[gailtate]

Our thanks are getting scattered across several threads and mixed in with some people's parting shots.  But I will repeat my thanks to David Shaw.  Only Walsh really understood the unique Stanford environment as well as Shaw did.  I am thankful for 96 wonderful memories that Shaw bestowed upon me, and especially for the 2 Rose Bowl wins--the only Rose bowl wins in my history of watching Stanford football, which began in 1977. 

For 35 years I watched Stanford football--caring nothing about national rankings but longing for a successful trip to the Rose Bowl.  And he delivered two such victories.  Most of you won't agree with me, but I cannot help the way my heart feels:  there is nothing better in Stanford football than a Rose Bowl victory.  He gave me two of those, and no one else has ever given me one.

Part of my joy during the Shaw era was directly linked to who David Shaw is--a fellow alum who completely understood the Stanford experience and who embraced Stanford's unique athletics situation rather than chaffing under it.  When we were winning and at our best, the high was so much higher than it would have been had I felt we had sold-out our academic and ethical values in order to win.  In fact, it was his and Stanford's example that solely kept me interested in college football, as the sport became (in my own mind) increasingly corrupt and distant from any connection to the underlying educational mission of univerities.  His example convinced me that--at least for a time--it was somehow possible for an elite academic university to field a high level football program without all the hypocrisy, cheating, scandal, corruption, and cheapening of values that has spread like a cancer over much of college football.  

While we are thanking David Shaw for his more successful years as head coach, I think we all ought to thank him for being an important contributor to the Harbaugh years too.  It is ultimately impossible to know his level of influence, but I have to believe that Harbaugh's adjustment to Stanford culture had to be at least partly engineered by the former Stanford football alum on his staff at San Diego.

My future as a college football fan is very uncertain, but here is one thing that is certain:  David Shaw delivered countless hours of enjoyment to me over the years and kept me involved as an admiring fan of our team, the game, and the coach.  I wish him and his family the absolute best.

The Walsh irony: he convinced himself and most other people that the wild success wrought by Harb-Shaw, from 2010-2016 would be impossible for Stanford. A damn shame he couldn't live to see how wrong he was. His prejudice lives on in the hearts of many and it's a needless cloud still with us to this day.

[gailtate]

Our thanks are getting scattered across several threads and mixed in with some people's parting shots.  But I will repeat my thanks to David Shaw.  Only Walsh really understood the unique Stanford environment as well as Shaw did.  I am thankful for 96 wonderful memories that Shaw bestowed upon me, and especially for the 2 Rose Bowl wins--the only Rose bowl wins in my history of watching Stanford football, which began in 1977. 

For 35 years I watched Stanford football--caring nothing about national rankings but longing for a successful trip to the Rose Bowl.  And he delivered two such victories.  Most of you won't agree with me, but I cannot help the way my heart feels:  there is nothing better in Stanford football than a Rose Bowl victory.  He gave me two of those, and no one else has ever given me one.

Part of my joy during the Shaw era was directly linked to who David Shaw is--a fellow alum who completely understood the Stanford experience and who embraced Stanford's unique athletics situation rather than chaffing under it.  When we were winning and at our best, the high was so much higher than it would have been had I felt we had sold-out our academic and ethical values in order to win.  In fact, it was his and Stanford's example that solely kept me interested in college football, as the sport became (in my own mind) increasingly corrupt and distant from any connection to the underlying educational mission of univerities.  His example convinced me that--at least for a time--it was somehow possible for an elite academic university to field a high level football program without all the hypocrisy, cheating, scandal, corruption, and cheapening of values that has spread like a cancer over much of college football.  

While we are thanking David Shaw for his more successful years as head coach, I think we all ought to thank him for being an important contributor to the Harbaugh years too.  It is ultimately impossible to know his level of influence, but I have to believe that Harbaugh's adjustment to Stanford culture had to be at least partly engineered by the former Stanford football alum on his staff at San Diego.

My future as a college football fan is very uncertain, but here is one thing that is certain:  David Shaw delivered countless hours of enjoyment to me over the years and kept me involved as an admiring fan of our team, the game, and the coach.  I wish him and his family the absolute best.

The Walsh irony: he convinced himself and most other people that the wild success wrought by Harb-Shaw, from 2010-2016 would be impossible for Stanford. A damn shame he couldn't live to see how wrong he was. His prejudice lives on in the hearts of many and it's a needless cloud still with us to this day.