Community Activities: The 100 Years War

Most of the incidents and activities listed here are based upon hearsay trivia. The University of California Rally Committee does not sponsor nor does it sanction "pranks". These accounts are included for a purely informational purpose.

1893

After losing the first Big Game to an underrated, upstart Stanfurd team the previous year, Cal was a little upset. Cal ire was increased by Stanfurd the night before the second Big Game when some Stanfurdites used a fifteen foot tin horn to announce their obnoxious presence in San Francisco. At dawn, a loyal group of Californians promptly raided the hotel, "lifted" the horn, and painted it blue. When Cal blew the horn at the game a battle ensued crushing the horn beyond repair.

1899

Cal men captured an axe that was wielded by Stanford Yell Leader Billy Erb (see The Stanford Axe)

1905

The Big "C" was built--It quickly became a popular target of Stanfurd raiders.

1910s

In what some believe to be the first example of airial bombardment, an airplane dumped hundreds of anti-Cal flyers over the Cal campus.

1914

Cal fanatics prematurely burned the Stanfurd bonfire. Stanfurd painted the "C" red. Cal hit the Leland Stanfurd statue and Memorial Arch--turning them blue and gold. Each campus then took a defensive posture--awaiting the onslaught of the other with barricades, bonfires, chains, and student guards--nothing happened.

1918

Stanfurd painted the Big "C", Campanile, and Sather Gate red.

1925

Cal students preburned the Stanfurd bonfire. Cal Guardians of the "C" Committee used hundreds of Sophomore guards on three hour shifts to protect the "C".

1930

Stanfurd's Don Knopp organized 20 other Stanfurd seniors as reporters, photographers, and Cal freshies. When the Axe emerged from an armored car after the Axe Rally, the Stanfurdites took the Axe with the aid of flash powder and tear gas. The Immoral 21 were persued to the San Mateo drawbridge where the Stanfurdites managed to raise the draw bridge, stranding their persuers.

1935

After a rally in Harmon Gym, 200 students roamed the streets, jumped on cars, carried parked cars into Harmon Gym, unsuccessfully attempted to derail two street cars, fought police with eggs, and blocked traffic. Nine were held by police and later released with a reprimand

1938

Stanfurd burned a 20 by 30 foot "S" into the Memorial Stadium grass, painted Wheeler Hall, Sather Gate, and the Senior Men's Bench.

1939

Bowles Men painted blue and gold "C"s over the Stanfurd Quadrangle buildings. Fifteen carloads of Stanfurd students attacked the Big "C" but were repelled by Cal student guards.

1940

Thirty men lit eighty bonfires on Berkeley streets. All spent four days in jail.

1942

One hundred and twenty layers of paint were scraped off of the Big "C". Eighty were gold and forty were red.

1946

Raids on bonfires resumed after the War. Cal painted "C"s on Hoover Tower. Stanfurd painted the Campanile and stole a bear rented by the California Rally Committee.

Cal students successfully stole the Axe from Stanfurd (who had possessed it throughout the War). They later returned the Axe after being threatened with expulsion.

1947

The Daily Cal complained of Cal rooting section abuses--drinking and "rolling down" of late comers. A Stanfurd plane wrote "Down Cal, Hail Stanfurd" in the sky and dropped handbills. Eight Cal students were arrested for trying to start bonfire rallies on the streets.

1948

Street bonfire rallies (riots) reached their peak at Cal. There were 144 bonfires, and anything that could be burned was used including benches, advertising signs, an ice cream truck, and parade reviewing stands.

The Axe was stolen from Cal and was later found leaning against a tree on the Stanfurd golf course.

1953

Members of Bowles Hall hatched an elaborate plot to steal the U$C banner. Instead, the banner was stolen by a California Rally Committee man who was disguised as a vendor (he simply grabbed the banner and hid it in a box).

-Walter Davie '54, Close Encounter of the Nerd Kind, California Monthly, 11/94

Stanfurdites stole the Axe from the Cal display case. According to the Stanford Axe Committee, they left $5 in the case to pay for the broken glass. The axe was later returned after the thieves were led to believe that it was a fake when Rally Comm brought out a very good copy of the Axe (this copy made a brief appearence at the 1991 Big Game rally).

1950s

Deutsch Hall began its annual "Stanfurd Goal Post" hunt tradition. This story shall unfortunately remain incomplete until we can obtain accounts from Deutsch Alums.

1961

Stanfurd engineering students assaulted the Big "C" in broad daylight. They used jack hammers and brute force to turn it into a "red S".

1962

The Friday of Big Game week, all of the Daily Californians were stolen in the morning and replaced with a mock version prepared by Stanfurd. The front page had articles praising Stanfurd's football team. Inside, in four inch block letters was printed BEAT CAL. The original Daily Cals were deposited on the Chancellor's lawn.

1964

The Treaty of Castle Lanes: In the Winter after its debut, Stanfurd students stole the California Victory Cannon. Cal students then stole the Stanfurd banner, 17,000 stunt cards, and a 400 pound bronze bell from the old tower behind the Stanfurd Memorial Chapel.

Stanfurd retaliated by taking Cal's cards and the ASUC banner. Members of the California Rally Committee met with Stanfurd students at Castle Lanes in Alameda to negotiate and draft a treaty.

As a sign of good faith, Rally Committee brought the 17,000 stunt cards in a truck and left them with the truck's driver. During the treaty negotiations, Stanfurd students surrounded the truck and tear gassed it. The driver promptly put on his gas mask, and despite looking down the business end of a .45, rammed one of the cars blocking his way. He escaped only to be later arrested by the police, who then made sure that everything was settled between the two schools. As a result, all items were returned to their respective owners, except that Cal got to keep all of Stanfurd's blue and gold cards.

1960s

Stanfurd students awoke one morning to find large Cal-Blue footprints scaling the outside of Hoover tower. When officials ordered that the prints "come down immediately", their wish came true when, two days later, the Cal-Blue footprints descended the other side of the tower,

1967

The Axe was stolen from Stanford without any signs of entry on its display case. It then made appearences in several photographs (including one next to a University of California Centenial banner and one atop the Oakland Tribune building). The Axe was returned at the Big Game so as to allow its start, but Stanfurd had to return it a few hours later when Cal won the game.

1973

Ming's Incident: Three Stanfurd fraternity members telephoned Cal head football coach Mike White and asked for the Axe to be at the Northern California Football Writers Association luncheon at Ming's Chinese Restaurant in Palo Alto during Big Game Week. After receiving a notice, Rally Committee members confirmed the request with Mike White's secretary. The Stanfurdites, disguised as Cal football players, waited outside Ming's and, after a scuffle, snatched the Axe from the three Committee members who brought it. The Axe was returned just before the start of the Big Game.

1970s

Stanfurd students performed their last card stunt (alumni of Stanfurd's Card Stunts Committee claim the year was 1971, other people claim a later year). The cards were stored in an unsecure spot on the Stanfurd campus.

1975

During the Big Game, members of the Stanfurd Band removed the head of the Axe from the Stanford Axe plaque. Following the game (which Cal won), the Axe head was given to John Larissou who brought it back to the Cal side.

1977

All of Stanfurd's card stunt cards (except for one blue and gold card) mysteriously disappeared (they were simply loaded onto a truck and carted away).

1978

UC Rally Committee was still trying to find out who had generously donated the stack of stunt cards before the previous year's Big Game. (One card stunt at the Big Game said Hey Stanfurd! These are your cards.)

1979

After the Big Game rally, a large banner was prominently hung over the tunnel entrance on the Bay Bridge at Yuerba Buena Island. It read Go Bears! Beat Stanfurd!

1982

On the hill overlooking South San Francisco, the C-A-L in the white concrete

               SOUTH
           SAN FRANCISCO
        THE INDUSTRIAL CITY

sign turned blue and gold.

On the Wednesday following the Big Game (and The Play), Cal students were shocked when the Daily Cal had the headline NCAA Revereses Outcome of Big Game. The Stanfurd Daily had printed up several thousand bogus edititions of the Daily Californian in an attempt to pull off a hoax. The hoax was aided by a delay in the distribution of the real Daily Cal. In the end, The Daily Cal gained by collecting the copies of the bogus newspapers and selling them for one dollar each.

1983

Two weeks before Big Game, Stanfurdites painted red "S"s at various campus locations. In addition, for some reason, the Cal Band arrived late at the Big Game.

1984

On April Fool's Day, two members of the Cal Acacia house put a Mickey Mouse face and hands on the south face of the Campanile's clock. Both were captured by the police.

Members of a Cal fraternity released mice that were dyed blue and gold into one of the Stanfurd libraries. On the morning of Big Game, two Stanfurd students attempted to hang a very large banner from the Campanile. The banner had a tree and an "S" painted on it. It was later burned at the 1985 Big Game Bonfire Rally.

1985

Ken Raust and Tim Sheridan staged a hoax that the Axe had been stolen from Stanfurd. For some unknown reason, Stanfurd Axe Committee never put the Axe in its case in Tressider Union. In March, various newspapers and living groups received letters "signed" by Andy Geiger (the Stanfurd Athletic Director) stating that the Axe had been stolen and that their cooperation was needed in order to return it. Local newspapers also received a "ransom" letter from the Friends of Oski announcing the theft of the Axe and demanding that Stanfurd change its nickname to "Trees" before it could be returned. A reporter from the San Francisco Examiner exposed the hoax.

The Palm Trees all along Palm Drive at Stanfurd were painted to spell out CALIFORNIA as you drove down the drive.

1986

Stanfurdites stole the stuffed Kodiak Bear from its dsiplay case in the ASUC. No one claimed the theft.

1987

A ransom note was sent to the Rally Committee asking various demands in order for the Bear to be returned. The demands included the signatures of the Chancellor, one of the Regents, 1,000 Cal students, and the president of Round Table Pizza. Rally Committee Chairman Wendy Withers sent a letter back refusing to make any compromise.

1988

Another ransom note, making similar ridiculous demands, was sent to Rally Committee and it too was ignored. According to Chris Hudson, UCPD staged a raid of the Stanfurd Band Shack and several residencies. Hudson claimed that this had an effect. In 1995, a letter mailed by anonymous persons claiming to be the theives denied Hudson's claim. The Bear was later found on the Monday after the Big Game, wearing a Stanfurd shirt and chained to the concrete fountain near Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. The Stanfurd shirt was replaced with a Cal shirt and the Bear was brought back to Cal as part of a noon-time rally and parade.

1989

At UC Davis' annual Picnic Day, the Stanfurd Tree costume was stolen and ended up in the hands of Cal fraternity. The Tree was burned at the Big Game Rally.

An airplane dropped hundreds of little flyers over the Stanfurd campus. The flyers read "Oski says 'Fuck Stanfurd!'"

1990

Discovering it lying outside the Stanfurd Band Shak, members of a Cal fraternity stole the Stanfurd Tree costume. They later burned the tree in private.

An airplane dropped anti-Cal flyers over parts of the Cal campus, south Berkeley, and north Oakland.

1991

Most of the road signs on the freeway exits to Stanfurd mysteriously had their spelling "corrected".

1992

Cal fans snickered every time they passed by the Stanfurd freeway exits. Sadly, CalTrans undid the spelling correction to the Stanfurd freeway signs before the 1993 Big Game.

1994

A Stanfurd banner brought to the Friday Big Game luncheon in San Jose somehow ended up at Cal's Bonfire Rally that night. Rally Committee returned it to Stanfurd the next day.

1995

Once again, a Stanfurd banner brought to the Friday Big Game luncheon in San Jose somehow ended up at Cal's Bonfire Rally that night. As before, Rally Committee returned it to Stanfurd the next day.

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