Your go-to guide to Big Game Week traditions

November 12th, 2025| 1 min readAthletics

From a mock “bearial” to hourly train whistle blasts, Stanford’s campus will come alive with tradition as students rally to reclaim the Axe ahead of the 128th standoff against Cal.

It’s coming. The 128th annual Big Game is Saturday, Nov. 22, the next chapter in a storied Bay Area college football rivalry filled with lore, drama, and a perpetual quest for glory. The winner takes home a trophy with its own long history of theft, conspiracy, and tomfoolery – the Stanford Axe.

In 1892, Herbert Hoover – then Stanford student manager of the university’s first football team and later the nation’s 31st president – printed tickets for the first Big Game, which was held at San Francisco’s Haight Street baseball grounds. Nobody remembered to bring a ball to the first game, but a tradition was born, nonetheless. With the exception of four years during WWI and three years during WWII, the game has been held every year since. Locations alternate, with odd-numbered years played at Stanford and even-numbered years played in Berkley.

Big Game has seen many wild moments. The 1924 game had a 20-20 tie that inspired the San Francisco Examiner headlines: “Crowd Held Spellbound by Contest Tense With Fighting and Emotion.” In 1990, Stanford scored twice in the final 12 seconds to pull off a 27-25 upset. And the controversial and bizarre end of the 1982 Big Game has since become known as one of the most iconic plays in U.S. college sports history.

This year, Stanford looks to reclaim The Axe after the Golden Bears have held it for the last four years. A series of longstanding traditions occurs on campus in the week leading up to the historic matchup.

“Big Game Week is truly my favorite week at Stanford, as the growing excitement around our historic rivalry with Cal makes the campus feel alive with tradition, community, and school spirit,” said Committee Chair Faith Riensche, ’25, ’26. “It’s always a joy to see how each club makes Big Game Week their own, although I admit I have an exceptional fondness for the time spent with my fellow Stanford Axe Committee members making memories as we countdown to Cal in White Plaza and hype up the Frosh at the Big Game Rally.”

Here’s what else to know about Big Game Week:

Bearial

The Axe Committee and the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band will “lay to rest” the enemy on the White Memorial Fountain, also known as The Claw, at White Plaza next week, with a stuffed bear standing in as proxy. Come watch the mock funeral procession through campus at noon on Monday, Nov. 17.

Everything red

Cardinal pride will be prominent on campus next week with Hoover Tower lit up with red light and the water in campus fountains dyed red beginning Monday, Nov. 17. The Axe Committee’s “Beat Cal” banner will also be hung from the Old Union Clubhouse.

Axe history

The Stanford Axe debuted at a campus rally in April 1899. Two days later, Cal undergrads seized it after a baseball game, cut off the handle, and scurried back across the Bay with it. Stanford students responded with a midnight raid of the fraternity behind the theft but were unable to recover the Axe, maybe because it had been stashed in a bank vault, where it would remain for more than 30 years.

In 1933, it was negotiated that the axe would be given to each year’s Big Game winner (though in 1973, there was yet another elaborate heist).

The Axe Committee

Established in 1930 with the “Immortal 21” members who recaptured the Axe in an adventure involving flash powder and decoy cars, this student group’s primary responsibility is to guard and care for the Stanford Axe and act as “custodians of Stanford Spirit, Tradition, and Revelry.” In addition to Axe security, the committee attends athletic games and events and can often be found on the sidelines waving flags, tossing T-shirts, and blowing a train whistle each time Stanford scores.

Countdown to Big Game

The Stanford Axe Committee also blows a train whistle 128 times – every hour on the half hour – in the week leading up to Big Game’s 4:30 p.m. kickoff. Join them on Monday, Nov. 17, in White Plaza at 8:30 a.m. for the first blast.

Annual Gaieties

The Ram’s Head Theatrical Society presents the 114th Big Game Gaieties, titled 50 Shades of Grayeties, over three nights, Nov. 19-21, at Stanford Memorial Auditorium. The student-written musical production satirizing the Stanford-Cal rivalry is a Stanford tradition dating back to 1911.

The show’s themes change from year to year, but as one former Gaieties participant shared, certain elements are almost always included: a Cal villain, a Stanford victory, a love story, and a cameo by the president. Students can get tickets here.

Let’s go, Cardinal!

After the opening Gaieties performance on Wednesday, Nov. 19, the Stanford Axe Committee hosts the Big Game Rally in White Plaza, likely around 9:40 p.m. It features a retelling of the history of the Axe and recognizes Stanford senior football players before their last Big Game. The event is open to the public.

On Nov. 19, fans can also cheer on the Stanford women’s volleyball team as they face off center court with Cal for the “Big Spike” at Maples Pavilion. Get tickets here and don’t forget, students enter free!

Writer

Chelcey Adami