During my four years at Stanford from 1958-62, we were the league doormats for football and basketball. When Cactus Jack Curtice, our football coach, addressed our freshman class on Day One, his story was that he scoured the country, successfully recruited every player that qualified to attend Stanford...and both of them should be sitting with you in the audience. Our baseball team was okay, and I actually earned an athletic jacket for my experience with the team.
One requirement for graduation was to perform a quarter of school service, and I picked helping out our baseball team. This was all menial, like putting up the bases during their practices and the like. One day their scorer was sick, so I volunteered to do that. We won. So I did it again, We won again.
You need to appreciate how baseball works. The coaches and players are notoriously superstitious, and their success just by my keeping score meant that they took me to away games. We did well, and they voted to give me a letterman jacket at the end of the season. Well, this was 60 years ago, and I can't seem to find it today, but it could be because I threw it away, for it was uncomfortable to wear: material was scratchy and the arms were made of leather.
After winning the women’s soccer national championship, Stanford now boasts 114 NCAA titles, yet the football team has never contributed to that tally. Instead, the Cardinal dominate the “Olympic” sports, and the Farm has become the hot destination for the nation’s top athletes. With a combination of academics and athletics, Stanford is truly unlike any other school in the country, resulting in the best overall athletic program annually.
- The first year was won by North Carolina. Stanford came in #2
- Then for the next 25 years Stanford was #1.
- Alas, in the 2019-20 academic year Texas won. Stanford came in at #2.
But this "embarrassment" was at least partially caused by the school last year dropping 11 of its 36 varsity sports. These are the ones that well-represented the school in past Olympics: fencing, field hockey, rowing, sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men's volleyball and wrestling. These 11 sports brought to Stanford all those national championships and Olympic medals. This adjustment affected 240 student athletes and 22 coaches, plus the incoming class. The reason was the pandemic and financial strain faced by the university.
Then in May, Stanford reversed itself and restored those 11 sport programs. The 4000 athletic alumni apparently had clout...plus money. While it's too late to recruit top talent for this incoming freshman class, you can expect Stanford to regain the #1 spot for the Director's Cup, maybe as soon as next year, and certainly by the following one.
In the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, Stanford athletes collected 27 medals. At Tokyo are 61 of them, and some will be representing Israel, Nigeria Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Singapore, Canada, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, St. Vincent/Grenadines, Russia, Venezuela and Greece. I don't know how famous they are in most of the obscure sports, but the biggest name is Katie Ledecky, plus I earlier reported on Veronica Toro Arana. The entire USA contingent in Tokyo numbers 613, representing 169 schools.
I tend to have my best meal of the week for Friday dinner. Yesterday was no exception, featuring two Stanford alumni wines. Here are photos of my lamb chops and hamachi sashimi feast, with red wine, white wine, beer, sake and green tea. The meal was fabulous, with the perfect essence of umami. I started with an indigo martini for my bath after an exercise session in our wellness center. Jalapeno and truffles olives, plus capers. Some of the sake and a good amount of butter went into perfecting the teriyaki sauce.
The color naturally comes from the Empress 1908 Gin.
I should add that the Niigata rice was just cooked, with a dollop of butter on to which I placed some ikura (salmon eggs).
-
Comments
Post a Comment