Why the tree?
This is why Stanford has the tree as its mascot...Until the early 1970's, Stanford was known as the Indians. Then, under the tide of "political correctness", the university decided to change the mascot. The students got to vote on the new mascot, and actually they voted for the "Stanford Robber Barons" in honor of good old Senator Leland Stanford, one of the original land stealers himself!
Leland was part of the "Big Four" that built the trans-America railroad, and made millions of dollars off the labor of migrant Chinese workers, as well as by stealing the land from Native Americans. But of course the university couldn't have that, so we became the Stanford Cardinal-singular, named after the school color, Cardinal Red (like the Harvard Crimson, but much cooler!). The tree is a part of the Stanford seal-it is El Palo Alto, which I
THINK is Spanish for "tall tree". Anyway, that is the name of the city in which Stanford was founded, and the tree is one of the oldest in the state (and it is still standing).
Older alums
HATE the tree, as well as the band (and if you have ever seen the Stanford Band perform, you would understand why!). There is no other band like it in the country- it is known as "the world's largest rock and roll band", and all the other schools in the Pac-10 hate them!
