100 YEARS AGO (1903)
William F. Durand, a designer of marine screw propellers from Cornell, joined the faculty as an engineering professor. During World War I, he shifted to airplane propellers, soon becoming the nation’s leading authority. In 1941, at age 82, he was called to Washington to help develop jet propulsion for aircraft. DurandBuilding commemorates him.
75 YEARS AGO (1928)
Stanford scored a touchdown in the last seconds of the Big Game to tie Cal 13-13. A week later, Stanford defeated heavily favored Army, 26-0, at Yankee Stadium in a game considered one of the best exhibitions of coaching by Glenn “Pop” Warner(left).
Stanford alumnus, trustee and resident Herbert Hoover, Class of 1895, was elected 31st U.S. president. Late in the evening of November 6, as Hoover’s landslide over Alfred E. Smith became apparent, 2,000 students accompanied “March King” John Philip Sousa and his 70-piece band to serenade the president-elect at his home on San Juan Hill. Sousa played “El Capitan,” “Stars and Stripes Forever” and the “Star-Spangled Banner” (designated as national anthem during Hoover’s term). Hoover’s eyes filled with tears as students then sang the Stanford Hymn. A nationwide radio hookup transmitted the celebration. The day before, a crowd estimated at 10,000 cheered Hoover as he arrived at the Palo Alto train station and rode up Palm Drive tohis home.
50 YEARS AGO (1953)
Trustees approved a recommendation from President J.E. Wallace Sterling to relocate the School of Medicine and its hospital from San Francisco to the Stanford campus. Sterling said the “key relationship of medical education and science to other scientific fields can best be strengthened and advanced by bringing the School of Medicine into the closest possible physical and intellectual relationship to the wholeUniversity.”
25 YEARS AGO (1978)
Reflecting a thaw in Chinese-American relations, six scientists from the People’s Republic of China arrived in October for a two-year stay and were followed by a larger group in January. Several Stanford scholars went to China a year later as part of an exchange between Stanford and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Although other American universities had hosted individual scholars, Stanford’swas the first reciprocal arrangement.
A water main broke near Meyer Library, flooding the basement for 24 minutes before it was shut off at 3:15 on a Saturday morning. Within hours, librarian David Weber put out an appeal for volunteers to help pack and move 45,000 wet books to giant freezers until they could be vacuum dried, then restored. Bekins Moving Co. sent more than 2,400 packing boxes, Peninsula Creamery provided a truck, and Modern Ice Co. of San Jose donated cold storage. Damage was estimated at $1 million.
On New Year’s Eve, football coach Bill Walsh led Stanford from a 0-22 deficit early in the third quarter to defeat Georgia 25-22 in the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston. Quarterback Steve Dils,’79, completed 17 of 28 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns, and was voted offensiveMVP.
KAREN BARTHOLOMEW, ’71, writes this column on behalf of the Stanford Historical Society.
