"All the same, I'm glad I didn't go to Berkeley."
- Hope Snedden
Dec. 1, 1918
The following are excerpts from the Beat Cal chapter in Alison Carpenter Davis' book Letters Home from Stanford, to be released Feb. 24, 2017.
Photos and letters appear courtesy of the Stanford University Archives unless otherwise noted.
The Baldwin Hotel
San Francisco
March 19, 1892
My Dear People,
This is indeed a memorable day, and I am so glad I have been here to shout and wave my red ribbon for Stanford, and we have won the day and beaten the University of California -- but perhaps I would better explain.
Stanford and U.C. had decided to have a match football game at Haight Street Park today. U.C. being an old institution and their men having been in training so much longer than ours, we could not expect to beat them, and yet our boys are not the kind to die easily....
... At nine promptly we left Palo Alto and the [train] cars were all full. ... We were a gay and hopeful crowd, but now and then our spirits would be dampened by a shower and the horrible thought that we might be beaten.
When we arrived at Valencia Street Station a number of cable cars were in waiting and we proceeded to fill them while some of the red muslin was transferred from the coaches to the streetcars. All the men wore red ties and had little red banners floating from their umbrellas and the women had red ribbons and banners. As we rode along the tin horns and college yell made it apparent that we were here. ...
The grass was like a lovely lawn and the white lines were very plain and gave a pretty effect. In one part of the amphitheater cardinal was the color and in another blue and gold. On the grounds were elegant carriages and the gaily decorated coaches, as well as the ball teams, and more enthusiastic men of the two universities. The game was to begin at three but when half past three and nearly four arrived and they did not begin, we began to wonder what was the matter and at last the joke came out, -- both teams had forgotten a ball and they must wait till one was sent for clear up to San Francisco. It was past four when they began at last. ... The breathless excitement with which the friends of our team watched the whole, and the way they waved and shouted and blew their horns was very inspiring, and when Code, or Downing, or Clemans, the last by the way is an Iowa boy who bids fair to win a great name on the coast, would make some fine plays, the noise would become deafening. Inside of ten or fifteen minutes our boys had made a touchdown and kicked the goal and thus scored six. Then we all went wild. At the end of the first half they had scored fourteen and U.C. nothing, but all the time they had to work so hard that it was not safe to count too much on their winning. It was terribly exciting in the last half as they would get almost to [the] Berkeley goal when Clemans would make a good run and bring them back, or when one of the U.C. boys would start with the ball and little Code would throw himself on him with such force that he would come down with the ball. Old and young shouted and waved the cardinal right royally. ... Stanford won with the score ten to fourteen. My how proud we feel and how victorious. ...
The boys very kindly sent the committee on decorations complimentary railroad tickets, and ladies were admitted free to the game so our expenses have not been great.
Senator and Mrs. Stanford telegraphed their hopes to the boys last night, and in some of the stores this morning we saw clerks wearing cardinal, while now and then they would wish us success; and the "Lick" was decorated in cardinal. ...
Such things inspire a college and unite its members wonderfully.
I do so wish you could be here. I feel real selfish to enjoy it all alone, and I want to be here so much next year that nothing but the feeling that duty bids me do otherwise can prevent my coming. ...
Lucy Allabach
Palo Alto
Dec. 18, 1892
Dear Mother & All the Folks:
... Yesterday, the great football game between Stanford and the Univ. of Calif. came off -- a day that everybody here has been looking forward to for months. We have had Walter Camp, the great Yale coach, here training our eleven, and the Univ. of Calif. secured McClung, the Yale captain, at the same time. For the last two weeks the two teams have been in such severe training that the men have not been able to attend hardly a single recitation. The Univ. of Cal. was overconfident of success (just as they were last year when they were defeated) but here we all thought it would be a close game, whichever side won, and it was, for it came out a tie, the score being 10 to 10. At the end of the 1st half the score was 6-0 in our favor, and our team was playing so much better than Berkeley that we began to feel pretty certain of success, but our fullback failed to kick a goal by about three inches, and so the score stood a tie.
Half the proceeds goes to each university. Admission was $1 apiece and there were about 15,000 people present. One of the jewelers in S.F. had a life-size hollow silver football which he offered to the winning team, and this will now have to be over until next year.
Our fraternity rode out to the grounds in an immense stagecoach all trimmed with cardinal. We had cardinal flags at the horses' heads, S T A N F O R D in cardinal letters hanging over their sides, and cardinal flags floating from the four corners of the top of the coach. We invited the ... [Kappa Alpha Theta] girls to go with us, which made up a party of twenty altogether -- most of us riding on top of the coach, armed with tin horns four-feet long, and waving all the cardinal flags we had hands for. Then on the back of the coach we had ... [Phi Delta Theta] in cardinal letters on a white ground.
There were about a dozen of these tally-hos on the field from Stanford & Berkeley, but everybody said ours was the finest there, it was so nicely decorated and had such a fine-looking crowd on top.
We didn't get back to Palo Alto till three o'clock this morning, and were all so tired out we didn't get up until nearly lunchtime.
With love to all,
Francis.
Leland Stanford Junior University
Nov. 9, 1894
Miss Hill.
Dear Friend. I have treated your kind letter shamefully but you do not know what circumstances I have been through since writing you from Placerville in July. ... Things are much as usual. Jobs are not so likely, and football absorbs everything -- all my time. My work during the past summer has been especially beneficial. I enjoyed it very much. Learned much and am better morally, physically, & financially than 6 months ago. ... Am Treas. of Student Body you know and it has proved a bigger job than I bargained for taking most of my time, so that, to speak in the words of J C Branner I must quit at the end of this semester and go to studying. For as he says, "You may be able to graduate all right but we are not turning out A.B.'s but Geologists." I virtually have control of affairs and am making a hard effort to pay off our old indebtedness of $600.00 & conduct the present football season successfully.
We will probably be beaten by Berkeley this year for we have lost Walton, Whitehouse, & McMillan and have not gained much, while they have gained much and lost nothing. We have played the Reliance Athletic Club several times and have been beaten every time. While Berkeley has always managed to tie the score with them. They have Walton, Whitehouse, & McMillan. ...
The Team goes to Sacramento tomorrow. I shall not go long as I must be in S.F. to complete arrangements for the Thanksgiving game.
We go to Los Angeles Xmas.
We have a young lady taking geology as a specialty now, a very nice young lady too.
Wishing you the best of success I am yours sincerely.
H C Hoover
[Letter from Herbert Hoover to Nelly May Hill, Nov. 9, 1894], Hill Family Papers, Ax 47, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.
Stanford
Feb. 5, 1899
My dear mother:
A University of California man sits opposite me reading the paper. He is an enthusiastic collegian. He is revelling in Stanford sunshine, and is the recipient of much congratulation. He takes it all proudly and self-composedly, and then proceeds to tell the gathered Stanfordites how "we" did it. ("We" means U.C.) The man who is doing all the strutting you probably know by reputation if not by name. Arthur Perry is his cognomen!
Well may he strut! Berkeley has bested us again, and again Stanford objects and declares that if U.C. won it was not by virtue of the merits of the individual who got the medal. We should not have objected if Martin of U.C. had won the decision but we do emphatically kick against Warner. Any one of our men was as good as he. And all three of our speakers far outshone the three representatives from Berkeley.
Arthur has been down here since Friday night and has been enjoying himself immensely. He has thoroughly explored the University campus, has visited Mayfield, has seen our ancient club ["the co-op"], has traversed the Stanford estate, has witnessed our first game of baseball, has played tennis with me, has played pool and billiards in our Encina club room, has attended a meeting of our literary society and others. He goes home on this morning's train.
Well, I am twenty-one this morning and have been such since last Friday. It's just Stanford's luck to have an intercollegiate contest on my birthday. Poor Stanford, she little knew the fatality of Feb. 3! On Feb. 3 it rained in the morning but about ten o'clock the sun began to break away from the storm cloud and by degrees peered forth from the gloomy background. At twelve it was shining with all its old-time splendor and making man and nature rejoice. At six the sun looked down on a motley collection of U.C. and Stanford men yelling and jesting for their respective colleges. The next morning Sol smiled and so did U.C., but Stanford, like the clouds of the morning before, wept great drops. ...
April 30, 1899.
... Our men drove around the bay in a wagon, struck the U.C. campus at 3 in the morning, and in 25 minutes had pulled up and packed in the wagon the Senior "C" of the Class of '98. The drive back to Stanford was a long and weary one and full of fear to the men. They did not know at what moment a contingent from U.C. might appear in sight to regain their fence and take its purloiners back to Berkeley as hostages or spoils-of-war. At Milpitas a telegram was sent by them to our campus stating that Berkeley was in pursuit and urged us to come on at full speed to defend our prize. We were to meet the fence at Alviso eight miles away. Thirty students, myself included, engaged a bus, and hurried off to meet the fence. The telegram arrived at 9 a.m. Along the road the big four-in-hand rushed, the fellows singing songs and swearing vengeance upon U.C. for the theft of our Axe. We were a jolly set and eager for a good "scrap". ...
... Well, at Alviso we met our fellows with the fence and not a U.C. coward in sight. And then what a yell went up when we found that the fence was indeed ours, and effectually beyond the power of U.C. to recover it.
The homeward journey was a triumphal march. On our way back we met within the first mile five additional buses, reinforcements for the first busload no doubt. Every time we met a new bus we yelled and the newcomers yelled back. The whole five buses then got into line behind the dirty wagon which held the precious prize, our bus leading the others. We yelled and we sang and jollied up in general. ...
... The procession, a quarter of a mile long, marched through Palo Alto and up through the University. All Palo Alto turned out to watch the parade. It was a holiday for Stanford. Enthusiasm was at its highest pitch. Old Palo Alto men yelled like young students. Women waved handkerchiefs, flags and whatever they could lay their hands upon. ... In the quadrangle the band met us and escorted the line around the Quad. In the center the procession stopped, and the "C" was taken out and put up. Standing upon it -- our fellows made speeches and told how they stole the fence when sleepy Berkeley had forgotten the vigilance she had been exercising since Stanford's first visit in quest of the Axe. ...
Good by --
Fred.
Sun. morning [Nov. 12, 1911]
Dear mother,
... From 9:00 til 12:30 by night light I again crammed trig. and rose early Thurs. morning to stand in line at bookstore to draw for tickets for football show. Had my ex. in trig. Thurs. morning, went to town in afternoon to order flowers for game, came home, ate supper, & hurried to assembly hall so as soon as doors were opened we could get in & get a seat. Well the [Roble] rally was wonderful. Never saw anything like it in my life. Cheering & throwing of hats in air lasted for 15 minutes at a time. My ears haven't been just right since. ... Yells, songs, band, & speeches were great. The assembly hall was so crowded you could hardly move. When the team marched in I thought the boys were going mad. The yell leaders couldn't control them at all & they jumped up & down on the chairs till I wonder there was no one left and someone wasn't killed. The girls in galleries were all given yards & yards of red paper ribbon to drop down, which gave a beautiful effect. ...
After this performance all the men serpentined around the inner Quad where red fire was burned then everyone went over to bonfire. The rain was pouring down but nevertheless it was the largest fete I ever saw. I am sending you a little picture of the pile. On top there is a boat with a fellow with a blue sweater with a yellow C trying his level best to get in it. Below is the sign, "Get on the boat, California." The band & boys serpentined around the fire for about an hour when they became exhausted & drenched. When we got home, we girls on the fourth floor had a grand spread by the light of the moon. ... Friday afternoon I washed, & Gladys & I cleaned our room up & decorated it with red geraniums and chrysanthemums.
Friday afternoon & evening guests began to arrive by the dozens, the swellest machines and hats I ever saw, ... [the] huge machines decorated some with red pennants, others with blue-and-gold ones. ... Gladys' father, mother, & friend came down in their machine from Los Gatos, so I had a ride over to field & back in afternoon. We all went over early to get the full benefit of all the yelling & singing. I never said two words the whole time, I was so busy taking it all in. ...
Our men formed into a red field with a white block -S- and red confetti was showered upon all ... I wore my blue suit & hat & some beautiful red carnations. Both bands, yells & songs were grand & when our team came on the field, hundreds of red toy-balloons were sent up along with the cheering.
Our men wore white shoes, red socks, little short white trousers, & red sweaters. The Berkleyites had blue suits with yellow-striped sleeves & socks. ... Well, the game started. For quite a while neither side scored, then Berkeley scored three & soon after we scored our first & only three. Then from then on the game reminded me of a battle. One by one our men fell staggering on the field & the doctor rushed to the rescue with cold water. Sometimes they jumped up and went on playing, other times they were carried off the field and a substitute put in.
In the California team only one man was hurt and not a single substitute was put in. I think it hurt me worse when those poor fellows were hurt than it hurt them for most of them were senseless. I felt so sorry for them I almost bawled. In the meantime California scored and scored and finally the gun went off and down came the California band, bear, rooters, & all, & around the field they serpentined while our poor wounded men hobbled into their dressing rooms and our rooters hurried over to guard the Quad & Palo Alto tree so that California would not hoist up their colors or serpentine the Quad. California did get over to the flagpole and half-mast the flag and Stanford colors. I never saw such a sorrowful looking bunch as the Stanford people in all my life.
Well we returned mid the California Boola Boola & Oski Wow Wow to Roble, had supper, and then went to the football show "The Follies of Stanford" at Assembly Hall. When the team came in, some limping & some with heads & arms bandaged, the whole house let off another loud cheering. ... I did feel so sorry for the poor fellows. They have lost for three years now. I can't tell you whether the show was good or not for I couldn't keep awake. ...
Love to all,
Julia
Mon. a.m. [Mid-1940s]
Dear Mom --
... Right now Barb & I are in the War Bond Booth supposedly selling stamps -- Of course at 4:00 p.m. there isn't any business -- especially after the big drive they had last week. Did you hear about it? A race between Cal & Stanford with the Axe as the prize to the school that sold the most. We won. We had several Axe-teams to raise bond money -- samples—1 pr. nylons went for $5,000; an old wreck of a car for $12,000, a date with the head hasher $500 ... etc. Really good. ...
Write,
Love,
Carol
November 22, 1946
Dear Mother and Daddy,
This is the weekend of the "Big Game" with Cal. It is by far the biggest game of the year, and there have been lots of things going on. On Wednesday and Friday they have the "Big Game" Gaieties ... They asked me to stand in the queen scene. The position I had wasn't very important, nevertheless I suppose I should have been flattered, but I really wasn't too mad for the idea. You should have seen all the horrible makeup they put on me, it looked absolutely ghastly, although they said it looked fine on the stage. We had to stand on a platform which was about twenty-feet high and which you had to climb up some very high steep, wobbly stairs to get on. After it was over they rolled us out on this huge thing. It was sort of fun being in [it], but certainly not worth all the trouble.
On Thursday they had a parade of floats, a rally, and a bonfire. The parade was loads of fun. Every living group made a float on the back of a truck, there were about forty in all, and they drove past the front of the school. ... The bonfire was a huge fire the freshman boys had spent three days building out in one of the fields, and on it was burned an effigy of the Bruin Bear. ...
On Wednesday night, they caught some Cal men on our campus and took them over to Encina ... and chained them up and shaved their heads. On some of the boys they even painted red S's on their heads. They marched them around campus the next day and made them bow to all the girls. I had never seen boys with their heads shaved before, and they certainly looked awful. They have been keeping all the roads entering Stanford blockaded, and every time you want to go in you have to show your student-body card. ...
Love to all,
Mary
21 November 1953
Dear Mom, Dad, and Grandma,
BIG GAME DAY! It had that fresh and footbally air, but the festive mood turned to one of gloom when the score ended up a tie. The game was exciting despite the outcome. Oh well, at least Cal didn't win either. C'est la vie.
The Stanford Axe turned up today. It seems it had been planted in Norm Manoogian's car by none other than the Stanford Volunteer Fire Department. The story goes that it has hung on the wall of the Firehouse in plain sight the whole time it has been missing!
The SAE house won the prize for the best house decorations and well deserved it. Our partner, the Phi Sig house, was a disgrace to the good name of Roble. ...
My date, Dave, called for me promptly at 6:30, and we were off. The traffic was awful, so we had plenty of time to discuss the game. ...
Love,
Anonymous
[Letter courtesy of writer.]
November 1, 1960
Dear Family,
Well, it was certainly worth getting up for breakfast this morning! The news in the Daily was nothing short of unbelievable. In fact, it was so fantastic, that I've enclosed the article. (I knew you wouldn't want to miss this one, or have to wait until you got home to read about it.) As a word of explanation, the Campanile is a tower on the Cal campus, similar to our Hoover Tower. Each year, Stanford tries to hang a "Beat Cal" sign from it, but of course, the Cal students are always on their guard. Last year, however, some Stanford students did accomplish this feat. However, it will be mighty hard for Cal to top this last coup. I'm sure everyone will be talking about this for days....
The rest of the news around here is pretty ordinary compared to our Italian triumph. ...
Well, I better end here -- I have some studying to do before I go to class. I'll write again soon, with more interesting news (although I doubt that I'll be able to find anything to top this morning's headline feature).
November 18, 1960
Well, only one more day until we BEAT CAL (we hope). If spirit is any indicator, we should be able to wipe them out! Everyone around here is out cheering, and rooting for the team.
Last night the freshman men began work on the bonfire, and before they began there was a rally in the lakebed (where they build the structure). At midnight last night we all went down there, and with the band and the cheerleaders, urged the builders on to bigger and better things (the biggest structure built by any class, of course). The Wilbur men worked all night long, and will be there until rally time tonight, completing the massive framework.
Tonight, there is an all-school rally and bonfire with fireworks, and then tomorrow is the game itself. ...
Love,
Elaine
24 Nov 75
Dear Mom and Dad,
... This weekend was Big Game Weekend, & it's a good thing it was after my midterms.
Friday night I went to the annual bonfire in the dried-up lake on campus. It was huge & impressive, but after they lit it, I kind of thought it was a waste. There has been a big debate over whether to have the bonfire or not. They probably won't have it next year.
After the bonfire, I came back to the dorm & ended up going to the city with some people from the house. Every year on the night before Big Game, the band marches (more or less, the LSJUMB is something else!) through the streets & plays at Union and Ghirardelli squares. We got there just in time to walk with the throng to Ghirardelli. It was wild walking/running through the streets of S.F. with a couple other thousand people. After we listened to the band for a while, we went to a deli and got ice cream.
Saturday morning I stood in line for an hour to get into the game. Our house all sat together & we had pretty good seats. There were 90,000 people at the game. The game itself was crummy but the atmosphere was neat. ...
Love,
M.C.
"Professor Swain read a letter from Dr. Jordan which expressed the sentiment of Sen. Stanford to the effect that whether we were defeated or not, all would conduct themselves with due propriety, and not visit the saloons etc."
- Lucy Allabach
Dec. 18, 1892
"Well, we were simply frantic. We jumped up and down in frenzied joy. Some would be standing on the seat of a carriage and get so excited that he would fall out. I fell down myself in the bottom of our equipage and got up again only to have the same thing happen. I did not know what I was doing half the time."
- Austin Kautz
Dec. 25, 1892
"If you come [to the big game], the females you know all sit together, so I will have to get your ticket when I get mine. I drew No. 14 so can get swell seats. Father & Joe would have to sit in a different division ... If you can go please either answer immediately or telegraph me by next Tues. For Tues. we have to be Johnny-on-the-Spot to get our tickets."
- Julia Hamilton
Oct. 19, 1911
"After we won the game, we all ran across the field to serenade the Cal. rooting section, and Governor Warren presented our student-body president with the Stanford Axe, which always goes to the team who wins the 'Big Game.' I'm sure it was a very impressive ceremony, but I was in such a crowd that I couldn't hear or see a thing."
- Mary Lesnett
Nov. 25, 1946
"I got the tickets for the Big Game on Nov. 22. I bought six of them at $5.00 apiece ... I am now the chairman from our wing for defense before the Cal game. We defend the bonfire & Campus from Cal raiders."
- Bob Swetzer
Nov. 3, 1947
"Roble Hall is doing their Big Game decorations with the Phi Sig's and today I took my turn working over at the fraternity house. However, I found it all so unorganized that I soon gave up and came back to Roble to finish studying."
- Anonymous
Nov. 20, 1953
[Quote courtesy of letter writer.]
"This is to announce that Stanford is going to the Rose Bowl next year ... No, we didn't Beat the 'L' out of Cal (as the saying goes) but it was a great game. Stanford spirit was at its highest peak."
- Maryeda Hayes
Nov. 21, 1954
"May I PLEASE have the car Saturday night of Big Game weekend? Everyone takes a date out for dinner (tradition says that they go dutch) and then to a dance. If Carl can have the car when he's in L.A., why can't I have it that one night?"
- Joe Jacobs
Oct. 17, [1961]
"Dad, I'll be the first one in line to get Big Game tickets. There's a lot I want to show you up here."
- Phil Laird
[Fall] 1966
"It's actually quite a big rivalry. I'm happy I didn't fly home before the [Big] game."
- Mary Caballero
November 2014
Nov. 22, 2014
[Text exchange between student and mother]
[Mom] I also checked the hourly weather for Berkeley. Looks like the sun should start shining a bit around noon!!
[Jason, 10:52 a.m.] Yeah the weather's gotten better. I'll let you know how the game is
[Mom, 4:25 p.m.] Nice game for Stanford so far. How was being in the band?
[Mom, 6:49 p.m.] Way to win Stanford!
[Jason] Yeah they killed it
[Mom] Was it fun being part of the band?
[Jason] Sort of. I still have no clue what I'm doing ...