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12-15-2012, 04:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-15-2012, 05:28 PM by
terry.)
The Council of Chiefs goes back many years. For a long time, it was a 7 am breakfast meeting in Palo Alto on the Friday before each home game. Bob Murphy was the moderator and the attendees were mostly men in their 70s and 80s who seemed to have known each other for a long time. Very clubby. Around the time of Murphy's retirement, the meetings were moved on to campus. A couple of years ago, the meetings were switched to lunch instead of breakfast. The "Chiefs" part of the name was dropped about two years ago. I think there are probably 60 to 80 people at most of these meetings, but that's just a guess. The attendees include more people under 70 and more women than in the Bob Murphy days, but it's still a mostly older, mostly male group.
The format of the Council meetings is pretty much the same as it was in the Bob Murphy days, except there are no long, rambling digressions about people Murphy knew and things Murphy did a long time ago. The meetings still are held on the day before each home game. Council meetings include lunch (the lunch costs about $15 or so each week, I think) and then a short program (maybe half an hour or 45 minutes). The program usually includes a short highlight video of the previous game, several interviews, and a raffle at which Stanford gear is given to the winners. Todd Husak does the interviews, which are the heart of the meeting. He usually interviews 2 or 3 players and one assistant coach. Under Harbaugh, the players who were chosen to attend were mostly players who were injured or redshirting. Under Shaw, we see a variety of players. After each interview, there's an opportunity for those in attendance to pose questions to the player or coach in question.
The guy in charge of the Council is Ron Lynn in the football office. You can send him an email at rwlynn@stanford.edu and ask him to put you on the Council email distribution list for next season.
