Stanford participates in the NCAA's Division I-A and forms part of the Pac-10 athletic conference. It also has membership in the
Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation for indoor track (men and women), water polo (men and women), women's gymnastics, women's
lacrosse, men's gymnastics, and
men's volleyball. Stanford's traditional sports rival is Cal. Stanford has won the NACDA Director's Cup (formerly known as the
Sears Cup)
every year for the past ten years (the award has been offered the past eleven years), honoring the first-ranked collegiate
athletic program in the United States.Stanford offers 34 varsity sports (18 female, 15 male, one coed), 19 club sports and 37 intramural sports—about 800
students participate in intercollegiate sports. The University offers about 300 athletic scholarships.The winner of the annual "Big Game" between the Cal and Stanford football teams
gains custody of the Axe. Stanford's football team played in the
first Rose Bowl in 1902, losing 49-0 to the University of Michigan. Stanford has played in 12 Rose Bowls,
most recently in 2000.Until 1930, Stanford did not have a "mascot" name for its athletic teams. In that year, the athletic department adopted the
name "Indians" in response to the "Bears" name used by the Cal-Berkeley teams. In 1972, "Indians" was dropped after a complaint
was lodged by American Indian students at Stanford, based on racial insensitivity. The Stanford sports teams are now officially
referred to as the Stanford Cardinal (the color, not the bird), but the band's mascot,
The Tree, is often mistaken as the school's mascot. Part of Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB), the tree symbol derives from the El Palo Alto redwood tree on the Stanford and City of Palo Alto seals.
Notable Stanford athletes
- Tony Azevedo, water polo
- Notah Begay, golf
- Bob Bryan, tennis (dropped out)
- Mike Bryan, tennis (dropped
out)
- Josh Childress, basketball
- Amy Chow, gymnastics
- Jarron Collins,
basketball
- Jason Collins,
basketball
- John Elway, American football
- Janet Evans, swimming
- Eric Heiden, speed skating, cycling
- Casey Jacobsen,
basketball
- Arthur
Lee, basketball
- Mark Madsen, basketball
- Casey Martin, golf
- John McEnroe, tennis (dropped out)
- Patrick McEnroe, tennis
- Pablo Morales, swimming
- Mike Mussina, baseball
- Jim Plunkett, football
- Summer Sanders, swimming
- Kerri Strug, gymnastics
- Debi Thomas, figure skating
- Jenny Thompson, swimming
- Kerri Walsh, volleyball
- Tom Watson, golf
- Tiger Woods, golf (dropped out)