In recognizing the 125th season of Stanford football and the 150th year of college football, GoStanford.com is celebrating and highlighting Stanford's football history with a season-long series by decade.
This week: The 1920s
Games of the Decade:
Jan. 1, 1925 (Rose Bowl): Notre Dame 27, Stanford 10
Pop Warner vs. Knute Rockne. Ernie Nevers vs. The Four Horsemen. This game was bursting with college football legends. The Tournament of Roses chose a West Coast team and that team would choose its opponent. Warner chose undefeated Notre Dame, in the only bowl the Irish would play during its first 81 seasons.
Stanford entered the game 7-0-1 despite limited action from star back Ernie Nevers. In a preseason scrimmage against a local Navy team, Nevers broke his left ankle and missed six games. Three minutes into his second game back, on Nov. 15, Nevers was caught in a pileup and broke his right ankle against Montana. Nevers' cast was removed 10 days before the Rose Bowl, and Warner tinkered in his garage to fashion ankle braces for Nevers made of aluminum and rubber tubing. For the game, the braces were taped so tightly around his feet and ankles that Nevers lost feeling below the knees. Still, he never came off the field.
Nevers relentlessly pounded into the line and carried defenders on his back. Late in the game, on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1, Nevers appeared to break the plane before being pushed back, allowing Stanford the chance to cut the deficit to 20-17. The head linesman raised his arms for a touchdown, but the referee overruled the call. "I firmly believe that we got cheated," Warner wrote in his autobiography.
Nevers carried 34 times for 114 yards -- more than the Four Horsemen combined – and made a majority of Stanford's tackles. He also blocked a PAT and intercepted a pass. But he also threw two passes that Elmer Layden intercepted and returned for touchdowns, including a late score that thwarted Stanford's final chance. Despite outgaining Notre Dame, 298-179, and having 17 first downs to Notre Dame's seven, Stanford fell short, 27-10.
Program cover: 1925 Rose Bowl.
Dec. 1, 1928: Stanford 26, Army 0
Before the largest college football crowd in Yankee Stadium history (86,000), Stanford dominated Army, 26-0. This was an Army team that had lost only once, 12-6 to Notre Dame three weeks earlier in a game immortalized for the "Win One for the Gipper," halftime speech by Irish coach Knute Rockne. Army was heavily favored over Stanford, but fell in what may have been Stanford's greatest performance of the Pop Warner era. Stanford's misdirection plays -- fakes and reverses and passes out of its double-wing offense -- baffled the Cadets. Biff Hoffman scored twice and Lud Frentrup capped the scoring by picking up his own fumble and weaving 65 yards through the entire Army defense.
"This was the day which I had long awaited," Pop Warner wrote. "My Stanford team had come back to the East and conquered the best that the East had to offer. I knew that the Cardinal program had truly arrived and deserved to be considered among the elite of college football."
In a 1929 rematch against Army at Stanford Stadium, Donald Muller gathers in a pass for Stanford in a 34-13 victory.
Nov. 22, 1924: Stanford 20, Cal 20
Since resuming football in 1919, Stanford had lost every Big Game. Cal, at 7-0-1, was a power under ninth-year coach Andy Smith and Pop Warner was in his first season with Stanford, which was 7-0. Both coaches would be in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Stanford was without its top two backs. Ernie Nevers injured his right ankle the previous week and Norm Cleaveland was out because of an eligibility issue. Cal led 20-6 in the fourth quarter when an overconfident Smith removed his top two backs. According to the rules of the day, they could not return. It was a grave mistake.
Looking for a spark, Warner brought Ed Walker into the lineup at halfback and Walker promptly hit Ted Shipkey between two defenders for 20 yards and a touchdown to cut the deficit to 20-13. On its final possession, Stanford drove 85 yards, with Walker connecting with Murray Cuddeback on a 34-yard TD in the final seconds. Cuddeback's conversion kick gave Stanford an improbable tie.
This is considered among the greatest in Big Game history.
Program cover: 1926 Big Game.
* * *Notable Coaches:
Pop Warner (1924-32)
Stanford's return to football in 1919 coincided with the dominance of Cal's great Wonder Teams.
Left behind, Stanford's impatience to catch up was reflected in discarded three head coaches in as many years after blowout Big Game losses. Alumni grew increasingly desperate and sought a coach who could build Stanford into a national power to rival Cal. Leland Cutler, a member of Stanford's Board of Athletic Control, targeted Pittsburgh coach Glenn "Pop" Warner -- architect of great teams at Pitt, Cornell and the Carlisle Indian School -- and traveled across the country to woo him. It worked. Warner took the Stanford job under the condition that he complete his contract at Pitt, which ran for two more years, and that Stanford hire two of his protégés, Andy Kerr and Claude "Tiny" Thornhill, as caretakers until he arrived.
Warner lived up to his promise. In nine seasons, he won three Pacific Coast Conference titles, reached three Rose Bowls while winning one, and led Stanford to a share of the 1926 national title with a 10-0-1 season. Warner is credited for inventing the single- and double-wing attacks, the reverse, the bootleg, the crouching start, huddles between plays, numbers for players, and headgear. His 71-17-8 record made him Stanford's winningest coach until he was eclipsed by David Shaw. Warner became the winningest coach in college football history (341-118-33).
Ernie Nevers (left) and Pop Warner.
Andy Kerr (1922-23)
Andy Kerr, Pop Warner's freshman coach at Pitt in 1921, was dispatched to coach Stanford until Warner finished his contract at Pitt after the 1923 season. Kerr installed Warner's single-wing and double-wing offenses, and taught Warner's system of play and philosophy. In two seasons, Kerr coached Stanford to an 11-7-2 record and stayed as an assistant under Warner in 1924-25. He also coached Stanford's basketball team for four seasons. Kerr went on to greater success at Colgate, where his 1932 football team was undefeated (9-0) and unscored upon. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
Stanford's Chester Wilcox leaps for yardage against Washington in 1922, Andy Kerr's first year as Stanford coach.
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Prominent Players:
Ernie Nevers '26
In a 1962 Sports Illustrated article, writer Alfred Wright chose Nevers as the greatest college football player of all time. Nevers was a 60-minute player who never let up. He wore down defenses with his crunching high-knee running. He and John Elway are the only Stanford players inducted into both the College and Pro Football halls of fame.
In his tribute, Wright wrote: "… Nevers, the blond giant of over 200 pounds, who threw his helmet to the sidelines and played bareheaded in a fury of determination when the going got tough; Nevers, who could run like a sprinter through a sliver of an opening or plow like a battleship through a mass of men; Nevers, whose punts always seemed on the verge of sailing out of the stadium (and often did out of the ball parks in which he played as a pro); Nevers, the shy and humble man who never admitted defeat. He was the greatest football player."
Wrote Stanford coach, Pop Warner, who also coached Jim Thorpe: "Ernie Nevers had that rare kind of courage and special ability that you see only once in a lifetime."
Ernie Nevers carries in a 14-3 1923 victory over Oregon at Portland's Multnomah Stadium.
Jim Lawson '25
In 1924, end Lawson, captain of Stanford's Rose Bowl team, became Stanford's first consensus All-American. Lawson went on to become the second Stanford player, behind Ernie Nevers, to play in the NFL, with the New York Yankees in 1927.
Ted Shipkey '27
Shipkey was one of seven All-Americans produced by Pop Warner at Stanford. Shipkey, an end, played all 60 minutes of the 1925 Rose Bowl against Notre Dame – scoring Stanford's only touchdown -- and all 60 in the 1927 Rose Bowl against Alabama. In the latter, he carried the ball twice on end-arounds, caught five passes, and recovered two fumbles while playing outstanding defense. His 34-yard catch-and-run in the final seconds of the 1924 Big Game gave Stanford a dramatic 20-20 tie. In his three seasons, Stanford went 24-3-1, appeared in two Rose Bowls and won a national championship. He was Stanford's third consensus All-American, in 1926.
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Best Teams:
1926 (10-0-1)
Stanford earned a share of its first national championship with a perfect regular season. Only a blocked punt that led to a last-minute Alabama touchdown in a 7-7 Rose Bowl tie marred Stanford's season. This was the first year in which an attempt was made to recognize a national champion. Stanford was No. 1 under the new Dickinson System, created by a University of Illinois economics professor to rank teams based on records and strength of schedule, and awarded the Rissman Trophy. Lafayette was the choice of Spalding's Football Guide and, years later, Alabama was named co-champ by other rankings systems.
Stanford lost Ernie Nevers to graduation, but the combination of "Tricky" Dick Hyland, an elusive breakaway runner, and speedster Clifford "Biff" Hoffman made up for his lost output. The big victories were 13-12 over Howard Jones-coached USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum, 29-10 against visiting Washington, and a 41-6 Big Game rout over a Cal program still reeling after the premature death of legendary coach Andy Smith, before 80,000 in Memorial Stadium and 10,000 more on Tightwad Hill.
Stanford's national champion 1926 team.
1927 (8-2-1)
Stanford's losses came to Saint Mary's in a game so overly physical that Stanford vowed never to play the Gaels again, and to Santa Clara in a game in which coach Pop Warner wasn't even there, choosing to scout Cal instead. But Stanford produced when it counted, going undefeated in the Pacific Coast Conference to earn its third Rose Bowl appearance in four seasons. This time, after a loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 1, 1925, and a tie with Alabama a year later, Stanford enjoyed its first triumph at the Tournament of Roses, beating Pitt, 7-6.
1924 (7-1-1)
Before his first game as Stanford's coach, Pop Warner had a goal of building Stanford into a West Coast power. Stanford maintained that ascent even with star Ernie Nevers limited all season by ankle injuries. Undefeated Stanford was prepared for a highly-anticipated matchup with USC, only for the Trojans to cancel a week before the game because of a feud over eligibility matters. But shorthanded Stanford rallied for a big 20-20 tie against Cal and was awarded its first Rose Bowl berth – and a classic matchup against Notre Dame -- since the inaugural game in 1902.
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Key Moments:
The First Touchdown (Nov. 19, 1921)
Stanford Stadium was built in four months at a cost of $211,000 and just in time for the 1921 Big Game. The seating capacity was 60,000, but 62,740 – the largest crowd for an athletic event in California history to that time – squeezed in to watch a 42-7 rout by a Rose Bowl-bound Cal team. But Stanford scored the first touchdown, with Jack Patrick nudging the ball across on fourth down in the first quarter. Stanford may have lost the game, but beat Cal in another way, by completing construction of a new stadium first. Berkeley's Memorial Stadium would not open until 1923. Stanford Stadium has since hosted a Super Bowl, World Cup and Olympic soccer, a presidential nomination acceptance speech, the epic 1962 USA-USSR track and field meet, and years of Stanford football victories and graduation ceremonies.
The new Stanford Stadium, 1921.
Heinecke's Nose (Jan. 2, 1928)
Stanford can credit its first Rose Bowl victory to the nose of center Walt Heinecke. Facing a Pittsburgh team coached by one of Pop Warner's former Pitt players, Jock Sutherland, Stanford and the Panthers waged a fierce battle in front of a record crowd of 72,000 at the newly-expanded stadium. "The two teams played the hardest game I have ever watched," wrote Warner in a syndicated story after the game. The difference came in the form of the 5-foot-6, 174-pound Heinecke. After a Pitt touchdown broke a scoreless tie in the third quarter, Heinecke, a replacement on the play, burst through the line so fast that he caught the full force of the point-after kick with his nose and a scar would remain for the rest of life. But it was worth it. The missed PAT was the difference. Stanford took the lead when Frank Wilton picked up a teammate's fourth-down fumble on the next possession and ran it in. Biff Hoffman's extra point gave Stanford a 7-6 victory.
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Stanford's Wheat carries in a 55-6 victory against Santa Clara in 1923.
Lead photo: William Simkins scores for Stanford in the 1928 Big Game in Berkeley, a 13-13 tie.