In 1926, led by coach Pop Warner, the team was undefeated in the regular season and tied Alabama in the 1927 Rose Bowl.

Pop Warner's era predated the AP poll, but Stanford has finished at least one season in the Top 10 in six different decades under seven different coaches: Tiny Thornhill in 1934, Clark Shaughnessy in 1940, Chuck Taylor in 1951, John Ralston in 1970 and 1971, Bill Walsh in 1992, Jim Harbaugh in 2010, and David Shaw in 2011, 2012, and 2015.

[12] Health concerns, a significant pay raise and the rising status of Pacific Coast football made Warner make the big change.

[18] Warner seized the opportunity to combine passing with the trick plays for which he was known (a fake reverse and a full spinner), and Stanford made a comeback.

[18] Because the game was California's second tie, Stanford was chosen to play in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day against the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish coached by Knute Rockne.

According to journalist Allison Danzig, "With the exception of Knute Rockne of Notre Dame, Pop Warner was the most publicized coach in football.

[n 6] In their first game, at the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, Stanford scored twice in the first half but had to hold off the charging Trojans in a 13–9 win.

Powers stated that, Stanford put the game on ice in the fourth period when Pop introduced the bootlegger play, which was to be widely copied and still is in use.

[35] According to the October 25, 1929 Stanford Daily, "The trickiness that Pop Warner made famous in his spin plays and passing is very evident ...

The frosh have been drilling all week on fast, deceptive forward and lateral pass plays, and together with the reverses will have a widely varied attack".

[41] The press reported on the vow, but it was forgotten until the next fall—facing USC during Thornhill's first season, the Stanford varsity was suddenly called upon to make good on it.

Four of the Vow Boys — fullback Bobby Grayson,[42] halfback "Bones" Hamilton,[40] end Jim "Monk" Moscrip,[43] and tackle Bob "Horse" Reynolds[44] — were later inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Other notable players whose careers overlapped with the Vow Boys included David Packard (class of 1934), who went on to co-found Hewlett-Packard,[45] and Bill Corbus, a guard and kicker during the 1931–1933 seasons who was also inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Plunkett and a stout defense led the team to a 9–3 record in 1970, an effort which resulted in a Rose Bowl victory, the program's 4th.

Ralston left Stanford following the 1971 season to take his talents to the NFL, accepting the position of head coach for the Denver Broncos.

One day prior to the final game of the 1976 season, Stanford announced that it was terminating Christiansen as its head coach.

His notable players at Stanford included quarterbacks Guy Benjamin and Steve Dils, wide receivers James Lofton and Ken Margerum, linebacker Gordy Ceresino, in addition to running back Darrin Nelson.

New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Paul Wiggin was hired as head coach at his alma mater on February 1, 1980.

Wiggin's efforts to reach a bowl game had come agonizingly close in 1982, when his team fell victim to what simply became known as The Play on November 20.

[63] Bill Walsh returned to Stanford as head coach in 1992, leading the Cardinal to a 10–3 record and a Pacific-10 Conference co-championship.

Stanford finished the season with an upset victory over Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl on January 1, 1993 and a # 9 ranking in the final AP Poll.

[73] Harris was notorious for the extremely rare and bizarre decision to punt on 3rd down while trailing UCLA 7–0 on October 1, 2006, during his second season.

[75] Jim Harbaugh was named the head football coach at Stanford University in December 2006, replacing Walt Harris.

[77] Harbaugh stirred some intra-conference controversy in March 2007, when he was quoted as saying rival USC head coach "Pete Carroll's only got one more year, though.

In January 2009, Harbaugh was confirmed to have been interviewed by the New York Jets for the head coach position,[84] although the job was eventually offered to Rex Ryan.

[92] In 2017, Shaw once again led Stanford to a Pac-12 Championship appearance with Heisman runner up Bryce Love only to lose to rival USC.

After staging a 29 point comeback against Deion Sanders' led Colorado, the fourth biggest comeback in Pac-12 history, the Cardinal proceeded to lose all but one of its remaining games, beating Washington State and losing to UCLA, Washington, Oregon State, Cal, and Notre Dame.

The most famous moment of the rivalry occurred in the 1982 Big Game, when Cal used a series of laterals to defeat Stanford 25–20 as time expired.

The rivalry was named after Bill Walsh, who was a SJSU alumnus and positively contributed to Stanford Cardinal football through head coaching, notably the win against No.

Stanford was a 41-point underdog prior to the game, and many observers have called it the greatest upset in college football history.