The Hall of Fame Room at Stanford University holds vestiges of its athletic history: trophies, faded equipment, newspaper clippings preserved behind glass.
Sitting amid the memorabilia Tuesday, a 73-year-old native Midwesterner wearing a Cardinal red sweat shirt and talking football waxed lyrical about this year's team. In decades of following Stanford, he said, he hasn't seen one quite like it.
"It reminds me of the days when Nebraska was rolling over everybody," said LeRoy Dinges, a Bay Area resident since 1968 and a Stanford docent since 2002. "It's the same kind of feeling, that you know when they get on the field, they're going to win. I never had that feeling at Stanford before."
Certainly not in the past decade at an institution renowned globally for its academic prowess but which hosted a football program that stumbled through seven losing seasons until 2009, including a one-win campaign in 2006.
But such is the extent of Stanford's resurgence. A few years removed from what some fans term the "dark ages," Stanford football is in the national spotlight.
Undefeated through nine games and ranked third in the nation, the Cardinal plays the sixth-ranked University of Oregon tonight in a nationally televised game that will determine whether Stanford remains a contender for the BCS national championship.
For the first time, sports cable network giant ESPN is broadcasting its high-profile "College GameDay" preview show from the Palo Alto campus, where life does not revolve around Saturday kickoffs quite like it does at football havens such as the universities of Texas, Alabama and Tennessee.
About 400 media members are credentialed for the game. Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck is widely considered college football's most recognizable player and a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
Addressing the hype early this week, head football coach David Shaw said that Stanford, with the scope of its pursuits, "does a great job of keeping your perspective."
"Talked to a doctor who's working on campus … on the steps toward curing cancer," Shaw said in his media conference Tuesday. "Stanford vs. Oregon is not high on his list this week."
But the attention reflects the school's sudden return to relevance in the most visible of college sports. Stanford was a 1-11 team in 2006, one year after it lost a game to a UC Davis team still transitioning into Division I-AA from Division II.
After the 2006 season, head coach Walt Harris was replaced by Jim Harbaugh, who assembled a staff that included Shaw as offensive coordinator.
"The culture (of the program) was one that knew how to work, but didn't know how to work really hard – knew how to get close, but didn't know how to win," said Shaw, who became head coach in January when Harbaugh left to become head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
"That's really what we did here. Basically, you make it hard. You make practice hard.
"That first year (2007), we had some guys fall by the wayside," Shaw said. "And then you start recruiting guys that will echo what you believe in because that's the way they live their lives. We don't just recruit athleticism – we recruit toughness and character and work ethic."
In its first season under Harbaugh, Stanford finished 4-8. But by the time the next class arrived in fall 2008, said now-senior safety Delano Howell, "the culture had already drastically changed."
"There was a lot of optimism," said Howell, who is from Newhall. "(Players) had a lot of confidence in what they could do. They just needed somebody to be there who could lead them."
Stanford won five games in 2008, eight games in 2009 and had a breakout season last year, finishing 12-1 and defeating Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Its one loss in 2010 came against Oregon, which went on to play in the BCS National Championship Game.
Stanford hasn't lost since, and its 17-game winning streak is the longest in the nation.
While it's Shaw's team now, many credit Harbaugh with turning the program around. On Oct. 22, a bye week for the 49ers, Harbaugh took the opportunity to watch his former team defeat Washington by 44 points.
"They are just that much better than everyone that they're playing," said Harbaugh, who has turned a once-scuffling 49ers team into a championship contender in his first season. "They're making it look easy."
Not everyone is sold. In Southeastern Conference territory, where teams have won five consecutive national titles, fans look west to Stanford with skepticism, if they look at all, said Richard Condon, a sports-talk radio host at 1210 AM "The Score" in Baton Rouge, La.
"I just don't think there's a whole lot of respect (for Stanford) here," Condon said. "I think people here know that Andrew Luck is special – they appreciate him. I just don't think they appreciate the other 10 guys on the offense and the 11 guys on defense.
"(The attitude is) 'You're going to come to the Superdome and beat LSU? Please.' "
Some people are pulling for a rematch of last week's "Game of the Century" between No. 1 LSU and then-No. 2 Alabama, in the BCS Championship Game. Personally, Condon said, he wants to see Stanford and LSU play in the title game, scheduled for Jan. 9 in New Orleans.
For that to happen, the Cardinal almost certainly must win tonight's Pacific-12 Conference showdown with the Ducks. Brad Moylan, head of the Stanford Axe Committee, the student-run spirit group, called the game "the biggest football-related event in the history of the university."
Not that you'd know it from a casual walk through campus early this week. Spirited signs were nowhere to be found. Students walking past the university bookstore conversed about exams.
Moylan said students were "mobilizing surprisingly well" to crowd the background of the "College GameDay" set this morning, but added, "the broadcast starts at 6 a.m., and that's an issue for a lot of people."
Sitting amid the memorabilia Tuesday, a 73-year-old native Midwesterner wearing a Cardinal red sweat shirt and talking football waxed lyrical about this year's team. In decades of following Stanford, he said, he hasn't seen one quite like it.
"It reminds me of the days when Nebraska was rolling over everybody," said LeRoy Dinges, a Bay Area resident since 1968 and a Stanford docent since 2002. "It's the same kind of feeling, that you know when they get on the field, they're going to win. I never had that feeling at Stanford before."
Certainly not in the past decade at an institution renowned globally for its academic prowess but which hosted a football program that stumbled through seven losing seasons until 2009, including a one-win campaign in 2006.
But such is the extent of Stanford's resurgence. A few years removed from what some fans term the "dark ages," Stanford football is in the national spotlight.
Undefeated through nine games and ranked third in the nation, the Cardinal plays the sixth-ranked University of Oregon tonight in a nationally televised game that will determine whether Stanford remains a contender for the BCS national championship.
For the first time, sports cable network giant ESPN is broadcasting its high-profile "College GameDay" preview show from the Palo Alto campus, where life does not revolve around Saturday kickoffs quite like it does at football havens such as the universities of Texas, Alabama and Tennessee.
About 400 media members are credentialed for the game. Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck is widely considered college football's most recognizable player and a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
Addressing the hype early this week, head football coach David Shaw said that Stanford, with the scope of its pursuits, "does a great job of keeping your perspective."
"Talked to a doctor who's working on campus … on the steps toward curing cancer," Shaw said in his media conference Tuesday. "Stanford vs. Oregon is not high on his list this week."
But the attention reflects the school's sudden return to relevance in the most visible of college sports. Stanford was a 1-11 team in 2006, one year after it lost a game to a UC Davis team still transitioning into Division I-AA from Division II.
After the 2006 season, head coach Walt Harris was replaced by Jim Harbaugh, who assembled a staff that included Shaw as offensive coordinator.
"The culture (of the program) was one that knew how to work, but didn't know how to work really hard – knew how to get close, but didn't know how to win," said Shaw, who became head coach in January when Harbaugh left to become head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
"That's really what we did here. Basically, you make it hard. You make practice hard.
"That first year (2007), we had some guys fall by the wayside," Shaw said. "And then you start recruiting guys that will echo what you believe in because that's the way they live their lives. We don't just recruit athleticism – we recruit toughness and character and work ethic."
In its first season under Harbaugh, Stanford finished 4-8. But by the time the next class arrived in fall 2008, said now-senior safety Delano Howell, "the culture had already drastically changed."
"There was a lot of optimism," said Howell, who is from Newhall. "(Players) had a lot of confidence in what they could do. They just needed somebody to be there who could lead them."
Stanford won five games in 2008, eight games in 2009 and had a breakout season last year, finishing 12-1 and defeating Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Its one loss in 2010 came against Oregon, which went on to play in the BCS National Championship Game.
Stanford hasn't lost since, and its 17-game winning streak is the longest in the nation.
While it's Shaw's team now, many credit Harbaugh with turning the program around. On Oct. 22, a bye week for the 49ers, Harbaugh took the opportunity to watch his former team defeat Washington by 44 points.
"They are just that much better than everyone that they're playing," said Harbaugh, who has turned a once-scuffling 49ers team into a championship contender in his first season. "They're making it look easy."
Not everyone is sold. In Southeastern Conference territory, where teams have won five consecutive national titles, fans look west to Stanford with skepticism, if they look at all, said Richard Condon, a sports-talk radio host at 1210 AM "The Score" in Baton Rouge, La.
"I just don't think there's a whole lot of respect (for Stanford) here," Condon said. "I think people here know that Andrew Luck is special – they appreciate him. I just don't think they appreciate the other 10 guys on the offense and the 11 guys on defense.
"(The attitude is) 'You're going to come to the Superdome and beat LSU? Please.' "
Some people are pulling for a rematch of last week's "Game of the Century" between No. 1 LSU and then-No. 2 Alabama, in the BCS Championship Game. Personally, Condon said, he wants to see Stanford and LSU play in the title game, scheduled for Jan. 9 in New Orleans.
For that to happen, the Cardinal almost certainly must win tonight's Pacific-12 Conference showdown with the Ducks. Brad Moylan, head of the Stanford Axe Committee, the student-run spirit group, called the game "the biggest football-related event in the history of the university."
Not that you'd know it from a casual walk through campus early this week. Spirited signs were nowhere to be found. Students walking past the university bookstore conversed about exams.
Moylan said students were "mobilizing surprisingly well" to crowd the background of the "College GameDay" set this morning, but added, "the broadcast starts at 6 a.m., and that's an issue for a lot of people."
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