The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference's North Division. Stanford, the top-ranked academic institution with an FBS program, has a highly successful football tradition. The team is known as the Cardinal, referring to the color, not the bird. The team was known as the Indians from 1930 to 1972 and the Cardinals (also referring to the color) from 1972 to 1981.
Stanford began playing football in 1892, and participated in the first ever Rose Bowl againstMichigan in 1902. Its annual Big Game against California is the oldest and most storied rivalry in the Pac-12 and 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 672–453–52 for a winning percentage of .593 and has winning series records against all of its Pac-12 North rivals, except for the Washington Huskies, against whom they are 38–40–4. Led by legendary coach Glenn "Pop" Warner, who still has the most wins in Cardinal history, Stanford claimed a National Championship in 1926. The 1940 team went unbeaten and untied after defeating Nebraska 21–13 in the 1941 Rose Bowl, but the team ranked #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, including Claude E. Thornhill in 1934, Clark Shaughnessy in 1940, Chuck Taylor in 1951, John Ralston in 1970 and 1971, Bill Walsh in 1992, and Jim Harbaugh in 2010. Stanford's most recent season finish in the top 5 was in 2010 after the #5 Cardinal dismantled ACC Champion Virginia Tech 40–12 in the 2011 Orange Bowl to finish with a school record 12 wins and 1 loss. Stanford finished #4 in both the AP and Coaches polls.
Quarterback Jim Plunkett is the only Stanford player to win the Heisman Trophy, doing so in 1970. Three Stanford players have finished second in Heisman voting: quarterback John Elway was second to Herschel Walker in 1982; running back Toby Gerhart was second toMark Ingram in 2009; and Andrew Luck finished second in Heisman voting to Cam Newton in 2010. The Cardinal have played in 22 bowl games in their history, including 13 appearances in bowls now comprising the Bowl Championship Series, specifically one in the Orange Bowl and twelve in the Rose Bowl.