The Stanford Axe
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The Stanford Axe is a trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Big Game between the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. The trophy consists of an axe-head mounted on a plaque along with scores of past Big Games.
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Origins
The Stanford Axe was originally a standard 15-inch lumberman's axe (most likely bought from a Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue). It made its first appearance on April 13, 1899 during a Stanford rally when cheerleaders used it to decapitate a straw man dressed in blue and gold ribbons while chanting the Axe yell:
- Give 'em the axe, the axe, the axe!
- Give 'em the axe, the axe, the axe!
- Give 'em the axe, give 'em the axe, give 'em the axe,
- Where?
- Right in the neck, the neck, the neck!
- Right in the neck, the neck, the neck!
- Right in the neck, right in the neck, right in the neck!
- There!
The Axe made its second appearance two days later on April 15, at a Cal-Stanford baseball game played at 16th Street and Folsom in San Francisco. Led by Billy Erb, the Stanford yell leaders would chop up some blue and gold ribbon and parade the Axe around after every good play by the Stanford team, while shouting the Axe yell. However, Stanford lost the game, and the Stanford yell leaders debated whether or not to dispose of the Axe as bad luck.
As the Stanford students discussed the Axe's fate, a group of Cal students seized and ran off with the Axe. The Axe was passed to student to student, and a chase ensued through the streets of San Francisco, first followed by Stanford students and fans and second followed by the San Francisco police. During the chase, the Axe's handle was sawed off twice to facilitate hiding.
Cal student Clint Miller was the last to handle the Axe, and as he reached the Ferry Building, he noticed the police inspecting the pockets of every boarding male passenger. As luck would have it, Miller encountered an old girlfriend and convinced her to hide the Axe on her person. Posing as a couple, the two successfully took the Axe back to Berkeley.
The Immortal 21
For the next 31 years, the Axe stayed in Berkeley. In 1930, twenty-one Stanford students plotted to take back the Axe from Cal. This group became known in Stanford lore as the Immortal 21.
Cal's protection of the Axe at the time was intense--it was kept in a Berkeley bank vault and only brought out in an armored car for spring baseball and Big Game rallies. The group decided that their best chance would be right after the spring Axe rally, held that year on April 3 at Cal's Greek Theatre.
After the rally, four Stanford students posing as photographers temporarily blinded Norm Horner, the Grand Custodian of the Axe, with camera flashes. In the subsequent scuffle, the Stanford students grabbed the Axe while several others disguised as Cal students tossed a tear gas (or smoke, depending on account) bomb at the Cal students who guarded it. The Axe was taken to three cars which sped off in different directions. Although several of the "thieves" were caught, the Axe made it back to Stanford where it was paraded around the campus.
The Axe as trophy
For three years the Stanford Axe lay in a Palo Alto bank vault while both universities decided what to do with it. In 1933, both sides agreed to designate the Axe as the annual trophy to be awarded to the Big Game's winner, and that in the event of a tie, it would be kept by the side already possessing the Axe.
However, the agreement did not stop students from both schools from stealing (or attempting to steal) the Axe. Since 1933, Cal students stole the Axe three times and Stanford students four times, with the most recent incident in 1973.
As of 2005, California holds the Axe.
External links
- History and Tales of the Stanford Axe (http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~yoda/cal/biggame/axe.html)
- Stanford Axe Committee: History of the Stanford Axe (http://www.stanford.edu/group/axecomm/history.html)
- UC Rally Committee: The Story of the Axe (via The Wayback Machine) (http://web.archive.org/web/20040312064837/http://ucrc.berkeley.edu/Visitor+Pages/axe_story.htm)