Home | Tradition | The Walk | Parking Lot Information | Schedule of Events | Map | FAQs
TRADITION
The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB)
The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) was formed in 1963, following the reorganization of the Music Department and dismissal of Band Director Jules Schucat. The Music Department reacted to Schucat’s dismissal by hiring Dr. Arthur P. Barnes as Band Director whose philosophy was to give the students management of the band. It was then that the LSJUMB student-run organization was formed.
While LSJUMB is not a traditional marching band (they scatter rather than march in formation), their intention is still the same: to entertain. One of 10 known scatter bands in Division I schools, the LSJUMB arranges their own music and performs songs based on a select theme.
“All Right Now” (Free, 1970) is the signature song of the LSJUMB. It made its debut on January 1, 1972, as part of the Rose Bowl’s halftime show.
“All Right Now” (Free, 1970)
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-whoa
There she stood in the street
smilin' from her head to her feet;
I said, "Hey, what is this?
Now maybe, baby,
maybe she's in need of a kiss."
I said, "Hey, what's your name?
Maybe we can see things the same.
"Now don't you wait, or hesitate.
Let's move before they raise the parking rate."
All right now, baby, it's a-all right now.
All right now, baby, it's a-all right now.
(Let me tell you now)
I took her home to my place,
Watchin' every move on her face;
She said, "Look, what's your game?
Are you tryin' to put me to shame?"
I said "Slow, don't go so fast,
don't you think that love can last?"
She said, "Love, Lord above,
now you're tryin' to trick me in love."
All right now, baby, it's a-all right now.
All right now, baby, it's a-all right now
Come Join the Band – Official Stanford Fight Song
Come join the band,
And give a cheer for Stanford red.
Throughout the land, our banners waving overhead.
Stanford for you,
Each loyal comrade brave and true.
With might and main,
Sings this refrain.
Forever and forever, Stanford Red.
The Walk
The Walk originated back in the ‘20s when the football program’s locker room was located at Encina Gym (now the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation). On home game days, the Cardinal would make its way from across Campus Drive to Stanford Stadium, while fans gathered along Sam MacDonald Road and in Chuck Taylor Grove to cheer on the team.
Today, the pageantry of the team procession starts at the Arrillaga Family Sports Center. Led by the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB), the team Walk begins two hours before kickoff.
The Alma Mater – “Hail Stanford Hail”
Where the rolling foothills rise
Up towards 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 sing,
It shall ring and float away;
Hail, Stanford, hail!
Hail, Stanford, hail!
The Axe
The Stanford Axe is a trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Big Game between Stanford and Cal. The trophy consists of an axe-head mounted on a plaque with scores of past Big Games.
The Stanford axe was originally a standard 15-inch lumberman’s axe and made its first appearance on April 13, 1899 during a Stanford rally on the eve of a baseball game between the two universities. During that afternoon rally, a group of Stanford students introduced an instrument to decapitate a straw man dressed in blue and gold, much to the delight of the Stanford faithful who chanted, “Give ‘em the axe” during the proceedings.
The Axe made its second appearance two days later on April 15, at a Cal-Stanford baseball game played at 16th Street and Folsom in San Francisco. Led by Billy Erb, the Stanford yell leaders paraded the Axe and used it to chop up blue and gold ribbon after every good play by the Stanford team, while shouting the Axe yell. However, Stanford lost the game and the series, and the yell leaders debated if the Axe was a jinx and whether to dispose of it.
As the Stanford students discussed the Axe's fate, a group of Cal students seized it and ran off with the Axe. It in turn was passed from student to student, and a chase ensued through the streets of San Francisco, first followed by Stanford students and fans and second followed by the San Francisco police. During the chase, the Axe's handle was broken off.
Cal student Clint Miller, who was wearing an overcoat so he could easily conceal the ax head, was the last to handle the Axe. As he reached the Ferry Building, he noticed the police inspecting the pockets of every boarding male passenger. As luck would have it, Miller encountered an old girlfriend, Agnes. Posing as a couple, the two successfully boarded the narrow gauge ferry to Alameda/Oakland (to avoid the police searching those buying tickets to Berkeley) and from there Miller took the Axe back to Berkeley. Two days later, Cal held its first Axe Rally.
For the next 31 years, the Axe stayed in Berkeley as a prize of conquest. In 1930, twenty-one Stanford students plotted to take back the Axe from Cal. This group became known in Stanford lore as the Immortal 21; Cal partisans call them the Immoral 21.
Cal's protection of the Axe at the time was intense — it was kept in a Berkeley bank vault and brought out, in an armored car, only for spring baseball and Big Game rallies. The Stanford group decided that their best chance would be right after the spring Axe rally, held that year on April 3 at Cal's Greek Theatre.
After the rally, four Stanford students posing as photographers temporarily blinded Norm Horner, the Grand Custodian of the Axe, with camera flashes. In the subsequent scuffle, the Stanford students grabbed the Axe while several others disguised as Cal students tossed a tear gas (or smoke, depending on account) bomb at the Cal students who guarded it. The Axe was taken to one of three cars, which sped off in different directions. Several other Stanford students (disguised as Cal students) further delayed attempts to recover the Axe by organizing a search party away from the direction of the getaway cars. Although several of the raiders were caught, the Axe made it back to Stanford where it was paraded around the campus.
For three years after the raid on Berkeley the Stanford Axe lay in a Palo Alto bank vault while both universities decided what to do with it. In 1933, both sides agreed to designate the Axe as the annual trophy to be awarded to the Big Game's winner; in the event of a tie, it would be kept by the side already possessing the Axe.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanford_Axe
The Axe Yell
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!