The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The program was previously in the Pac-12 Conference. The team is known as the Cardinal, adopted prior to the 1982 season. Stanford was known as the "Cardinal" for its first two decades of athletic competition, then more commonly as the "Cardinals" until 1930. The name was changed to the "Indians" from 1930 to January 1972, and back to the "Cardinals" from 1972 through 1981. A student vote in December 1975 to change the nickname to "Robber Barons" was not approved by administrators.
Stanford has fielded football teams every year since 1892 with a few exceptions. Like a number of other teams from the era concerned with violence in the sport, the school dropped football in favor of rugby from 1906 to 1917. The school also did not field a team in 1918 (due to World War I) or in 1943, 1944, and 1945 (due to World War II).
The school participated in the first-ever Rose Bowl against Michigan in 1902, in which they were routed 49–0. Its annual Big Game against California is the oldest and most storied rivalry in the western United States. The Cardinal also compete for the Legends Trophy against independent rival Notre Dame.
The program has an all-time record of 664–478–49 for a winning percentage of Stanford left the Pac-12 with winning series records against all of its Pac-12 North rivals, except for the Washington Huskies, against whom they are tied 43–43–4.According to the Stanford Football media guide, the all-time series records against the rest of the Pac-12 North are: California, 64–47–11; Oregon, 49–33–1; Oregon State 58–25–3; Washington State 40–29–1. Stanford claimed national championships in 1926 and 1940. In 1926, led by coach Pop Warner, the team was undefeated in the regular season and tied Alabama in the 1927 Rose Bowl. The 1940 team went unbeaten and untied after defeating Nebraska 21–13 in the 1941 Rose Bowl, but the team ranked No. 2 in the final AP poll released before the game was played.
Pop Warner's era predated the AP poll, but Stanford has finished at least one season in the Top 10 in six different decades under seven different coaches: Tiny Thornhill in 1934, Clark Shaughnessy in 1940, Chuck Taylor in 1951, John Ralston in 1970 and 1971, Bill Walsh in 1992, Jim Harbaugh in 2010, and David Shaw in 2011, 2012, and 2015. Shaw, as of the 2025 season, has the most wins of any Stanford coach in history. Stanford's most recent season finish in the top 5 was in 2015 after the No. 5 Cardinal dismantled Big Ten West Division Champion No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes 45–16 in the 2016 Rose Bowl to finish with a record of 12–2 (Stanford's third 12-win season ever, after 2010 and 2012) and a final ranking of No. 3 in the final AP Poll and the final Coaches Poll (Stanford's highest AP Poll ranking since 1940 and its highest Coaches Poll ranking ever).
The Cardinal have played in 30 bowl games in their history, including 17 appearances in bowls now comprising the College Football Playoff, specifically 15 Rose Bowls (the third-most appearances of any team, behind only USC's 33 appearances and Michigan's 22), the 2011 Orange Bowl, and the 2012 Fiesta Bowl.
Quarterback Jim Plunkett is the only Stanford player to win the Heisman Trophy, doing so in 1970. Stanford players have finished second in Heisman voting six times: quarterback John Elway was second to Herschel Walker in 1982; running back Toby Gerhart was second to Mark Ingram II in 2009; quarterback Andrew Luck finished second to Cam Newton in 2010 and to Robert Griffin III in 2011; running back Christian McCaffrey finished second to Derrick Henry in 2015; and running back Bryce Love finished second to Baker Mayfield in 2017.
As of September 10, 2025, 271 former Cardinal have played in an NFL or AFL regular-season game.
History
Early history (1891–1979)
Stanford first fielded a football team in 1891. The team was without a coach and only played a few games. Early football pioneer Walter Camp served as Stanford's head coach in 1892 and from 1894 to 1895. Football on the Pacific Coast had been on the rise since the late 1910s.
Pop Warner era Early in 1922, Pop Warner signed a contract with Stanford University in which he would begin coaching in 1924, after his contract with Pitt expired. Health concerns, a significant pay raise and the rising status of Pacific Coast football made Warner make the big change. Years later, he wrote:I felt my health would be better on the Pacific coast. Weather conditions at Pittsburgh during the football season are rather disagreeable, and much of the late season work had to be done upon a field which was ankle deep in mud. At the close of every season I would be in poor physical condition, twice being rendered incapable of coaching while I recuperated in a hospital. Doctors advised me that the climate of the Pacific coast would be much better for a man of my age and in the work in which I was engaged. In 1924, Warner began his nine-year tenure at Stanford. When he began coaching, Stanford was one of nine teams in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). Warner inherited a notable squad from the previous year, including Ernie Nevers (whom Warner considered his greatest player) and All-American ends Ted Shipkey and Jim Lawson.
A season highlight was the final game against Stanford's arch-rival California at California Memorial Stadium, the last game of the regular season. Before the game, both teams were undefeated and Stanford had not beaten California since 1905. Nevers did not play due to a broken ankle. Late in the game, California was leading 20–3; California coach Andy Smith, sure the game was over, began substituting regular players. Warner seized the opportunity to combine passing with the trick plays for which he was known (a fake reverse and a full spinner), and Stanford made a comeback. The game ended in a 20–20 tie.
Because the game was California's second tie, Stanford was chosen to play in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day against the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish coached by Knute Rockne. Like Warner, Rockne is considered one of the greatest coaches in football history. According to journalist Allison Danzig, "With the exception of Knute Rockne of Notre Dame, Pop Warner was the most publicized coach in football." The game was thus a test of two different and highly influential systems of football: "the Warner system with the wing backs, unbalanced line and gigantic power [and the] Knute Rockne system with its rhythmic, dancing shift, lightning speed, balanced line and finely timed blocking". Notre Dame's backfield was composed of the renowned Four Horsemen. Nevers played all 60 minutes of the game, and rushed for (more yardage than the Four Horsemen combined). Warner's offense moved the ball but was unable to score, and Notre Dame won 27–10.
During the 1925 season, Stanford lost just one PCC game (to Washington); California was finally defeated, 27–7. It was the first year of a new rivalry, with coach Howard Jones and the University of Southern California (USC) team. In their first game, at the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, Stanford scored twice in the first half but had to hold off the charging Trojans in a 13–9 win. Because of the loss to Washington, Warner's team was not invited to the Rose Bowl. Stanford won all its 1926 games, crushing California 41–7 and narrowly defeating USC 13–12. Warner's team was invited to the Rose Bowl to play Alabama. Like the game against the Fighting Irish, Stanford dominated but the result was a 7–7 tie. After the game, both teams were recognized as national champions by a number of publications. The 1927 season was one of underachievement and ultimate success. Stanford lost its third game to non-conference St. Mary's College. Stanford's next loss was against non-conference Santa Clara. The game against USC was a 13–13 tie. However, that year, Stanford defeated California 13–6. The game included a bootleg play, the invention of which some credit to Warner. Powers stated that, Stanford put the game on ice in the fourth period when Pop introduced the bootlegger play, which was to be widely copied and still is in use. On the original bootlegger, Warner made use of Biff Hoffman's tremendous hands. Hoffman would take the pass from center and then fake to another back. Keeping the ball, he would hide it behind him and run as though he had given it to a teammate. Sometimes defensive players would step out of Hoffman's path, thinking he was going to block. Hoffman "bootlegged" for the touchdown against California ... Despite the two losses, Stanford finished the season as PCC co-champion. They were invited to the 1928 Rose Bowl against Pitt, Warner's former team now coached by protégé Jock Sutherland. Warner broke his losing Rose Bowl streak, defeating Sutherland 7–6. The win was Warner's last appearance at the Rose Bowl. The 1929 season is known for Warner's regular use of the hook and lateral, a play that involves a receiver who runs a curl pattern, catches a short pass and immediately laterals the ball to another receiver running a crossing route. According to the October 25, 1929 Stanford Daily, "The trickiness that Pop Warner made famous in his spin plays and passing is very evident ... The frosh have been drilling all week on fast, deceptive forward and lateral pass plays, and together with the reverses will have a widely varied attack". That season brought Warner his second straight loss to Jones, with Stanford defeated by the Trojans 7–0. USC won the conference, and went to the Rose Bowl. Jones went on to win every year thereafter, including 1932, Warner's last season at Stanford. Because of the five consecutive defeats, Warner was severely criticized by Stanford alumni. In all, Warner and Jones played eight games; Jones won five, Warner two and one was a tie. Against Stanford's main rival, California, Warner won five games, tied three and lost one.
After Pop Warner's departure, Claude E. "Tiny" Thornhill was promoted from line coach and named head coach prior to the 1933 season. Players of the Stanford class of 1936 had seen Stanford's 13–0 home loss to rival USC during their freshman season, 1932. This caused quarterback Frank Alustiza to proclaim, "They will never do that to our team. We will never lose to the Trojans." A few minutes later, Bob "Bones" Hamilton said, "Let's make that a vow." and the team became known as the "Vow Boys".
The press reported on the vow, but it was forgotten until the next fall—facing USC during Thornhill's first season, the Stanford varsity was suddenly called upon to make good on it. The team kept its pledge, winning each of their contests over USC: 13–7 in 1933, 16–0 in 1934, and 3–0 in 1935. Four of the Vow Boys — fullback Bobby Grayson, halfback "Bones" Hamilton, end Jim "Monk" Moscrip, and tackle Bob "Horse" Reynolds — were later inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Other notable players whose careers overlapped with the Vow Boys included David Packard (class of 1934), who went on to co-found Hewlett-Packard, and Bill Corbus, a guard and kicker during the 1931–1933 seasons who was also inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.