My father Fred and I first stepped foot on "The Farm" (more commonly known as Stanford University) on September 19, 1970 to watch a game between Stanford and San Jose State.
For years already in my young life, my father had been taking me to Arizona State University football games at Sun Devil Stadium, less than five miles from our home in Scottsdale. Shortly after moving from Arizona to Silicon Valley, my Dad managed to get tickets to see my first college football game in California. He thought was an important game for quite a few reasons.
My father was born and raised in Winslow, Arizona, just south of the largest Indian Reservation in the United States. The Navajo Nation Reservation covers more than 27,000 square miles across a Arizona, New Mexico and into Utah. Also not far from Winslow is the Hopi Nation, whose 6,558 square mile reservation lies within the Navajo Reservation.
My father grew up with Native Americans. The Indians and the Hispanics (my father's background) made up more than half of the population of Winslow. Despite their numbers, neither Hispanics nor the Native Americans (or other minorities like Blacks) were allowed to use the public swimming pool, except for one day per week so that the pool could be drained, cleaned, and refilled before the lighter skinned folks of Winslow used the pool again. Really.
My father also spent his youth working at the family's Hubbell Trading Post on the Navajo Reservation. The trading post's founder Don Lorenzo Hubbell was married to Lina Rubi. To my father, local Native Americans were not only his neighbors, but also his friends, and they made a large impact with how he would live his entire life.
Back in 1970, the nickname of the Stanford athletics teams was the "Indians" -- and the quarterback of their team was a Hispanic/Native American named Jim Plunkett. My Father wanted to see the young man play. It represented a serious change from his youth. He and some of his Hispanic and Indian friends were denied the chance for athletic scholarships to college because of their ethnicity. So, it was Army first, and college afterwards due to the GI Bill.
My father was very excited that one of the best football players in the country was the quarterback for Stanford. And Plunkett was an Indian both in heritage and as a Stanford player. My father was very excited to see the game.
Stanford has opened the season as the #10 team in the country. In their first game, they traveled to #4 Arkansas and beat the Razorbacks 34-28. The Indians jumped in the polls that week all the way to #4 for their game against San Jose State. That day, September 19, 1970, Plunkett led the Indians to a 34-3 manhandling of the Spartans.
Those first two weeks of the 1970 season were just the springboard for Plunkett. After his Consensus All-American season, he won the Heisman Trophy and every other award imaginable on his way to being the #1 overall draft pick in the NFL the following year. My Dad was very proud.
Jim Plunkett was the first player I got to watch in person that would go on to win the Heisman. For that, old and huge Stanford Stadium will always hold a place in my heart. But that place is gone now, having been replaced by a newer, shinier and much smaller version in 2005. Stanford is no longer called the Indians. They gave that up in 1972 because some thought it was degrading. And they are no longer called the Cardinals. That stopped in 1981 because they didn't want folks to think they were birds. They have been the Cardinal (as in the color) since that time, represented by a tree for a mascot. Really.
It would have been so nice for the Buffaloes and the Indians to be on the same field once again. And I wish I could go back in time to see more college football games with my father. C'est la vie. Time goes on.
Go Colorado Buffaloes!
Update: Final score, Colorado 10-5 over Stanford.
Showing posts with label San Jose State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Jose State. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2016
Monday, September 16, 2013
29 Teams Colorado COULD Play October 19th to Make Up For Lost Fresno State Game
Massive floodwaters are still raging high in Colorado. Those 100-year floodwaters forced the postponement of the CU game vs. Fresno State this past weekend. Today, new athletic director Rick George looks to find a way to re-schedule Fresno State or find another opponent to come to Boulder on the Buffs' bye week of October 19th.
Colorado faced a very large financial shortfall last year and desperately needs the revenue which would have been brought in had the Fresno State game not been postponed by the natural disaster.
Colorado faced a very large financial shortfall last year and desperately needs the revenue which would have been brought in had the Fresno State game not been postponed by the natural disaster.
Schools which are scheduled for a bye week on October 19th.
Air Force
Alabama-Birmingham
Arkansas State
Boston College
Bowling Green
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Hawaii
Idaho
Kansas State
Kentucky
Louisiana-Monroe
Marshall
Middle Tennessee
Mississippi State
Nebraska
North Carolina State
Penn State
Rutgers
San Diego State
San Jose State
South Carolina
Texas
Texas-El Paso (UTEP)
Texas-San Antonio
Troy
Tulane
Tulsa
Virginia Tech
Since the NCAA generally limits the number of games played to 12 (not counting conference championship games), any team willing to come in would have to get the extra game approved by them.
Historically, however, the NCAA has allowed teams which have played an away game at Hawaii to add an additional game. Both San Jose State and San Diego State play away games at Hawaii this year. That being the case, they would certainly seem to face the least amount of red tape from the NCAA if they would be willing to travel to Boulder.
Both teams already play a Pac-12 team this year. SJS played Stanford in week 2, and SDS plays Oregon State this week. Oregon State is Colorado's next scheduled opponent. Another connection for San Jose State is that Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre is the former head coach for SJS, and the man who rebuilt the program into a top 25 team in 2012.
Historically speaking, the teams from Texas, Nebraska and Kansas State offer the chance to play someone with a conference history with Colorado. The Buffs are scheduled to play Nebraska four times from 2018-24. Each team will have two home games.
Closest at hand would be a game with Air Force. No costly air travel would be required, and it would give the federal government a chance to help out the University of Colorado without writing a check.
Rick George faces an arduous task in getting something done to help Colorado secure another game this year. Here's to hoping the NCAA does its part to smooth the process.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Colorado Buffs Should Look to Stanford for Football Inspiration
Some of the darkest days for fans of the University of Colorado football program have been concentrated in the last several years. Paradoxically, those looking for a new dawn in Boulder might focus their attention West to Palo Alto in California's Bay Area. It is there on the Stanford campus where one might find how quickly a new coach can turn around a moribund program.
The mastermind behind what is now the Stanford juggernaut was current San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh. Following a three year stint at the University of San Diego, Harbaugh was named the head coach at Stanford. The situation in Palo Alto in 2006 was every bit as dire as it was in Boulder in 2012.
The Cardinal finished the 2006 season with a record of 1-11, lowlighted by an offense which scored a grand total of 127 points for the season. How bad is that? By comparison, the CU Buffs scored 214 points in 2012. Two days after the 2006 season ended, head coach Walt Harris was fired, and the Harbaugh revolution was begun.
Following the 1-11 season in 2006, Harbaugh began the arduous task of rebuilding the football culture for the Stanford Cardinal. In 2007, Stanford won four games, in 2008 they won five games, and in 2009 they won eight games to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2001.
By 2010, the rebirth of the Stanford Cardinal football program was complete. Harbaugh led the team to an astonishing record of 12-1 and were ranked #4 in the country following the bowls. It was the first time that Stanford had been ranked in the top five at the end of the season in 70 years.
When Jim Harbaugh was hired at Stanford, one of the more important things he did was to bring along Mike Shaw, the current Cardinal head coach. When Harbaugh moved on to become head coach of the NFL San Francisco 49ers following the 2010 season, Shaw stayed at his alma mater as head coach and has kept the Cardinal rolling with 23 wins out of his 27 games. Stanford has ended the year in the Top 10 both of those seasons.
Like the Cardinal in 2006, the 2012 version of the CU Buffs was arguably the worst in the long and storied history of the program. They not only lost a lot (11 times, versus only victory), but they also lost so ugly that opponents scored more than 40 points 8 times during the season. Four opponents scored at least 50 points, and two rocked the Buffs for 69 and 70, respectively. Following the end of the season, head coach Jon Embree was fired.
Mike MacIntyre was hired in December 2012 as the new head football coach at the University of Colorado. MacIntyre was previously the head coach at San Jose State, where he pulled a very Harbaugh- like reconstruction of the football program. In his three years at SJS, the Spartans went from a single win in 2010 (1-12), to 5-7 in 2011, and then to a stellar 11-2 record in 2012.
Like Harbaugh did at Stanford, MacIntyre took the San Jose State program and changed the culture. He did this by building an excellent staff that was dedicated to working as a team to molding young men into student athletes first and foremost. The excellence they demanded of their players off the field helped turn them into very good football players on the field.
The terms "strength" and "conditioning" are a mantra for all football programs, of course, but MacIntyre took it to a new level by hiring a young man named Dave Forman to be his director of Sports Performance. While at San Jose State, Mac hired Forman away from Stanford, where he had been working as a strength and conditioning coach for three years.
In his time at Stanford and his two years at SJS, Forman turned programs which were routinely pushed around into teams known for their strength, conditioning and performance. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that he will not achieve the same thing in Boulder. Indeed, the altitude at CU will only help CU to become one of the best conditioned programs in the conference and the country.
In the horror of the 2012 football season, it seemed to many Buff fans that the football world had been turned upside down. That being the case, the sun coming up to better times has risen from the West. Stanford and San Jose State are both bastions of the Bay Area's Silicon Vally, and together they helped create the new football technology which will return Colorado to football prominence once again.
Let the MacIntyre revolution at CU begin!
-------------
Check out "A New Dawn for Colorado Buff Football"
The mastermind behind what is now the Stanford juggernaut was current San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh. Following a three year stint at the University of San Diego, Harbaugh was named the head coach at Stanford. The situation in Palo Alto in 2006 was every bit as dire as it was in Boulder in 2012.
The Cardinal finished the 2006 season with a record of 1-11, lowlighted by an offense which scored a grand total of 127 points for the season. How bad is that? By comparison, the CU Buffs scored 214 points in 2012. Two days after the 2006 season ended, head coach Walt Harris was fired, and the Harbaugh revolution was begun.
Following the 1-11 season in 2006, Harbaugh began the arduous task of rebuilding the football culture for the Stanford Cardinal. In 2007, Stanford won four games, in 2008 they won five games, and in 2009 they won eight games to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2001.
By 2010, the rebirth of the Stanford Cardinal football program was complete. Harbaugh led the team to an astonishing record of 12-1 and were ranked #4 in the country following the bowls. It was the first time that Stanford had been ranked in the top five at the end of the season in 70 years.
When Jim Harbaugh was hired at Stanford, one of the more important things he did was to bring along Mike Shaw, the current Cardinal head coach. When Harbaugh moved on to become head coach of the NFL San Francisco 49ers following the 2010 season, Shaw stayed at his alma mater as head coach and has kept the Cardinal rolling with 23 wins out of his 27 games. Stanford has ended the year in the Top 10 both of those seasons.
Like the Cardinal in 2006, the 2012 version of the CU Buffs was arguably the worst in the long and storied history of the program. They not only lost a lot (11 times, versus only victory), but they also lost so ugly that opponents scored more than 40 points 8 times during the season. Four opponents scored at least 50 points, and two rocked the Buffs for 69 and 70, respectively. Following the end of the season, head coach Jon Embree was fired.
Mike MacIntyre was hired in December 2012 as the new head football coach at the University of Colorado. MacIntyre was previously the head coach at San Jose State, where he pulled a very Harbaugh- like reconstruction of the football program. In his three years at SJS, the Spartans went from a single win in 2010 (1-12), to 5-7 in 2011, and then to a stellar 11-2 record in 2012.
Like Harbaugh did at Stanford, MacIntyre took the San Jose State program and changed the culture. He did this by building an excellent staff that was dedicated to working as a team to molding young men into student athletes first and foremost. The excellence they demanded of their players off the field helped turn them into very good football players on the field.
The terms "strength" and "conditioning" are a mantra for all football programs, of course, but MacIntyre took it to a new level by hiring a young man named Dave Forman to be his director of Sports Performance. While at San Jose State, Mac hired Forman away from Stanford, where he had been working as a strength and conditioning coach for three years.
In his time at Stanford and his two years at SJS, Forman turned programs which were routinely pushed around into teams known for their strength, conditioning and performance. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that he will not achieve the same thing in Boulder. Indeed, the altitude at CU will only help CU to become one of the best conditioned programs in the conference and the country.
In the horror of the 2012 football season, it seemed to many Buff fans that the football world had been turned upside down. That being the case, the sun coming up to better times has risen from the West. Stanford and San Jose State are both bastions of the Bay Area's Silicon Vally, and together they helped create the new football technology which will return Colorado to football prominence once again.
Let the MacIntyre revolution at CU begin!
-------------
Check out "A New Dawn for Colorado Buff Football"
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