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.
Stanford 125: The 1960s
Games of the Decade:
Sept. 29, 1962: Stanford 16, Michigan State 13
The 1960s was the first full decade of Stanford football since the Rose Bowl was established that it did not reach Pasadena. Though the decade began disappointingly, it ended with a team on the verge of a Rose Bowl return.
To begin, the signature victory of Jack Curtice's five-year tenure was over Duffy Daugherty and his No. 6-ranked Spartans at Stanford Stadium. Stanford was coming off four losing seasons and fell 31-3 to Michigan State the year before. This time, Stanford took advantage of a huge game by linebacker Ed Cummings, who was in on 26 tackles, and some Michigan State miscues to win and start the season 2-0. This triggered some conference championship hype.
Asked what Stanford needed to do to win, Curtice said, "Fight like hell." The Indians did so. Trailing 7-0, a 37-yard pass from Steve Thurlow to Bob Howard, who made a leaping catch at the 1, ignited Stanford.
Sophomore John Paye, a third-string running back and the father of 1980s Stanford star QB of the same name, entered in the third quarter after J.D. Lodato cracked a rib. On his first varsity carry, Paye took a pitch around left end, got a crushing block by Chuck Buehler, and outran two defenders to the end zone on a 33-yard play that gave Stanford an insurmountable 16-7 lead.
Michigan State had missed three field goals and had a pass intercepted in the end zone. Tim Hansel deflected it and Gary Craig was on his knees when caught the ball for a touchback, preventing Michigan State from taking a 14-7 lead.
Curtice, in his last season at Stanford, received this compliment from Daugherty: "You deserved to win." Moments later, Curtice was carried off the field on the shoulders of his team.
After graduation, Hansel turned down a coaching job at Stanford, but impacted lives through a wilderness-based Christian ministry called Summit Expedition. After Hansel, a mountaineer, fell headlong into a crevasse while descending a glacier in the Sierra Nevada, he suffered severe neck and back pain the rest of his life. Hansel turned to writing inspirational Christian books and voiced the message of positive living. "Pain is inevitable," said Hansel, who died in 2009, "but misery is optional."
Steve Thurlow fires a pass in the 1962 upset of Michigan State.
Oct. 26, 1963: Stanford 24, Notre Dame 14
This wasn't a rivalry yet – the annual series that begat the Legends Trophy would not begin until 1988. But this was their third meeting and they shared the history of their meeting in the epic 1925 Rose Bowl pitting the Four Horsemen and Knute Rockne against Ernie Nevers and Pop Warner. This game, however, was the first Stanford victory in the series.
Granted, this was not one of Notre Dame's storied teams. The Irish would go 2-7 during the first year of coach Hugh Devore's forgettable two-year tenure. However, this was Notre Dame, a team ranked No. 7 after victories over USC and UCLA, and featuring receiver Jack Snow. Stanford didn't quite know what to expect from new coach John Ralston, whose team was 1-4 and a heavy underdog.
Trailing 14-10, Stanford shut out the Irish in the second half and scored to cap long drives in each of the third and fourth quarters. Runs by Steve Thurlow, Dick Ragsdale and Ray Handley gained chunks of valuable yardage. Thurlow gave Stanford the lead on a 5-yard run off right tackle and passed to Handley on a fourth-down rollout from 7 yards to ice the game. "Life is worth living again," Ralston exclaimed afterward.
Stanford's starting quarterback, sophomore Dick Berg, deserves mention for his contributions to Bay Area sports. A promoter with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, Berg coined the phrase "49er Faithful." And as general manager for the Bay Area's new pro soccer franchise in 1974, Berg insisted the team play in San Jose rather than San Francisco, and gave them the nickname, "Earthquakes." Both decisions were fought by league personnel, but are regarded today as genius, and the legacy of Berg's original San Jose Earthquakes continues today.
Glenn Myers runs for yardage in the 1963 Big Game.
Oct. 11, 1969: USC 26, Stanford 24
There are some who regard Stanford's 1969 team as better than the Rose Bowl-winning 1970 or 1971 squads. The '69 team didn't make it to Pasadena, but clearly the Indians were back among the conference elite and poised for great things.
In 1969, one play prevented Stanford from what could have become three consecutive Rose Bowl appearances. The Stanford Daily headline called it, "The Evil Kick That Wilted the Roses".
USC's Ron Ayala kicked a 34-yard field goal that barely cleared the crossbar with no time left for the Trojans victory. The kick had little linear trajectory. Instead, Ayala's toe got too far under the ball and it fluttered up rather than out. As it came down, there was no telling which side of the crossbar the ball would land on.
The voice of Stanford radio announcer Don Klein ("It's … it's … it's …") was lost in the roar of the crowd at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. A delayed signal went up from the referee. Stanford lost, 26-24.
In a back-and-forth game, Stanford led 12-0. Two turnovers, including a pick-six, led to two USC touchdowns in the final minute of the first half and the Trojans took a 14-12 lead.
Trailing, 23-21, late in the game, Stanford faced a third-and-26. Quarterback Jim Plunkett threw a deep pass for Randy Vataha, who ripped the ball out of a defender's hands and sped downfield for a 67-yard gain. Plunkett, a junior, completed 25 of 37 passes for 296 yards and two touchdowns.
Though the drive stalled, the pass set up a 37-yard field goal by Steve Horowitz with 1:03 left and Stanford grabbed a 24-23 lead. However, USC, using sideline passes by James Jones and one timeout, drove 68 yards in 55 seconds to set up the winning kick.
As fans swarmed on the field, many Stanford players dropped to their knees and wept.
"We had victory in our grasp," Stanford coach John Ralston lamented.
"I'm happy for our kids, sad for theirs," USC coach John McKay said.
Either way, the game was unforgettable.
Wrote the Stanford Daily: "It may well have been the greatest of all the many great Stanford-SC meetings."
Randy Vataha nearly helped Stanford pull out a victory against USC in 1969.
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Notable Coaches
John Ralston (1963-71)
John Ralston's mantra was: "What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve." Stanford hadn't had a winning season in five years. But Ralston brought a new attitude and passion into the program. Under Ralston, Stanford earned its only Rose Bowl victories in a 71-year span.
Ralston brought in the best possible staff, and created a coaching tree that extended to Super Bowl winners Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil. Ralston's staffs also included future NFL head coaches Jim Mora, Rod Rust, and Mike White, and a past NFL head coach in Jack Christiansen.
Another piece of the puzzle was Ralston's willingness to adapt. In his early days at Stanford, Ralston was known as an overly strict coach in the mold of the authoritarian coaches of the day, such as Ohio State's legendary Woody Hayes. Ralston didn't allow long hair or facial hair.
But the longer he was at Stanford, the more he realized that Stanford students were more liberal. They indeed had long hair and wore Tie-dyed shirts, and Ralston came to accept them for who they were.
But Ralston's greatest achievement – more than two Pac-8 titles and two Rose Bowls – was fully integrating Stanford football. He worked tirelessly to convince African Americans to consider Stanford and to develop a relationship with admissions. Ralston helped the office look at potential rather than solely academic achievement. Soon, Stanford began to diversify its student body.
When Ralston arrived in 1963, he inherited one African American player, Morrison Warren. By 1965, there were six -- Roger Clay, John Guillory, Dave Lewis, Ron Miller, Dale Rubin, and Al Wilburn – and that number continued to grow, creating the foundation for Stanford's Rose Bowl teams.
Ralston also hired the first African American assistant coach in Stanford football history, Bill Moultrie. This helped Stanford develop a reputation as a school that gave African Americans coaching opportunities.
John Ralston didn't just win football games, he led a revolution.
John Ralston (bottom left) and his staff, including assistant Bill Walsh (top left), give the lowdown on the 1965 season to flummoxed sports information director Bob Murphy.
"Cactus" Jack Curtice (1958-62)
Jack Curtice picked up his nickname "Cactus Jack" by spending most of his career in southwestern outposts West Texas State, Texas Western, and Utah, where he won four Skyline Conference titles in eight seasons. At Stanford, Curtice went 14-36. In 1960, Stanford went 0-10, prompting Don Liebendorfer to write in his book, The Color of Life is Red: "What happened to the Indians shouldn't occur to anyone or anything, dead or alive, animal, vegetable, or mineral."
Nobody else in program history coached at least five seasons without at least one winning record. However, Curtice, who coached star quarterbacks Lee Grosscup at Utah and Dick Norman at Stanford, helped usher in the advancement of the passing game on a national level. Curtice also was the coach who integrated Stanford football. Under him, Stanford had its first African American player of the modern era (walk-on running back Tom Williams in 1958) and its first African American recruit (linebacker Morrison Warren, who played in 1962 and '63). Curtice followed with seven fine years as coach and athletic director at UC Santa Barbara.
Jack Curtice, after winning the 1961 Big Game.
Bill Moultrie (1968-73)
Bill Moultrie was Stanford's first African American assistant football coach, winning two Rose Bowls while on John Ralston's staff. Moultrie arrived from East Palo Alto's Ravenswood High, where he coached football and track and field.
At Stanford, Moultrie coached defensive backs from 1968-71, and was freshman head coach for three of those seasons. When Ralston left Stanford after the 1971 season to coach the NFL's Denver Broncos, Moultrie interviewed for the head coaching position, which went to Jack Christiansen. Moultrie remained as special teams coach for two years by Christiansen.
Moultrie left for Howard University, where he won 10 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference track and field titles and coached his athletes to 71 All-America honors in 26 years. Moultrie, an assistant coach with the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, was inducted into the national track and field coaches Hall of Fame in 2006. Moultrie died in 2014.
Bill Moultrie was Stanford football's first African American assistant coach, and later a hall of fame track coach.
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Prominent Players
Gene Washington (1966-68)
Gene Washington was Stanford's first African American star recruit. A quarterback out of Long Beach Poly High, Washington was plucked away from USC as Stanford convinced him that he would get every opportunity to play, a great education, and could be someone special. And he was.
Washington was a sprintout quarterback as a sophomore, sharing starting duties with Dave Lewis and Chuck Williams. But after suffering a shoulder injury that season, Washington asked to shift to flanker in 1967, and caught 48 passes for 575 yards in a run-based offense. He truly flourished when sophomore Jim Plunkett became quarterback in 1968 and coach John Ralston switched to a passing-oriented attack. Washington caught a Pac-8 Conference-record 71 passes and his season receiving yardage of 1,117 stood as a Stanford record for 20 years.
A first-round draft pick in 1969, Washington played nine seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, earning three first-team All-Pro honors while the deep threat and favorite target of quarterback John Brodie.
Gene Washington, a future NFL All-Pro receiver, as Stanford's quarterback in 1966.
Ray Handley (1963-65)
In his first game at Stanford, Ray Handley dashed 85 yards for the winning score in a freshman game. In 1964, Handley shattered Bill Tarr's school season rushing record by more than 200 yards. Handley's standard of 936 yards would not be broken until freshman Darrin Nelson ran for 1,105 in 1977.
Handley, a first-team All-American, was a powerful runner with exceptional balance and could cut while going nearly full speed. He graduated as Stanford's career rushing leader, with 1,795 yards.
Rather than go into the NFL as a player, Handley began his coaching career at age 23, as a Stanford graduate assistant. He returned to The Farm twice as an assistant, from 1971-74 and 1979-83. However, Handley may be best known as head coach of the NFL's New York Giants from 1991-92. After his Giants tenure, Handley chose not to return to the game.
Ray Handley set Stanford's season rushing record, in 1964, and later was head coach of the New York Giants.
Don Parish (1967-69)
The first Stanford linebacker to earn first-team All-America honors, Don Parish had 284 tackles during his junior and senior seasons. His 143 tackles in 1968 were a school record. Parish was the Pop Warner Trophy winner in 1969 as the West Coast's top player, and went on to play three NFL seasons. Parish, who always possessed a quiet spirit, died in his native Paso Robles, California, in 2018 at the age of 70.
Don Parish was a key to Stanford's record-setting run defense in 1969.
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Best Teams:
1969 (7-2-1)
Stanford finished with two or fewer losses for the first time since its 1951 Rose Bowl campaign and set itself up for even greater accomplishments over the next two years.
Jim Plunkett revealed himself as a potential Heisman candidate, passing for 2,673 yards. And the defense, starring linebackers Don Parish and Pat Preston, allowed only 110.2 rushing yards per game. No Stanford team would give up fewer for 42 years.
Though Stanford regained its footing as a conference title contender, the season also is remembered with a wince, as one of the most frustrating in program history. In each of the three losses or ties, Stanford failed to protect a double-digit lead. The Indians also squandered a 17-point lead in the Big Game, only to rally to victory. The two losses were by a total of three points. Such was the proximity to greatness.
Hillary Shockley fights for yardage at Oregon State in 1969.
1968 (6-3-1)
With sophomore Jim Plunkett as his starting quarterback, coach John Ralston changed Stanford's style from a sprintout run-based offense to a modern passing game, and the Indians began to flourish.
"When I arrived, I was one of five or six quarterbacks," Jim Plunkett said. "I had a tumor removed from my thyroid, so my freshman year was not very stellar. I also played defensive end in high school. So, after my freshman year of spring ball, all the players would go see Coach Ralston and he tells you what you need to work on to make this team. He told me I would have to play defensive end.
"I wasn't about to do that. 'No. 1, if you ask me to do that, I'll probably leave and go somewhere else where I can play quarterback. And, No. 2, I came in banged up and I wasn't myself because of the surgery. Just give me another opportunity to play quarterback.' And that's exactly what he did."
The combination of Plunkett to Gene Washington was spectacular, and both players would make their marks in the NFL – Plunkett as a Super Bowl MVP and Washington as a three-time first-team All-Pro.
John Ralston (left), with Jim Plunkett in 1969.
1965 (6-3-1)
Stanford's first winning season in eight years proved third-year coach John Ralston was on track to return the program to prominence. Other than a 3-7 record in his first season of 1963, Ralston never had another losing campaign at Stanford.
The year ended hopefully, with a fourth-quarter rally to beat Cal, 9-7, at Stanford Stadium. With less than seven minutes left, Ray Handley broke free for an 11-yard scoring run, making up for his earlier fumble on the Cal 2-yard line. However, Stanford missed the point-after, giving Cal hope of its own.
Led by defensive pressure from Bob Rath and Al Wilburn, Stanford pushed the Golden Bears backward, forced a punt, and ran out the clock in what would be the Indians' fifth of six consecutive Big Game victories.
Ron Miller harasses the Army quarterback in a 1965 Stanford victory.
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Key Moments:
The Kick (Oct. 31, 1964)
Braden Beck kicked a 27-yard field goal with 13 seconds left to give Stanford a 10-8 victory over No. 7 Oregon at Portland's Multnomah Stadium. The kick rescued Stanford, which dominated and outgained the Ducks, 374-73.
Ray Handley bounced off two defenders on a five-yard cutback run that resulted in Stanford's only touchdown and a 6-0 third-quarter lead. But Oregon took advantage of a big Stanford mistake – intercepting a Dick Berg pass and returning it 40 yards -- to nearly steal the game. The interception led to an Oregon TD and the Ducks added a two-point conversion to take an 8-7 lead.
But the game ultimately came down to field position. Stanford's Dave Lewis booted a 61-yard punt that rolled dead at the Oregon 1. When the Ducks failed to move, a punt deep in their own territory gave Stanford good field position, setting up Beck's winning kick, and snapped Oregon's 10-game series winning streak.
Stanford charges on to the field through the Stanford band in 1964.
The Swim (Nov. 18, 1965)
Two days before the Big Game, Steve Fossett, a Stanford senior, became the first known person to swim to Alcatraz Island and back, but was refused permission to place a "Beat Cal" banner on the Island.
The federal prison closed two years earlier and the General Services Administration had custody of the island, even though a group of Native Americans already staked a claim and would occupy it in 1969.
Fossett tried to unroll the banner, but an official grabbed it from his hands and ripped it up.
"Publicity may be good for you." the official said, "but it isn't good for us."
Four members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity followed Fossett in a fishing boat but were not allowed to land to help Fossett plant the banner. Fossett swam back to San Francisco and, after four hours in the water, Fossett was pulled into the boat at the San Francisco docks, weak and exhausted but happy.
Ray Handley runs for the winning touchdown in the 1965 Big Game.
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Action from the 1960 Big Game in Berkeley.
Lead photo: Head coach John Ralston (left) and assistant Mike White celebrate Stanford's 9-7 victory in the 1965 Big Game.