What Kind of Tree Is the Stanford Tree Mascot?

The Stanford University's tree mascot is an El Palo Alto redwood tree, which is indigenous to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Stanford is located. But there is more that needs to be known about Stanford's mascot.

  1. The Indian

    • Stanford University was a gift to California students from Leland Stanford, who attained great wealth by building railroads during California's gold rush heyday. The Stanford's only son died in 1884, after which they decided to "adopt" California's children and provide them with a university. The university opened in 1891, but it was not until 1930 that Stanford officially adopted a school mascot. The facts are sketchy as to why, but an Indian had been the unofficial mascot for many years until a vote on November 25 made it official.

    The Native American Uprising

    • The Stanford Indian was a popular and often caricatured mascot for many years. Sports media often used an Indian-hunting-bears theme when writing about football games between Stanford and its Bay Area rival, the University of California at Berkeley, better known as the Cal Bears. In 1972 all that ended when a group of Native American students convinced Stanford's administration that the Indian mascot was politically incorrect.

    Pulse of Life as Mascot

    • Stanford was without an official mascot until 1981, when the administration decided that the team nickname, Cardinals, would also become the mascot, but as the color, not the bird. It was then-President Donald Kennedy's vision that 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." Cardinal red was adopted as the mascot and remains so, today. Cardinal red and white are the school's official colors.

    The Tree Mascot

    • Stanford's redwood tree is actually a mascot for the school's marching band. It is meant to represent an El Palo Alto redwood tree that is still alive today on the bank of the San Francisquito Creek, where early settlers, including the Stanfords, camped in what is now the city of Palo Alto. The tree is also the logo for the city of Palo Alto.