The Winding Tale of Stanford's Mascots: From Indians to the Unofficial Tree
Stanford University, a name synonymous with academic excellence and athletic prowess, boasts a unique approach to school spirit. While many universities rally behind fierce animals or mythological figures, Stanford's athletic teams, known as the Cardinal, march to the beat of their own drum. Technically, Stanford doesn't have an official mascot. However, the Stanford Tree, a whimsical creation of the Stanford Band, has become a beloved and recognizable symbol of the university. The Stanford Tree is the Stanford Band's mascot and the unofficial mascot of Stanford University. Stanford's team name is "Cardinal", referring to the vivid Stanford Cardinal Red color (not the common songbird as at several other schools), and the university does not have an official mascot. This article delves into the history of Stanford's mascots, exploring the transition from the controversial "Indian" to the beloved, albeit unofficial, Tree.
The "Indian" Mascot Era: A Contentious Past
From 1930 until 1972, Stanford's sports teams were known as the Indians. The Indian had long been considered the symbol of Stanford before the official vote, although its origins are only speculation. For years prior, the Indian had been part of the Stanford athletic tradition. Perhaps it grew out of the fact that Cal’s symbol was the Bear, or it may have come from the large Indian population of the area, or from Indian paraphernalia in abundance in the late 1800’s. Whatever the origin, it was accepted by sportswriters and gradually gained wide recognition.
Stanford officially adopted the Indian nickname on Nov. 25, 1930 after a unanimous vote by the Executive Committee for the Associated Students. The resolution that was passed read: "Whereas the Indian has long been unofficially recognized as the symbol of Stanford and its spirit, and whereas there has never been any official designation of a Stanford symbol, be it hereby resolved that the Executive Committee adopt the Indian as the symbol of Stanford."
During the period from 1951 to 1972, Prince Lightfoot (portrayed by Timm Williams, a member of the Yurok tribe) was the official mascot. However, this representation eventually came under scrutiny.
The use of Native American imagery as mascots has been a long-debated topic, with many viewing it as disrespectful and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Though a significant moment in football history, the NFL is not the only organization that has been found guilty of perpetrating a stereotypical and racist representation of a Native American. The Arkansas State Red Wolves used to be known as the “Indians” until 2008. Following the announcement of the name change, Vincent Schilling, a Native American journalist, tweeted the lyrics to the Washington Football Team’s 1972 team chant. Academic studies have also been conducted analyzing the impact of names such as the R-word. They found that “American Indian mascot representations are not always regarded as negative. Currently, close to 6,000 people have signed an online petition arguing for the preservation of the former name of Washington’s football team. A poll by the Morning Consult shows that 49% of adults surveyed think that the name should be kept, with millennials trailing at 47%.
Read also: Evolution of the Oregon Mascot
In 1972, Native American students and staff members successfully lobbied University President Richard Lyman to abolish the "Indian" name along with what they had come to perceive as an offensive and demeaning mascot. The 55 students, supported by the other 358 American Indians enrolled in California colleges, felt the mascot was an insult to their culture and heritage. As a result of these talks and the ensuing publicity, the Stanford Student Senate voted 18-4 to drop the Indian symbol, and Lyman agreed.
Dartmouth, St. “We Native Americans at Dartmouth unequivocally declare that the ‘Indian symbol’ is a mythical creation of non-Indian culture and in no manner reflects the basic philosophies of Native American peoples,” Dartmouth students wrote in a letter to the University in an effort to change their former mascot. After the discontinuance of the stereotypical Native American mascot, there were unsuccessful campaigns to reinstate it, or to replace the big-nosed caricature with a more “noble” image of a Native American.
The Mascot Void and the Rise of the Cardinal
From 1972 until 1981, Stanford’s official nickname was the Cardinal, in reference to one of the school colors, not the bird. This decision left Stanford without a traditional mascot, and the school eventually settled on “Cardinal” as its team name. Stanford was known as the "Indians" from 1930-72. As for the mascot, Stanford does not officially have one.
However, the Stanford Band had other ideas. The team is pretty much known for its humor and antics; the Band created its own unofficial mascot: the Tree. During this time, there was debate among students and administrators concerning what the mascot and team name should be. A 1972 student referendum on the issue was in favor of restoring the Indian, while a second 1975 referendum was against.
There was a move to reinstate the Indian as the school mascot in 1975. The debate was put to vote along with new suggestions: Robber Barons, Sequoias, Trees, Cardinals, Railroaders, Spikes, and Huns. None of the suggestions were accepted. In a special student referendum in 1975, "Robber Barons" secured the most first and second place votes (1,664), beating out Sequoias (1,598), Trees (1,530), and Cardinals (1309). The administration was not pleased with the choice, and refused to recognize Robber Barons as Stanford's mascot. "I guess would be surprised if there were no university displeasure with Robber Barons," Robert Rosenz-Weig, the university's VP for public affairs, told The Stanford Daily in 1975. Translation: We're mad.
Read also: Bellevue College Mascot
Stanford's administration was upset because Robber Barons was a not-so-subtle dig at the university's founding father, Leland Stanford. Stanford, who made a fortune from railroads during the mid 1800s, fell under the umbrella of a "Robber Baron," a negative term for the powerful industrialists of the Gilded Age. They also did things like found Stanford University, which Leland Stanford did with $20 million in 1891 (about $500 million today). He also served as the governor of California and a US senator. Other Robber Barons included the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. At the time of the student vote, it was the 70s, it was California, and Stanford students were down to poke a little fun at their own history. The administration was not.
In 1978, another group comprised of 225 varsity athletes from 18 teams, started a petition for the mascot to be the griffin - a mythological animal with the body and hind legs of a lion and head and wings of an eagle. The University moved two griffin statues from the Children’s Hospital to a grassy area between Encina Gym and Angel Field. The campaign for the Griffins failed.
The Stanford Tree: An Unofficial Icon is Born
Somewhere amid all the debate about what the mascot should be - Wikipedia places it in 1975 - the band “performed a series of halftime shows that facetiously suggested several other new mascot candidates it considered particularly appropriate for Stanford, including the Steaming Manhole, the French Fry, and the Tree. The original Tree costume was conceived and constructed by Christine Hutson. When she left Stanford, she passed along the costume and the role of the Tree to a conga drum player in the band, Robert David Siegel. Since the mid-1970s, the Tree has taken center stage at games.
The Tree is a reference to El Palo Alto. It is a redwood tree that appears on both the university’s official seal and the city of Palo Alto’s logo. Trees are an important icon in Palo Alto, CA, where Stanford is located. A coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) appears on the municipal seal of the city, and there is also one on the official seal of Stanford University. Since Stanford University and Palo Alto are almost inextricably intertwined in interests and location, it is a natural outgrowth of this relationship. The tree still exists and stands by the railroad bridge beside San Francisquito Creek - it is the site where early explorers first camped when settling the area.
Called - appropriately - the Stanford Tree, it is the official mascot of the band and the unofficial mascot of the university. Stanford’s team name is “The Cardinal,” as in the color (not the bird).
Read also: History of Liberty's Flames
The Evolution of the Tree: Design and Antics
Over the years, it has undergone numerous design changes. This has often reflected the personality of the student inside. Each year, a new student earns the right to don the costume. For the last twenty years, there has been a fairly formal selection process for the student who gets to play the tree. And, to be fair, the Tree does have greater responsibilities than your average mascot, at least in terms of creative initiative. The mascot’s costume is created anew, each year, but the incumbent Tree. The Tree's costume, which is created anew each year by the incumbent Tree, is a prominent target for pranksters from rival schools, in particular from Stanford's Bay Area nemesis, the University of California, Berkeley (Cal).
Some Trees have sported oversized googly eyes, mismatched branches, or even giant sunglasses. This system has led to some legendary Trees. Some have been arrested at games for excessive antics, while others have made national headlines for their outrageous behavior.
Due to the heightened visibility of the Stanford Tree, physical altercations with Cal students became commonplace and part of the assignment. At the annual Battle of the Bands at University of California, Davis, Kelly left the Tree costume on the bus after a long day in the sun and Cal students broke into the bus and stole the costume. A week later the band received a ransom note offering the Tree in exchange for Oski the Bear (which had been stolen from the UCB Student Union the previous year). The band did not think much of the trade and a tradition of making a new costume was begun. Every year since then, the band and their many admirers now expect the Tree to be reinvented every fall.
With more exposure, the decision about who would become Tree became more rigorous and the band had to adopt a more formal selection process. Today's Tree candidate must go through "grueling and humiliating physical and mental challenges" to demonstrate sufficient chutzpah to be the Tree.
The tendency for the Tree to come to harm at the hands of Cal fans was showcased in the run-up to the 1998 Big Game. In 1996 two Cal students emerged shirtless from the stands at Memorial Stadium at the Big Game during halftime and tackled the tree, breaking branches and eliciting cheers from the Cal alumni prior to being handcuffed and led away. The most recent theft of the Tree was during the 2012 basketball game against Cal, when a member of the Cal band entered LSJUMB's bus and removed the mascot. Violence and absurd levels of prankery have been a two-way street between Cal and Stanford. A few years earlier, during an ESPN-televised timeout during a February 1995 basketball game at Maples Pavilion, the Stanford Tree and Cal's mascot Oski got into a fistfight in front of the Stanford student section.
A spate of troubles brought the Tree even more notoriety in college sports circles. In February 2006, then-Tree Erin Lashnits was suspended until the end of her term as the Tree after her blood-alcohol level was found to be 0.157 (almost twice the legal driving limit in California) during a men's basketball game between Stanford and Cal. In August 2006, the NCAA fined Stanford University for what it termed "multiple violations of tournament policies" after an on-court altercation involving Tree mascot Tommy Leep and tournament officials as the Stanford women's basketball team participated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Denver.
The Tree was also featured in a few ESPN "This is SportsCenter" commercials. One example was when Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward was talking about how baseball bats were made when the Tree, in the background, fell over. Another example was when golfer Bubba Watson and his caddie were "playing through" the Tree, which was referred to as an obstacle.
The Cardinal: More Than Just a Color
From 1972 until November 17, 1981, Stanford’s official nickname was Cardinals, in reference to one of the school colors, not the bird. Nine years after the Indian was dropped, Stanford had still not decided on a new mascot. President Donald Kennedy declared in 1981 that all Stanford athletic teams will be represented and symbolized exclusively by the color cardinal. "While various other mascots have been suggested and then allowed to wither, the color has continued to serve us well, as it has for 90 years. It is a rich and vivid metaphor for the very pulse of life."
When Stanford first accepted students in 1891, the student body actually voted for gold as the school’s official color, but another student assembly chose Cardinal as the school color. A few days after the vote, local sportswriters picked up the "Cardinal" theme after Stanford defeated Cal in the first Big Game (March 19, 1892). The headlines read, "Cardinal Triumphs O’er Blue and Gold."
Cardinal remained the school color until the 1940’s, when rules committees and conferences started regulating jersey colors for home and visiting football teams. Stanford’s Board of Athletic Control adopted white as the second color. Today, Stanford’s official school colors are cardinal and white.
Stanford's Athletic Achievements: A Legacy of Excellence
The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 NCAA team championships, the most of any university. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 49 consecutive years, starting in 1976-77 and continuing through 2024-25. This is the longest such streak in NCAA history. The second-longest streak ever was 21 years, achieved by USC, which won at least one team championship in an NCAA sport every year from 1959-60 through 1979-80. The most NCAA team championships Stanford has won in a single year is six in 1996-97 (men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's volleyball) and again in 2018-19 (men's golf and gymnastics and women's volleyball, swimming, tennis and water polo). Stanford has won five NCAA team championships in a year three times (1991-92, 1994-95, and 1997-98). Stanford's 554 individual championships are the most individual championships won by any school in NCAA Division I.
Stanford has won 26 of the 31 NACDA Directors' Cups, awarded annually to the most successful overall college sports program in the nation, including 25 consecutive Cups from 1994-95 through 2018-19. The Directors' Cup rewards broad-based success in both men's and women's college sports. Stanford finished second in the first Directors' Cup competition in 1993-94, behind North Carolina. Stanford won its first Directors' Cup the following year, 1994-95. From 1994-95 through 2018-19, Stanford won 25 Directors' Cups in a row.
Here's a glimpse into the success of some of Stanford's athletic programs:
- Baseball: The Cardinal have appeared in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament 35 times, and have appeared in the College World Series 19 times.
- Men's Golf: The men's golf team has won nine NCAA Championships: 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942 (co-champions), 1946, 1953, 1994, 2007, 2019. They have crowned three individual national champions: Sandy Tatum (1942), Tiger Woods (1996), and Cameron Wilson (2014).
- Women's Golf: Stanford has won the NCAA team championship three times: in 2015, 2022, and 2024. In 1971, Shelley Hamlin won the women's national intercollegiate individual golf championship.
- Sailing: In 2023 and 2025, Stanford Sailing won the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy. Stanford Sailing won Women's Fleet Race, 2023-2025; Women's Team Race, 2024 and 2025.
- Men's Soccer: The Cardinal have appeared in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament 20 times, including in 8 consecutive years from 2013 through 2020.
- Softball: The Cardinal softball team has appeared in four Women's College World Series, in 2001, 2004, 2023, and 2024.
- Women's Tennis: The Cardinal have won 20 of the 43 NCAA women's tennis team championships that have taken place, winning in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019. Stanford also won the 1978 women's tennis championship, awarded by the AIAW.
- Men's Volleyball: The Cardinal have won national volleyball title in 1997 and 2010.
- Women's Volleyball: The Cardinal have won 9 NCAA Women's volleyball national championships: in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
- Women's Water Polo: The Cardinal have won 10 NCAA national championships in women's water polo, more than any other university: in 2002, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2025.
- Wrestling: The Cardinal wrestling team won the Pac-12 championship once, in 2019.
- Rugby: Stanford achieved one of the most surprising victories of American rugby's early history by beating a touring Australian club team in 1912.
Stanford athletes have traditionally been very well represented at the Summer Olympics. 196 Stanford-affiliated athletes have won a total of 335 Summer Olympic medals: 162 gold, 93 silver, 80 bronze. Stanford does not compete at the varsity level in any events contested at the Winter Olympics.
The Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame was established on December 21, 1954. New members are inducted annually and are recognized during halftime of a home Stanford football game.
tags: #Stanford #University #mascot #history
