I voted for Robber Barons and it was the winner, but the administration refused to accept it and held another vote with Robber Barons not among the choices. In the second vote, the band was supporting "trees," but the tree vote split between "trees" and "Sequoias" so neither won. At that point the administration decided we would do without an official mascot, which is still the case today I believe: the Cardinal is a color, not a mascot. The band continued with its preferred mascot of the tree. During this period there was some interest in Gryphons, but it disappeared after the Daily published a letter from some small college saying they already had that as their mascot and we shouldn't use it.
addendum: Wikipedia has it right: "The Stanford Tree is the Stanford Band's mascot and the unofficial mascot of Stanford University. Stanford's team name is "Cardinal", referring to the vivid red color (not the common songbird as at several other schools), and the university has never been able to come up with an official mascot."
addendum: Wikipedia has it right: "The Stanford Tree is the Stanford Band's mascot and the unofficial mascot of Stanford University. Stanford's team name is "Cardinal", referring to the vivid red color (not the common songbird as at several other schools), and the university has never been able to come up with an official mascot."