The Cardinal Name and the Stanford Tree

Visitors often ask two questions at a Stanford game. Why is a school called the Cardinal, singular, with no bird anywhere in sight? And why is a person dressed as a lopsided tree dancing on the sidelines? The answers go back more than a century and include a chapter Stanford chose to close in 1972.

This page covers the name, the Indian mascot Stanford used from 1930 to 1972, the plural Cardinals years that followed and the Tree. It draws on Stanford Athletics, the university's Native American Cultural Center and contemporary news reports. For the band's side of the story, see our page on the Stanford Band. For Big Game and the Axe, see Stanford traditions.

It starts with a color

Stanford's color came first. According to accounts of the university's first year, an assembly of the first students picked cardinal red as the official color in 1891. When Stanford beat California in the first Big Game on March 19, 1892, the next day's San Francisco Chronicle referred to the winners as the "Cardinal." The name stuck in the sports pages.

White was added as a secondary color in the 1940s. Cardinal red remains the official color today, on team uniforms and on most official merchandise.

The Indian name and symbol, 1930 to 1972

For about four decades Stanford's teams carried a different name. Stanford Athletics states that Stanford "was known as the 'Indians' from 1930-72." The student Executive Committee adopted the Indian as the official symbol on November 25, 1930. The Stanford Daily reported the change the next day under a headline saying the symbol was "considered more appropriate" than the Cardinal. Stanford's Native American Cultural Center credits football coach Pop Warner as the first to use the Indian as a mascot for Stanford teams.

The symbol most often took the form of a cartoon caricature, which the cultural center describes as a small Indian with a big nose. From the early 1950s it also had a live performer. Timm Williams performed at games as "Prince Lightfoot" for about 19 years.

The teams were still sometimes called the Cardinal or Cardinals in the press during this period. Officially, though, they were the Indians.

Native students and the 1972 removal

The change came from Stanford's own Native American students. The cultural center's timeline sets out the steps:

1. 1970: Native students petitioned the acting dean of students about the Prince Lightfoot performances, which they called a mockery of Indian religious practices. On November 22, 1970, students protested outside Stanford Stadium at the Big Game with banners reading "Indians are people, not mascots."
2. January 1971: Native students met President Richard Lyman to ask for an end to the performances. The Stanford American Indian Organization, known as SAIO, grew out of this organizing.
3. 1971: SAIO held the first Stanford Powwow, in part to counter the mascot's image. The powwow still takes place every May. See our Stanford Powwow guide.
4. February 1972: 55 Native American students and staff presented a petition to the university ombudsperson, Lois Amsterdam, who passed it to President Lyman.
5. Early March 1972: Lyman removed the Indian as Stanford's mascot for good. News reports of the decision are dated March 3 and 4, 1972. The student senate also voted to abolish the mascot.

The petition said the mascot was stereotypical and offensive. It argued that using a race's name for entertainment showed a lack of understanding. It also asked the university to support its Native American program. Amsterdam's response, as summarized by the cultural center, was that the continued use of the symbol showed a painful lack of sensitivity and awareness, accepted through action or inaction rather than malice.

The Cardinals years, 1972 to 1981

With the Indian gone, the official nickname went back to the color, in the plural: the Cardinals. Stanford Athletics notes that it referred to a school color, not the bird. That ambiguity left the door open for a decade of suggestions. Names floated in the 1970s included the Robber Barons, a sly nod to Leland Stanford's railroad fortune, along with the Sequoias, the Trees, the Railroaders, the Spikes, the Huns and the Griffins. The griffin idea went far enough that two griffin statues were moved near the athletic facilities.

Some people also pushed to bring the Indian back, or to replace the caricature with a more "noble" image. According to the cultural center, the student government voted against both options in December 1975. A wire report from the same month described a student vote favoring "Robber Barons." No new name was adopted.

November 17, 1981: the Cardinal, singular

President Donald Kennedy settled the question. On November 17, 1981, he declared that Stanford's teams be represented by "the color cardinal in its singular form." Since then the teams have been the Cardinal. Stanford Athletics sums it up in one line: "There is no official mascot at Stanford University."

That is also why there is no cardinal bird costume at games. Our Stanford sports and game days page covers how to see the teams.

The Tree

The gap left by an official mascot was filled by the band. In 1975, during the Cardinals years, the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band ran a series of halftime shows that mocked up possible mascots. The Tree drew the biggest reaction and the band kept it. Stanford Athletics is careful to say the Tree "is a member of the Stanford Band" and "has been mistaken as the school's mascot, but it is not."

The Tree is a redwood, modeled on El Palo Alto, the old tree by San Francisquito Creek that appears on the Stanford seal and the athletics logo. Each new Tree is chosen during Tree Week and builds its own costume. That is why the Tree looks different every season. In 2018 Dahkota Brown became the first Native student to serve as the Tree, a milestone the cultural center lists in its timeline. The Stanford Historical Society marked the Tree's 50th year with a talk in October 2026.

After 1972

The mascot did not disappear quietly from campus culture. The cultural center's timeline records several later episodes:

• 1993: a student publication ran a column illustrated with an image resembling the old logo. After months of debate the image was dropped.
• 1996: the Stanford Bookstore removed merchandise with an "Indian motif" after Native students and alumni objected.
• 1997: the Stanford Golf Club pulled 300 shirts that used a Native program's logo without permission.

Supporters of the old mascot have campaigned periodically, often around the Big Game. The cultural center notes that the administration has said repeatedly the issue is not up for a vote.

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