Why are they called the Stanford Cardinal not cardinals?

Answer 1

From the beginning of the university in 1891 the school color has been cardinal (and from the Forties, cardinal and white). In the early years there was no mascot, and Bay Area sportswriters referred to SU teams as "The Cardinal."

From 1930 to 1972 Stanford adopted "Indians" as its mascot and nickname. There is speculation as to how that came about, but one version is that one sportswriter began referring to the SU teams as "The Tribe" and "Indians" in the Twenties and it stuck even before the university officially adopted it in 1930. In 1972 a group of Native American students backed by the nationwide movement against sports teams using Indians as mascots protested that the use of the Indian mascot was demeaning. After a couple close votes in referendums on the issue, the university dropped the Indian as its mascot. (From 1951 to 1972 the mascot was Timm Williams, a Yurok tribesman, who loved Stanford, traveled from his home in far northern California to represent the university at his own expense, and who always performed authentic dances in authentic costume without engaging in behavior that would bring ridicule to himself, his people, or the university -- from the personal observation and acquaintanceship of this writer.)

During the ensuing ten years a number of elections were held to pick another mascot from among suggestions ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. In 1981 by Fiat, the university president declared that Stanford teams would simply be represented by the color Cardinal as they had been before and during the Indian period.

The dancing tree is not the university mascot. Rather it was initiated as the Stanford Band's parody of the whole mascot-choosing process in the Seventies, but it has now lasted almost as long as the Indian had. The Tree comes from the El Palo Alto tree (California Historical Landmark number 2) which is depicted at the center of the university's seal and which still stands in the City of Palo Alto across from the university campus.

Stanford has never been known as the "Cardinals," and there is no reference to such birds in its history.