Wild Fun Facts about Stanford Cardinals Football
The Stanford Cardinals began playing football in 1891. 1891 is also the same year the Wrigley gum company was founded and the team quickly signed them as an advertising sponsor. Soon their ads covered the campus. Here is an ad you might have seen in those days.:
Don’t be a Notre Dame crumb
Don’t be a Berkeley bum
Don’t be a USC scum
Stanford chooses Wrigley gum
The Cardinals are named after the color, not the bird. Other colors they considered were blue, red and green, green to reflect the mountains of cash their brilliant alumni would make in the tech world. In fact the first app was developed by a Stanford grad in 1930. “It called Too Many Beers. It tells you how many cocktails you can drink at a Stanford tailgate without making a fool of your darn self.”
“Hey, Jim, Stan just dumped the bowl of potato salad on his head like he was doing the ice bucket challenge.”
“See, that fellow could have used my app.”
In the early 1900s, Stanford cancelled football due it’s violent nature in favor of rugby. That makes sense. Not. That’s like giving up boxing in favor of mixed martial arts. That’s like giving up cigarettes in favor or riding a motorcycle without a helmet.”
“Rugby is so much more civilized than your game,” an Englishman explained. “I mean, you fellows are all smashing, crashing and tackling each other. WE have an organized scrum where four or five fellows might fart on your head at the same time.”
