100 YEARS AGO (1899)
Victorious Berkeley students snatched the Stanford Axe after an emotional baseball game in San Francisco. Stanford yell leader Billy Erb had used the lumberman's axe during the game to hack apart an effigy of Cal's Golden Bear. Stanford students gave chase through San Francisco streets, but the Cal rivals eventually escaped to Berkeley by ferry. In retaliation, 20 Stanford men invaded Berkeley in the middle of the night, making off with the school's Block C senior fence, which was delivered to the Farm by horse-drawn wagon. The Daily Californian said students were glad to be rid of the unsightly fence. Despite numerous attempts, it would take Stanford men 31 years to recapture the prized Axe.
While Jane Stanford planned new buildings, President David Starr Jordan implored her to restore faculty salaries, which had been cut 10 percent during the six years of financial and legal turmoil that followed Leland Stanford's death. Jordan also sought money for new faculty, as well as for books and other academic needs. Jane Stanford granted most of his requests, but construction remained her priority, and the two leaders would clash repeatedly on budget issues during the coming years.
75 YEARS AGO (1924)
A campus dinner honored five faculty members who were presidents of national scientific societies: President Ray Lyman Wilbur, head of the American Medical Association and of the Association of American Medical Colleges; Edward C. Franklin, president of the American Chemical Society; Harris J. Ryan, president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; Lewis M. Terman, president of the American Psychological Association; and Bailey Willis, president of the Seismological Society of America.
50 YEARS AGO (1949)
King of Swing Benny Goodman, accompanied by his 18-piece orchestra and two vocalists, played in the basketball pavilion for a dressy all-campus dance. A line of students formed before dawn to purchase $1.80-per-couple tickets.
An architectural controversy erupted over the flat, gray roof on Lucie Stern Hall, the men's dormitory under construction. A survey showed that 94 percent of alumni favored Stanford's traditional red-tiled roofs and sandstone buildings. In a letter to the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Association's executive board objected to Stern Hall's design. Trustees declined to modify the blueprints, but said that, to the extent possible, future buildings should harmonize with existing ones.
25 YEARS AGO (1974)
Art patron and investment banker B. Gerald Cantor donated 88 sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin, along with numerous Rodin drawings, memorabilia and the major portion of Cantor's reference library on Rodin. With this acquisition, Stanford became the top U.S. research center on Rodin. The gift resulted from the close relationship between Cantor and art history professor Albert Elsen.
Trustees adopted a new land use policy that called for reserving the bulk of open land for future academic purposes, rather than for financial return.
For the first time, professors allowed use of pocket calculators during exams.
