page_title: Stanford Axe
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Stanford Axe / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Stanford University's Axe Committee carries the Axe around Memorial Stadium during the 2008 Big Game.
context_page_description: The Stanford Axe is a trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Big Game, a college football match-up between the University of California Golden Bears and the Stanford University Cardinal. The trophy consists of an axe-head mounted on a large wooden plaque, along with the scores of past Big Games. Cal captured the Axe in 2019 after defeating Stanford 24–20 to break Stanford's nine-year streak of holding the Axe, the longest such streak for either team in the history of Big Game.
context_section_description: The Stanford Axe was originally a standard 12-inch lumberman's axe. It made its first appearance on April 13, 1899 during a Stanford rally when yell leaders used it to decapitate a straw man dressed in blue and gold ribbons while chanting the Axe yell, which was based on The Frogs by Aristophanes (Brekekekèx-koàx-koáx):
  Give 'em the axe, the axe, the axe!
  Give 'em the axe, the axe, the axe!
  Give 'em the axe, give 'em the axe,
  Give 'em the axe, where?
  Right in the neck, in the neck, in the neck!
  Right in the neck, in the neck, in the neck!
  Right in the neck, right in the neck,
  Right in the neck! There!
caption: Stanford University's Axe Committee carries the Axe around Memorial Stadium during the 2008 Big Game
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