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Intercollegiate sports teams of Stanford University
Athletic teams representing Stanford University
The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 NCAA team championships, the most of any university. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 49 consecutive years, starting in 1976–77 and continuing through 2024–25. Through July 2025, Stanford athletes have won 565 individual NCAA titles.[3]
Stanford has won 26 of the 31 NACDA Directors' Cups, awarded annually to the most successful overall college sports program in the nation, including 25 consecutive Cups from 1994–95 through 2018–19. 177 Stanford-affiliated athletes have won a total of 335 Summer Olympic medals (162 gold, 93 silver, 80 bronze), including 39 medals at the 2024 Paris games.[4][5]
A brighter Cardinal red was chosen as Stanford's official color by an assembly of the university's first students in 1891.[1] White was adopted as a secondary color in the 1940s.[1]
Following Stanford's win over California in the first-ever Big Game on March 19, 1892, the team was metonymically referred to as the "Cardinal" by sportswriters in the next day's San Francisco Chronicle.[6] The university's athletic teams continued to be referred to as the "Cardinal" or "Cardinals" even after the adoption of the "Indians" name.[7]
1930 football ticket stub depicting the Stanford Indian mascot
On November 25, 1930, following a unanimous vote by the Executive Committee for the Associated Students, the athletic department adopted the mascot "Indian".[8]
On March 3, 1972,[9] a few months after the football team's second straight win in the Rose Bowl, the Indian symbol and name were dropped by Stanford president Richard Lyman[9] after objections from Native American students and a vote by the student senate.[1][10]
From 1972 to 1981, the official nickname returned to "Cardinals," a reference to the color, not the bird.[1][11] During the 1970s, a number of suggestions were put forth as possible nicknames: Robber Barons (a sly reference to Leland Stanford's history),[11] Sequoias, Trees, Railroaders, Spikes, Huns and Griffins. The last suggestion gained enough momentum to prompt the athletics department to move two griffin statues from the site of the former Stanford Home for Convalescent Children to near the athletic facilities.[1][12]
On November 17, 1981, school president Donald Kennedy declared that the athletic teams be represented by the color cardinal in its singular form.[1]
Stanford has no official mascot, but the Stanford Tree, a member of the Stanford Band wearing a self-designed tree costume, appears at major Stanford sports events. The Tree is based on El Palo Alto, a redwood tree in neighboring Palo Alto that appears in the Stanford seal and athletics logo.
Atlantic Coast Conference's logo in Stanford's colors
Stanford University sponsors 36 varsity sports teams — 15 men's, 19 women's, and two coed sports — competing primarily in the NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), with the primary affiliation recently changed from the Pac-12 Conference.
Among sports not sponsored by the ACC, men's rowing and women's lightweight rowing compete in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association; men's gymnastics, men's volleyball, beach volleyball, and men's and women's water polo all compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF); sailing in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association; squash in the College Squash Association; and artistic swimming under the sport's US governing body of USA Synchro.
In July 2020, due to increased financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford Athletics announced they will be eliminating 11 varsity teams after the conclusion of the 2020–21 academic year: men's and women's fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men's rowing, co-ed and women's sailing, squash, artistic swimming, men's volleyball and wrestling.[13][14][15] These planned cuts were canceled in May 2021.[16][17]
Stanford golfers have won individual golf championships four times. In 1971, Shelley Hamlin won the women's national intercollegiate individual golf championship (an event conducted by the Division of Girls' and Women's Sports, which evolved into the current NCAA women's golf championship). More recently, Stanford golfers won individual NCAA titles three years in a row: Rachel Heck in 2021,[20]Rose Zhang in 2022,[21] and Rose Zhang again in 2023.[22] Zhang is the only woman who has ever won two NCAA individual titles.
Stanford has won the NCAA team championship three times: in 2015,[23] 2022,[21] and 2024.[24] From 2015 to the present, the championship has been determined by match play. Stanford is the only team to reach the match play portion of the championship every year it has been offered.[25]
the ICSA Open Fleet Race Championship in 2023 and 2025
the ICSA Open Team Race Championship in 1997
the ICSA Women's Fleet Race Championship in 2023, 2024, and 2025
the ICSA Women's Team Race Championship in 2024 and 2025
the ICSA Men's Singlehanded Championship in 1963, 2006, and 2022
the ICSA Women's Singlehanded Championship in 2000 and 2018[26][27]
In 2023 and 2025, Stanford Sailing won the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy, which the ICSA awards annually to the best overall college team.[28][26]
In March 2019, John Vandemoer, Stanford University's head sailing coach for 11 years, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering for accepting bribes in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, to hold open admission spots at the university for three applicants falsely portrayed as competitive sailors, in exchange for $770,000 in payments to the sailing program.[29] Unlike others indicted in the scheme, he did not personally benefit financially.[30] The university fired Vandemoer.[29][31] Clinton Hayes was appointed interim head coach.[32]
The Cardinal have appeared in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament 20 times, including in 8 consecutive years from 2013 through 2020. They have seven appearances in the College Cup, winning the national championship in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
The Cardinal softball team has appeared in four Women's College World Series, in 2001, 2004, 2023, and 2024. The Cardinal program was the co-champions of the PAC-10 conference in 2005, which is their only conference championship. The current head softball coach of the Stanford program is Jessica Allister.
The Cardinal have won 20 of the 43 NCAA women's tennis team championships that have taken place, winning in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019.[34][35] Stanford also won the 1978 women's tennis championship, awarded by the AIAW. 2023 was the first year in which Stanford held fewer than half of the NCAA team championships ever awarded.
Stanford tennis players have won the individual singles championship many times:
The Cardinal have won 9 NCAA Women's volleyball national championships: in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2016, 2018 and 2019. Stanford has appeared in 17 championship games, more than any other team. Stanford has qualified for 42 of the 43 NCAA tournaments, missing the postseason only during the COVID-shortened 2020–21 season.[43] Only Penn State has appeared in all 43 tournaments.[44][45][46]
The Cardinal have won 10 NCAA national championships in women's water polo, more than any other university: in 2002, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2025.[47] Stanford is the only program that has participated in every NCAA Championship since the event began in 2001. Stanford has advanced to the title match in 13 of the last 15 championships.[48]
The Stanford wrestling team is coached by Rob Koll, replacing Jason Borelli after he took the head coaching job at American University in 2021. In his 13 years as head coach, Borelli led the Cardinal to 122 dual wins, making him Stanford's winningest coach. The Cardinal wrestlers practice in the Weintz Family Wrestling Room, and compete on campus at Burnham Pavilion, with a capacity of about 1,400.[49]
The Cardinal wrestling team won the Pac-12 championship once, in 2019. They have placed in the top 19 at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships eight times: in 1967 (13th), 2004 (19th), 2008 (19th), 2011 (11th), 2012 (16th), 2016 (19th), 2021 (17th), and 2022 (19th).[50] Stanford has had two individual wrestling national champions in its history: Matt Gentry at 157 pounds in 2004 and Shane Griffith at 165 pounds in 2021.
Stanford's wrestling program was one of the eleven the school planned on eliminating after the 2020–21 season. In response, the team wore solid black singlets without the school logo. Wrestling fans also led a movement to keep the program afloat, before the school ultimately reversed its decision.
Stanford rugby team playing the All Blacks in 1913
Stanford has fielded a college rugby team since 1906, and replaced football entirely until 1917. Stanford achieved one of the most surprising victories of American rugby's early history by beating a touring Australian club team in 1912.[51] Rugby remained a varsity sport at Stanford until 1977.[52] Despite the loss of varsity status, the Stanford Rugby Foundation covers many of the team's expenses from an endowment fund. Rugby is one of the largest sports programs on campus with over 100 players.[52] Stanford Rugby is led by Director of Rugby Matt Sherman, who has served as an assistant coach for the U.S. men's national team.[53]
From 1996 to 1998 Stanford reached the national semifinals in three consecutive years, finishing second in 1998.[54] During the 2010–11 season, Stanford was champion of the Northern California conference, reached the national quarterfinals, and finished the season ranked 4th in D1-AA rugby.[55] Following the 2011–12 season, Stanford were promoted to Division 1-A and played in the California conference, but have since returned to Division 1-AA and now play in the Pacific Western conference. Stanford won the Pacific Western conference in 2014, earning a berth in the D1-AA national playoffs, where they defeated Oregon 24–12 at home in front of a strong crowd,[56] before losing to Arizona 27–24 in the quarterfinals.
Stanford has won 138 NCAA team national championships, the most of any NCAA Division I school.[57][21][58] Stanford has won these NCAA team championships in 20 different sports.
Water polo (10): 2002, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025
† The NCAA started sponsoring the intercollegiate golf championship in 1939, but it retained the titles from the 41 championships previously conferred by the National Intercollegiate Golf Association in its records.
Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 49 consecutive years, starting in 1976–77 and continuing through 2024–25. This is the longest such streak in NCAA history. The second-longest streak ever was 21 years, achieved by USC, which won at least one team championship in an NCAA sport every year from 1959-60 through 1979-80. As of the end of the 2024–25 academic year, the second-longest active streak was seven years, held by North Carolina.[63][64]
The most NCAA team championships Stanford has won in a single year is six in 1996–97 (men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's volleyball) and again in 2018–19 (men's golf and gymnastics and women's volleyball, swimming, tennis and water polo). Stanford has won five NCAA team championships in a year three times (1991–92, 1994–95, and 1997–98). Stanford won three of the seven NCAA team championships awarded in the 2019–20 academic year, when, due to COVID, only the fall sports were contested.
Stanford has won two NCAA team championships in a single day three times: in men's and women's cross-country on November 25, 1996; in men's and women's cross-country on November 24, 2003; and in men's water polo and women's soccer on December 8, 2019.
As of July, 2025, Stanford athletes have won 565 NCAA individual championships and 658 individual championships overall.[3][65][27]
Stanford's 554 individual championships are the most individual championships won by any school in NCAA Division I. No other Division I school is within 100 of Stanford's total.
Stanford won the NACDA Directors' Cup in 25 consecutive academic years, from 1994–95 through 2018–19, and won again in 2022–23. Stanford was the runner-up the other years the Directors'Cup has been awarded: 1993–94, 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2023–24.
The Directors' Cup recognizes the most successful overall sports program in NCAA Division I.[66] It is awarded annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). The Directors' Cup rewards broad-based success in both men's and women's college sports. Points are awarded based on post-season success in NCAA-sponsored sports.[67]
Stanford finished second in the first Directors' Cup competition in 1993–94, behind North Carolina. Stanford won its first Directors' Cup the following year, 1994–95. From 1994–95 through 2018–19, Stanford won 25 Directors' Cups in a row. When the Directors' Cup was next awarded, in 2020–21, Stanford finished second, behind Texas.[68]
Stanford athletes have traditionally been very well represented at the Summer Olympics. 196 Stanford-affiliated athletes have won a total of 335 Summer Olympic medals: 162 gold, 93 silver, 80 bronze. The table below lists the number of medals won by Stanford-affiliated athletes in recent Olympic Games.
Stanford does not compete at the varsity level in any events contested at the Winter Olympics. Stanford students and alums who have won Winter Olympic medals include John Coyle, Eileen Gu, Eric Heiden, Sami Jo Small, and Debi Thomas.
The Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame was established on December 21, 1954. Envisioned by Walt Gamage, sports editor of the now-defunct Palo Alto Times, the first class of inductees consisted of 34 Stanford sports greats. New members are inducted annually and are recognized during halftime of a home Stanford football game. The Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame Room is located on the first floor of the Arrillaga Family Sports Center on the Stanford campus.[73]
^ Written at New York. "Minnesota Gains Favor as A.P. Coaches' Poll Goes On". St. Cloud Times'. Saint cloud, Minnesota. Associated Press. November 15, 1934. Retrieved September 7, 2022. Ranked second by the experts were Stanford's Cardinals with 468 points
^The NCAA started sponsoring the intercollegiate golf championship in 1939, but it retained the titles from the 41 championships previously conferred by the National Intercollegiate Golf Association in its records.
^ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 545. ISBN978-0-345-51392-2.
^Stanford's 1926 football team won the Rissman Trophy as the national champion of one contemporary selector, the Dickinson System, and also was ranked #1 by three retroactive selectors, the Helms Athletic Foundation, the National Championship Foundation, and Jeff Sagarin,
^Stanford's 1940 team was ranked #1 by one contemporary selector, the Poling System, and by two retroactive selectors, Helms Athletic Foundation and Billingsley Report.
