100 YEARS AGO(1905)
The first Big Game to be played at Stanford took place in the new “stadium”—a field with grandstand seating for 4,500 located near the current Maples Pavilion. Stanford defeated California 12-5. Most previous football matches had been played in San Francisco.
75 YEARS AGO (1930)
Students officially adopted the Indian as a symbol for Stanford, and used it for more than 40 years interchangeably with the color cardinal, which had symbolized Stanford since 1892. Former varsity football player Tom Williams, Class of 1897, proposed the Indian in 1923. Excavation of archaeological sites on campus, combined with the image of the Indian as the conqueror of bears and other mascot animals, led to its popularity with alumni. By 1937, the Indian brave had been joined by the shirtless, wide-eyed, boyish “Li’l Injun.” Concerned about racial stereotypes, the student senate in 1972 ratified a recommendation by President Richard W. Lyman to discontinue the mascot.
50 YEARS AGO (1955)
Engineering dean Frederick E. Terman was named provost. He became known as the “father” of Silicon Valley for his role fostering closer ties between Stanford and high-technology industries.
On September 30, Roos Brothers became the first store to open at the $15 million Stanford Shopping Center, located on 55 acres of former grain fields and vineyards on Leland Stanford’s farm.
25 YEARS AGO (1980)
Paul Berg was named co-winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, particularly recombinant DNA. Berg joined the faculty in 1959; in 1985 he launched the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical medicine.
A faculty team announced plans to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity using super-chilled gyroscopes in a satellite 400 miles above Earth to provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. If Einstein’s explanation of how gravity works is right, the gyroscopes should tilt slightly as they spin. After years of development, NASA launched the experiment in April 2004. The science phase of the experiment ended last August; data analysis will take another year. The idea grew out of a 1959 discussion at the Encina men’s pool by three naked scientists—Professors William Fairbank, Robert Cannon and Leonard Schiff.
