Placards on lampposts on El Camino Real in Palo Alto proclaim “Stanford: Home of Champions.” It’s difficult to argue against that statement.
Stanford has won more NCAA team titles — 81 — than any other collegiate institution since 1980. Stanford needs one more NCAA team title to reach 100 in its history. The school has produced 412 individual NCAA champions, the most of any school. Stanford’s athletic strength is its balance. Despite its high-academic admission requirements, it is competitive in most every sport, year in and year out.
Proof is the NACDA Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. The award is given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in athletics. Points for the Directors’ Cup are based on order of finish in various NCAA-sanctioned championships with the winner being awarded a Waterford crystal trophy. After North Carolina won the first Div. I Directors’ Cup in 1993-94, Stanford won the next 15 in a row and awaits words on a likely 16th. The trophies are proudly displayed in the Hall of Fame Room in the Arrillaga Family Sports Center.
“We don’t set out each year to win the Directors’ Cup,” Stanford Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby said. “That’s not our goal. We want to win, don’t get me wrong.”
“It amazes me when I think about it, how successful we have been consistently,” said Mark Marquess, Stanford’s baseball coach for the past 34 seasons and a Stanford alum. “In my sport, maybe you could have a team compete for the Pac-10 and national title every four or five years. We have been able to do that fairly consistently over a great number of years. Football is even more difficult because you need more numbers. They give 20 to 25 new scholarships a year? That’s a lot of guys to get. Basketball? You get the Lopez twins, Brooke and Robin, or you get one big guy, that could make a difference. I could get one or two pitchers, that could make a difference.”
This spring, the Cardinal men’s volleyball team and women’s tennis team won NCAA titles, extending the streak to 34 straight years that Stanford has won at least one NCAA crown. Sophomore Bradley Klahn garnered the NCAA men’s tennis singles title. Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette won the NCAA doubles title in women’s tennis. Carly Janica was the uneven bars winner at the recent NCAA women’s gymnastics championships. A varsity sport, women’s rowing, won the women’s lightweight IRA National Championships Regatta in early June.
The Stanford women’s soccer team went 25-0 as it reached the NCAA title match in College Station, Texas, last December. The Cardinal lost a grueling title match 1-0 to women’s soccer power North Carolina.
Stanford women’s basketball finished No. 2 in the nation, losing to Connecticut 53-47 in the NCAA title game in San Antonio in early April. It was the third straight trip to the Final Four for the Cardinal. Stanford women’s water polo lost 10-9 to USC in the NCAA title match in San Diego in mid-May.
A few sports that Stanford has fared well in the past didn’t have the productive ending that has become the norm. Stanford women’s volleyball, which had reached the NCAA title match the previous three years, bowed out in a regional semifinal at Stanford, despite being the tournament’s No. 4 seed. Stanford men’s water polo — with 10 national titles under its belt — failed to make the Final Four, a rarity. Stanford men’s cross country was ranked No. 1 much of the season, but placed 10th at the NCAA meet. Stanford women’s cross country, which won three straight NCAA titles from 2005 to 2007, was 16th at the NCAA meet.
Stanford got a surprising boost in football, going 8-5 after a trip to the Sun Bowl, the first bowl game appearance since 2001. Bowlsby gave credit to coach Jim Harbaugh, who completed his third season and has the football program on the upswing.
“Jim Harbaugh and his staff are doing a fabulous job,” Bowlsby said. “It’s important we have continuity there.”
“Harbaugh has football on the right track,” said Dick Gould, the school’s director of tennis. “I love his attitude and his style.”
The men’s and women’s tennis teams have a combined 35 national titles between them. Stanford softball coach John Rittman has built a strong program, reaching the Women’s College World Series twice. The Cardinal was eliminated in a regional at Stanford on May 22. Outfielder Jessica Mendoza remains the most prominent softball player to come out of Stanford. First baseman Sarah Beeson and outfielders Catalina Morris and Alissa Haber, infielder Lauren Lappin and pitchers Missy Penna and Dana Sorensen are also part of the elite list.
The women’s cross country team has won five NCAA titles, the Stanford men harriers four. Stanford has produced several great distance runners over the years. Gabe Jennings and Jonathon Riley were part of an elite recruiting class in 1997. Ryan Hall, Ian Dobson, Grant Robison, Brad Hauser and Michael Stember are other premier distance runners to have run for the Cardinal. Hall’s wife, Sara Bei, is part of an elite group of female runners to have toiled at Stanford. Others include Alicia Craig, Ariana Lambie, Julia Stamps, Laura Fleischman, Mary Cobb and Regina Jacobs. The women have won 14 Pac-10 cross country titles, the men 12.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are always among the nation’s best. The men’s gymnastics team finished second at the NCAA championships, a year after winning a fourth NCAA title. Stanford is traditionally strong in men’s golf, baseball, women’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s track and field. And though Stanford women’s rugby has won four national collegiate titles (1999, 2005, 2006 and 2008), rugby is a club sport and does not figure into the Directors’ Cup scoring.
As of June 3, Stanford was in first in the Cup race with 1,395 points. Ohio State was second with 1000.50 points and Virginia in third with 949.50 points. A 16th straight Directors’ Cup could be in the offing.
E-mail John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com
