Dear Stanford Family,
Ninety years ago, a group of Stanford alumni and friends came together and made a commitment. What started as a monthly contribution to fund student-athlete scholarships established a tradition spanning nine decades of philanthropy, and formed a community committed to providing the world-class, Stanford student-athlete experience. This year, we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Buck/Cardinal Club by recognizing the crucial impact donor support has made in the lives of generations of Cardinal student-athletes.
The "Tiny Buck of the Month Club" was founded in June 1934 to raise funds covering tuition costs for “capable, worthy, and needy student-athletes.” As the Club's name implied, membership dues were one dollar per month. The word "tiny" was added to emphasize the modest amount and to honor the head football coach at the time, Claude "Tiny" Thornhill. Later shortening its name to the "Stanford Buck Club" the organization revised its initial membership dues requirement to accept gifts of any size.
With the advent of Title IX and increased efforts to support women’s sports, Linda Meier ‘61, a 2022 Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, founded the Cardinal Club in 1978 to raise scholarship funds for female student-athletes on The Farm. In 1987, both clubs merged to align and strengthen their fundraising initiatives for men’s and women’s athletic programs and scholarships, creating what is the current Buck/Cardinal Club organization.