[UltimateCard]

I have updated my list at the top of this thread.  I couldn't find point spreads for most of the games, so I had to guess based on the rankings. While the 2001 Oregon game might have been a great game, IMO it wasn't as big an upset as those on my list.  Notice that 8 out of 10 were road games.

The spread for the 1979 tie against USC was 22 points. Our freshman dorm road trip to the Coliseum for that game is one of my favorite Stanford memories. Down 21-0 at the half, I remember our group saying "at least we're beating the spread" and "maybe they'll put (our freshman classmate) John Elway into the game." Somehow Turk Schonert got hot, the D stopped eventual H-award winner Charles White and the "student body" sweeps, and Gordie Banks for the second week in a row blocked a FG attempt to preserve the "upset." That result prevented SC from claiming the national championship at season's end. Here's the Sports Illustrated write-up: https://vault.si.com/vault/1979/10/22/the-week.

Going to that game cemented my Stanford football fandom. As a first-gen college student from NYC, my college search process wasn't the most rigorous - the Bill Walsh-coached comeback in the 1978 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (and vague memories of Plunkett-to-Vataha in the 1971 Rose Bowl) led me to believe I would get to enjoy big time college football as a student, especially with Elway in our class. Not a month into my freshman year, I watched Ken Naber kick a 56-yard FG to beat UCLA in front of 70,000 at the old Stanford Stadium and then the following week witnessed the shocking tie against the #1-ranked Trojans (and survived the incessant blaring of "Conquest"). Sadly, those were the highs in an up-and-down season that finished 5-5-1 (foreshadowing my roller coaster ride as a Stanford football fan over the years). We never did go to a bowl game during my student days but those game day experiences were intoxicating. I keep coming back for more.

[UltimateCard]

I have updated my list at the top of this thread.  I couldn't find point spreads for most of the games, so I had to guess based on the rankings. While the 2001 Oregon game might have been a great game, IMO it wasn't as big an upset as those on my list.  Notice that 8 out of 10 were road games.

The spread for the 1979 tie against USC was 22 points. Our freshman dorm road trip to the Coliseum for that game is one of my favorite Stanford memories. Down 21-0 at the half, I remember our group saying "at least we're beating the spread" and "maybe they'll put (our freshman classmate) John Elway into the game." Somehow Turk Schonert got hot, the D stopped eventual H-award winner Charles White and the "student body" sweeps, and Gordie Banks for the second week in a row blocked a FG attempt to preserve the "upset." That result prevented SC from claiming the national championship at season's end. Here's the Sports Illustrated write-up: https://vault.si.com/vault/1979/10/22/the-week.

Going to that game cemented my Stanford football fandom. As a first-gen college student from NYC, my college search process wasn't the most rigorous - the Bill Walsh-coached comeback in the 1978 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (and vague memories of Plunkett-to-Vataha in the 1971 Rose Bowl) led me to believe I would get to enjoy big time college football as a student, especially with Elway in our class. Not a month into my freshman year, I watched Ken Naber kick a 56-yard FG to beat UCLA in front of 70,000 at the old Stanford Stadium and then the following week witnessed the shocking tie against the #1-ranked Trojans (and survived the incessant blaring of "Conquest"). Sadly, those were the highs in an up-and-down season that finished 5-5-1 (foreshadowing my roller coaster ride as a Stanford football fan over the years). We never did go to a bowl game during my student days but those game day experiences were intoxicating. I keep coming back for more.