The 1950 Stanford Indians football team represented Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in the 1950 college football season

1950 college football season

The 1950 college football season finished with the unbeaten and untied Oklahoma Sooners being the overwhelming choice for national champion. On New Year’s Day, the 9-0-0 Sooners were upset by the 10-1-0 Kentucky Wildcats in the Sugar Bowl. The #2 team, the United States Military Academy had been...

. Stanford was led by sixth-year head coach Marchmont Schwartz

Marchmont Schwartz

-External links:...

. The team were members of the Pacific Coast Conference

Pacific Coast Conference

The Pacific Coast Conference was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pacific-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, the older league had a completely different charter and was disbanded in 1959 due to a major crisis...

 and played their home games at Stanford Stadium

Stanford Stadium

Stanford Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium on the Stanford University campus, the home of Stanford Cardinal college football team. It originally opened in 1921 as a football and track stadium, an earthen horseshoe with wooden bleacher seating and flooring upon a steel frame...

 in Stanford, California

Stanford, California

Stanford is a census-designated place in Santa Clara County, California, United States and is the home of Stanford University. The population was 13,809 at the 2010 census....

.

Coming off the successful 1949 season in which a talented group of sophomores, led by quarterback Gary Kerkorian

Gary Kerkorian

Gary Ray Kerkorian was an Armenian-American football quarterback who played four seasons in the National Football League.-College career:...

 and end Bill McColl

Bill McColl

William Frazier "Bill" McColl is a former NFL defensive end and tight end from 1952 to 1959 for the Chicago Bears. He played college football at Stanford, where he was a two-time consensus All-American and third runner up in the 1951 Heisman Trophy voting. In 1951, he was the first person to...

, had the Indians a game away from the Rose Bowl

Rose Bowl Game

The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2...

, Stanford was expected to have an excellent season and was ranked 7th in the first-ever preseason AP Poll

AP Poll

The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...

. But after starting 4–0, the team would only win one more game and tie twice, the second tie coming in the Big Game

Big Game (football)

The Big Game is an American college football rivalry game played by the California Golden Bears football team of the University of California, Berkeley and the Stanford Cardinal football team of Stanford University. It is typically played in late November or early December...

, in which the team rallied to tie undefeated and Rose Bowl-bound rival California. Coach Schwartz resigned following the season.

Schedule