I’m not much interested in pro football, rooting for one’s town or city doesn’t excite me. I have enjoyed college football, especially the three years I lived in Eugene, OR, and could watch PAC 10 ball for free as a student. However none of those U of O games etched itself into my memory like a game my undergrad alma mater played against Stanford.
My undergrad college was San Jose State, and if you know South Bay geography, Stanford is 20 miles north of the SJSU campus off US101. In those long-ago days Stanford would schedule what amounted to a warm-up game with San Jose, played in their stadium, and normally clobber us.
Stanford was in the PAC 10 and we played as independents. However, during my time at SJS there was one beautiful October afternoon in 1960 when we beat Stanford on their home field, and tore down their goalposts.
I remember vividly a battered and bloody fraternity boy staggering up our side of the bleachers clutching a 4 foot length of broken goalpost to his chest and grinning like a madman. I wonder whatever happened to that trophy? I imagine it ended up mounted over the fireplace in a fraternity house that no longer exists.
What got me thinking about San Jose State football was I looked at a pre-season ranking some college football fan compiled and he ranked SJS 43rd in the nation, higher than Stanford, UCLA and Berkeley. Can this be right? If so, things have sure changed since I was an undergraduate there. Go, Spartans!
