[terry]

It appears that 1918 wasn't a good year, with Stanford going 0-4 and being out scored 8-242. I assume our guys were all still off serving as doughboys.

There's a story behind that 1918 season.

Stanford dropped football after the 1905 season due to safety concerns. Stanford replaced football with rugby from 1906 through 1917.

Several other schools also switched to rugby. However, the move to rugby didn't catch on. By 1914 or so, the schools that had dropped football, including C.al, began to bring football back. Stanford, however, stuck with rugby.

The U.S. entered World War I in 1917. The Army set up a program called the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) to train students as soldiers, similar to ROTC.

In 1918, Stanford was a training center for the SATC. The Army ran its own physical training program for the SATC trainees. As part of that program, the Army commander on site (who was a C.al grad) put together an SATC football team. It was made up of SATC trainees, some of whom were not Stanford students.

Stanford's administration did not want to bring football back to campus. The administration suspected, probably correctly, that the SATC football program was an effort to bring football back to Stanford through the back door. But the administration didn't control the SATC program and could not prevent it from fielding a football team. Nevertheless, the administration insisted that the SATC football team was not an official university team, but instead was an SATC team. The SATC commander agreed.

So, the 1918 SATC football season is considered unofficial and is not part of Stanford's all-time records.

The unofficial return of football to Stanford's campus in 1918 proved to be popular. Stanford decided to bring back football in 1919.

[terry]

It appears that 1918 wasn't a good year, with Stanford going 0-4 and being out scored 8-242. I assume our guys were all still off serving as doughboys.

There's a story behind that 1918 season.

Stanford dropped football after the 1905 season due to safety concerns. Stanford replaced football with rugby from 1906 through 1917.

Several other schools also switched to rugby. However, the move to rugby didn't catch on. By 1914 or so, the schools that had dropped football, including C.al, began to bring football back. Stanford, however, stuck with rugby.

The U.S. entered World War I in 1917. The Army set up a program called the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) to train students as soldiers, similar to ROTC.

In 1918, Stanford was a training center for the SATC. The Army ran its own physical training program for the SATC trainees. As part of that program, the Army commander on site (who was a C.al grad) put together an SATC football team. It was made up of SATC trainees, some of whom were not Stanford students.

Stanford's administration did not want to bring football back to campus. The administration suspected, probably correctly, that the SATC football program was an effort to bring football back to Stanford through the back door. But the administration didn't control the SATC program and could not prevent it from fielding a football team. Nevertheless, the administration insisted that the SATC football team was not an official university team, but instead was an SATC team. The SATC commander agreed.

So, the 1918 SATC football season is considered unofficial and is not part of Stanford's all-time records.

The unofficial return of football to Stanford's campus in 1918 proved to be popular. Stanford decided to bring back football in 1919.