For Stanford and Cal, intercollegiate athletics can be traced to one contest -- the first of the football rivalry has become known as the Big Game. Stanford and Cal teams were created in the early days for the purpose of beating each other, and so it was at San Francisco’s Haight Street Grounds on March 19, 1892.
Except for the war years, Stanford and Cal have met every year since, building a rivalry that few outside of the Bay Area truly know or understand. How to explain the Stanford Axe, the trophy given annually to the Big Game winner? The Axe has a history beyond the game, having endured years of theft, conspiracy, and the constant threat thereof. Ask Stanford old-timers about The Immortal 21 -- heroes all on The Farm -- but don’t dare mention them to Old Blues.
The games themselves have featured some of the great coaches in football history -- Pop Warner, Andy Smith, Pappy Waldorf, Bill Walsh. The programs have combined to place 36 players in the College Football Hall of Fame and featured greats such as Stanford’s Ernie Nevers, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, Toby Gerhart, and Andrew Luck, while Cal has countered with the likes of Jackie Jensen, Joe Kapp, Chuck Muncie, Tony Gonzalez, and Aaron Rodgers.
Though Stanford prefers to have little to do with Cal’s 25-20 victory after the controversial multi-lateral finish to the 1982 Big Game, Joe Starkey’s radio call may never be forgotten: “They’re down to the 20 ... Oh, the band is out on the field! … He's gonna go into the end zone!”
Still, it is only one in more than a century of dramatic finishes. Among them, the 20-20 tie in 1924 that inspired this San Francisco Examiner headline: “Crowd Held Spellbound by Contest Tense With Fighting and Emotions.” Closer to the modern age, Stanford scored twice in the final 12 seconds to pull off a 27-25 upset in 1990.
Drama, emotions, and bragging rights continue to keep fans spellbound by the Big Game -- where chants of "Give 'em the Axe, the Axe, the Axe!" -- make up the soundtrack of one of the greatest rivalries in college football.
