause) University Marching Band is a "scatter" band, similar to the bands of all but one of the Ivy League schools, the Rice University Marching Owl Band (MOB), and the Virginia Pep Band. Many of the bands adopted this format in the 1960s in reaction to the militarism of traditional bands and because the smaller numbers of students made it difficult to form more traditional large marching formations.
LSJUMB also is entirely student run, and has been since 1963. The Band went on strike that year, refusing to play at football games, as Stanford had let go of its popular faculty director. Stanford hired Dr. Arthur P. Barnes as director of bands, and he reestablished control of the Band by giving control to the students. That student control has led to confrontations between the Band and the boundaries of "good taste," in the eyes of fans and administrators alike. Its salute to the Spotted Owl Controversy led to its being banned from the state of Oregon, but the same energy that produces such controversy during football seasons also leads the LSJUMB to perform at charity events, local parades, and as many other Stanford athletic events as are practical, from swimming meets and soccer games to several ill-fated tennis matches.