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Our Story

While journeying through Italy in 1884, Leland and Jane Stanford’s 16 year-old son, Leland Jr., fell ill with typhoid. The night of the boy’s death, Leland Sr. dreamed that his ghostly son came to him, imploring, “Do not say that you have nothing to live for. Live for humanity.” When he awoke, Stanford vowed to his wife, “The children of California shall be our children.” And so, with the spectral image of a teenage boy, Stanford was born.

Upon the advice of President Eliot of Harvard University, Leland and Jane Stanford committed five million dollars to the university’s endowment. Stanford purchased 650 acres of Rancho San Francisquito in 1876 to begin the development of his Palo Alto Stock Farm. Later purchases enlarged the property to the 8,000-plus acres that would become Stanford campus. Now, Stanford University turns out Supreme Court justices and tech firm magnates rather than prized cattle[KB1] , but what can we say, once the Farm, always the Farm.

Leland Stanford Sr., President of the Central Pacific Railway Company, committed more to Stanford’s creation than the bankroll. He and his wife molded the new university with the same pioneering spirit that earned them their fortune. The couple envisioned a school that not would not only provide the classic polish of the well-bred, but also the modern sensibility of the changing times. After six years of construction, the school opened in 1891 to the applause of 2,000 onlookers and the amazement of one New York news columnist who predicted that, for years to come, Stanford professors would “lecture in marble halls to empty benches.”

From the outset, Stanford University defied convention. It was co-educational at a time when most universities were all male and non-denominational when most were associated with a religious organization. Avowedly practical, the school demonstrated its commitment to producing “cultured and useful citizens” when most universities concerned themselves only with the former. In the years following its opening, the University pioneered educational, scientific, and social innovations, following the German model of providing both undergraduate and graduate instruction and stressing research in conjunction with teaching. Stanford University presented a unique challenge to its founding students and faculty: to lay the foundations for a school that was, in the words of the university’s first president, David Starr Jordan, “hollowed by no traditions, hampered by none.” Stanford presents the same opportunity to today’s students, who continually forge Stanford tradition in the spirit of innovation, creativity, and flair.

Stanford Alma Mater

Where the rolling foothills rise,

Up t’wards mountains higher,

Where at eve the Coast range lies’

In the sunset fire,

Flushing deep and paling;

Here we raise our voices hailing

Thee, our Alma Mater.

From the foothills to the bay,

It shall ring,

As we shall sing,

It shall ring and float away;

Hail, Stanford hail!

Hail, Stanford hail!

 

Stanford Traditions

Mascot
Stanford has always sported a unique nickname: “Cardinal.” The press coined it when Stanford defeated Cal in its first ever Big Game. “The Indian” was Stanford’s official mascot starting in 1932, but the politically incorrect mascot didn’t last past 1970. No official mascot has prevailed since, although many have been suggested. The most popular proposal: the Robber Barons. Today, the Stanford Tree, a member of the Leland Stanford Junior Marching Band, is a symbol of the University although not an official mascot. The band holds Tree auditions for a 10-day period each spring, when potential Trees do anything from allegedly skydiving onto the top of Hoover Tower to holding a beach party in the university president’s office. You’ll have to audition to find out the truth of what really happens. Cardinal remains the university’s nickname, causing ceaseless confusion over whether it refers to the color or the bird. The answer is the color.


Fountain Hopping
There are over a dozen fountains on campus and no good reason not to use them. Do the grand tour, running across campus from one to the next, or settle into your rubber ducky inner tube and just bob a bit. The most popular hopping occasions include post-finals marinating under the sun, (done with cool beverage in hand), after-game football celebrations on especially hot days (hey, that body paint’s going to have to come off somehow), and spontaneous nighttime excursions (we’ll leave the details up to you).


Leland Stanford Junior Marching Band
They’re more likely to play Paul Simon than Taps, and you’ll see them in cellophane and rubber shorts before you ever see them in epaulets. LSJUMB touts itself as a “rag-tag group of outcasts that is mistrustful at first, but gradually learns the values of friendship and teamwork at the end of [their] 90 minute feature film, coming soon to a theater near you.” They’re raucous and wild, colorful and a little bit crazy (you’d have to be, to go running about naked while playing the accordion) and if you want to get into the Stanford spirit, all it takes is their signature rendition of “All Right Now” to do it. When you hear it, you have to do “The Leap,” though. Not sure what it is? Oh, you will soon…


Full Moon on the Quad
According to some, the full moon tradition began nearly a century ago. Stanford seniors lined up on one side of the Quad facing a line of freshmen on the other. The two lines then came together in the middle of the Quad, and, after some modest kissing, the freshmen initiation was complete. Today, Full Moon on the Quad is a massive all-campus party that begins in dorms and houses and culminates on Main Quad. There’s kissing, of course, but the observant spectator will notice a whole lot more than that. Keep your eyes peeled for the line of people that inevitable streaks through the middle of the fun, clad only in body paint. Those disinterested in lip-locking can have a great time dancing to live music, eating free mints, and hanging out to hear the band come play the Stanford theme song in a burst of energetic chaos. If you’re immune to mono, some claim kissing the Tree is good luck.


Primal Scream
At midnight during Dead Week, the hills come alive with the sound of Primal Scream. Across campus, students let out all those pent-up frustrations (‘Wait, doesn’t Dead Week mean NO MORE NEW WORK?’) and academic anxieties (‘Remind me why I signed up for 20 credits again?’) with a deep, resounding cry. Go ahead. You’ll feel better. Now back to work!


Assassins
Why not have a perfect excuse for going around campus for a week with a British accent saying nothing but, “Bond. James Bond.” You might even try taking your martinis shaken, not stirred. Armed with a water pistol, each student is assigned a target of another student in your dorm. If you successfully carry out your mission, you take on the target of your fallen brother. It’s 24/7, no-holds-barred. Be prepared to camp out on your roof, sneak under your seat in class, and stalk out your victim from prickly, unforgiving bushes. The ultimate assassinator will have bragging rights for life, not to mention a deeply embedded paranoia of what’s lurking around the corner…


Screw Your Roommate
Most freshman dorms hold Screw Your Roommate Dances each year, where roommates set each other up on blind dates. SYR is ostensibly meant to promote dorm bonding, although it often becomes a means by which roommates ask out objects of Face Book fantasy for one another. Break out your dancing shoes, bowling balls, and sequined one-piece suits for great conversation pieces to break the ice and have a good time.


The Game
Not to be confused with Big Game (see The Mighty Axe), the Game is quintessential Stanford: maniac students that always end up being tirelessly brilliant while running around chaotically in search of the meaning of life. An unforgettable experience, the Game is a combination of mind-numbing riddles, mile-long wanderings, and fierce competition for the honor of being named among the quickest and cleverest of Stanford students. The scavenger hunt’s highly challenging clues, dealing with computer science, math, chemistry, music, and the occasional history fact, lead students traipsing across campus, Palo Alto, or even San Francisco. If your dorm or house isn’t involved, join another group. There are multiple games every year, so you should be able to find one.


Wacky Walk
The Walk has evolved over the past 60 years, replacing the graduates’ dignified march onto the field to receive their diplomas. Instead, they come in wild hats and pink boas, Congo lines and togas, singing and dancing their way to employability. Hopefully.


The Mighty Axe
The saga of the axe begins not with a weapon, but with a song. Yell leaders Will Irwin and Chris Bradley coined a new chant, the “Axe Yell,” at the 1896 Big Game, the annual Stanford vs. Cal football game held every November amidst much hype (said hype includes the wearing of red during the week leading up to the event, the maiming of stuffed Cal bears in White Plaza, and a massive pre-game rally). Simple, memorable, and vivid, the Axe Yell quickly became an honored Stanford tradition.

The actual Axe did not appear until a three-series baseball game in San Francisco in 1899. Yell leader Billy Erb purchased a broadaxe, painted it with a Cardinal “S,” and then proceeded to decapitate a stuffed bear outfitted in blue and gold. Although his valiant efforts could not rescue the Stanford team from defeat, he did manage to provoke the Cal fans enough that, at the end of the game, a horde of Bear fans descended upon the yell leaders and abducted the Axe. During the ensuing chase, the handle was sawed off in a butcher’s shop to facilitate ease of concealment, and the Axe was whisked away to Cal, where it remained hidden in a bank vault for 31 years.

Its recovery remained a complex, delicate operation that had to be executed during one of the few times of year the axe was taken out for baseball and football rallies. A group of Sequoia Hall residents, labeled Stanford’s “Immortal 21,” undertook the task, pledging to return the Axe to its rightful home. Following it back to the bank after its annual appearance at the Axe Rally, the students posed as Cal photographers on a photo shoot. With a flash of light and just a bit of tear gas, the group triumphantly returned to the Farm, Axe in tow.

The Axe sat in a Palo Alto bank vault for three years until the two schools signed an agreement in 1993 making it the trophy of Big Game. Penalties for further pranks included expulsion and the cancellation of Big Game and other athletic activities. Despite these precautions, the Axe has been filched five times—twice by Cal and three times by Stanford.

“Give ‘em the axe, the axe, the axe. Give ‘em the axe, the axe, the axe.

GIVE ‘em the axe, GIVE ‘em the axe, GIVE ‘em the axe, WHERE?

Right in the neck, the neck, the neck. Right in the neck, the neck, the neck.

RIGHT in the neck, RIGHT in the neck, RIGHT in the neck, THERE!”

 

Stanford Icons

Hoover Tower
Visible from almost all high points in the bay area, Stanford’s Hoover Tower serves as a landmark of Stanford. Completed for the celebration of the University’s 50th anniversary in 1941, this 285-foot structure houses the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. The ground floor contains exhibits from President Hoover’s career, while higher up one can find the carillon of 48 bells cast in Belgium, the largest of which is inscribed ‘”For Peace Alone Do I Ring.” Visit the Tower’s observation deck daily from 10 am to 4:30 pm (except for when it’s closed during finals week and academic breaks. General admission is $2, but Stanford students, faculty, and staff get in free!


Memorial Church
As an architectural centerpiece, Memorial Church (fondly referred to as MemChu within the Stanford community) enlivens the Main Quad with its beauty. Jane Lathrop Stanford built this nonsectarian church in the early 1900s in memory of her husband, the university’s founder, Leland Stanford Sr. The main façade boasts over 20,000 shades of colored tile melded together to form a beautiful mosaic. Since its creation, the church has held over 7,500 weddings and is the spiritual home of religious life on campus.


Palm Drive
Lined with palm trees, this mile-long entrance to Stanford bridges the distance between campus and downtown Palo Alto. Paved paths provide an easy commute for Stanford professors and students arriving from the CalTrain. Drive or bike in from University Avenue during the morning or late evening to catch the sun streaming through the palms and the fog rolling over the distant hills behind MemChu.


The Claw
Located in White Plaze between the Bookstore and Old Union, the Claw is a focal point at the center of campus. It’s a favorite place for students to fountain hop or just lounge in an inflatable chair once the weather gets warm and the quarter winds down in the spring. The Claw is part of the remaining legacy of Thomas Dolliver Church, Stanford’s landscape architect from 1948 to 1978.