<p>For those not really from the Bay Area, this is only a taste of the rivalry between Stanford and Cal. I'm no fan of Stanford but the rivalry is a pretty fun thing. I attend the Big Game every year and even I can admit than Stanford students can be pretty witty at times, although I don't think anything will ever top the Phoenix Five prank a couple years back. That was classic, maybe only topped by the Immortal 21 (I think thats the number)</p>
<p>Woops, I just realized as a Cal fan I am supposed to spell this as Stanfurd. Oh well, too late.</p>
<p>The Immortal 21 was the prank the started it all really. Cal students had originally stolen the Stanford Axe in the 1890s and had been hiding it for many years in bank vaults till a group of Stanford students stole the axe back at which point both schools decided it would become the athletic trophy for the winner of the "Big Game" (which orginally was rugby). I might be confusing this with a different prank but I believe someone ended up staring down the business end of a pistol during the taking of the axe.</p>
<p>The Phoenix Five prank happened about about six years ago when Cal was in the midst of what was to become a seven year losing streak to Stanford (Cal has won the last three, however). A group of Cal fraternity members broke into the band room and stole the Stanford tree during Big Game week when security at both schools is pretty high for pranks. The next day the students released a picture to the press showing the Stanford tree blindfolded holding up the newspaper. Stanford and Cal's chancellors both demanded that the tree be returned in the name of sportsmanship. At this point, the tree released a statement saying that it didnt want to return to Stanford and it was happy at Cal and that students were more intelligent here or something along those lines. This infuriated Cal's chancellor who demanded it be returned or Oski (Cal's mascot) couldn't attend the Big Game. That night in response the tree was interviewed by a local television station at an undisclosed location at midnight. Stanford rebuilt another Stanford tree but only after the tree released another statement saying that Stanford was too sheltered and he now wanted to see the world. I believe pictures came out later of the tree in various locations with the fraternity members. At some point the tree was returned and the Stanford band burned it claiming it had been contaminated. It was called the Phoenix Five because the fraternity members always signed the ransom notes as the Phoenix Five.</p>
<p>The best part of the "Immortal 21" story is the way the Stanford students stole back the axe. They posed as reporters/photographers from the San Francisco Chronicle doing a story on the "Stanford Axe." They greatly overloaded the "flash" from the camera (this was the 1930's), temporarily blinding the Cal students to facilitate their getaway.</p>
<p>The Stanford Axe was originally forged by a Stanford male cheerleader, who was using it at a baseball game in the 1890's to behead an effigy of Oski the Bear.</p>
<p>Axe cheer: "Give 'em the axe, the axe, the axe, right in the neck, the neck, the neck..."</p>