1906 – 1917 Stanford rugby teams The Stanford rugby teams of 1906 to 1917 represented Stanford University as the school ' s only football program during those years , replacing American football with rugby union . The school had played American football from 1892 to 1905 , but in 1906 , concerned with the growing levels of violence in football , Stanford and other universities changed to rugby . Stanford played twelve seasons of rugby , during which it played other college teams , club teams from the United States , Canada , and Australia , as well as the New Zealand national team and Australia national team . Despite the team ' s success , it became clear that other schools were not adopting rugby in large numbers , and after rival California returned to football in 1915 , Stanford faced a limited number of potential opponents ; and after a year of playing neither sport officially due to World War I , the school returned to American football in 1919 . Switch to rugby . American football in the early 1900s had become increasingly violent ; with no forward pass , the ball carrier would be typically pushed and pulled up the field by his own players in massive formations that often resulted in serious injuries . In 1905 , 18 deaths , three at the college level , were attributed to football ; 159 serious injuries were also reported , 88 at the college level . Reform was demanded by such voices as U . S . President Theodore Roosevelt , who decried the brutality and foul play of the game , and called a meeting of school presidents to discuss the issue . As a result , before the next season began , new rules were put in place to discourage such play . The forward pass was also introduced to open up the game and reduce the role of dangerous mass formations . Despite the planned changes , a number of universities banned the sport for the coming year , including Columbia , NYU , and Northwestern . Several universities on the West Coast , led by California and Stanford , replaced the sport with rugby . At the time , the future of football was very much in doubt and these schools believed that rugby would eventually be adopted nationwide . Other schools that made the switch included Nevada , St . Mary ' s , Santa Clara , and USC ( in 1911 ) . However , due to the perception that West Coast football was inferior to the game played on the East Coast anyway , East Coast and Midwest teams shrugged off the loss of the teams and continued playing football . With no nationwide movement , the available pool of rugby teams to play remained small . The schools scheduled games against local club teams and reached out to rugby powers in Australia , New Zealand , and especially , due to its proximity , Canada . The annual Big Game between Stanford and California continued as rugby , with the winner invited by the British Columbia Rugby Union to a tournament in Vancouver over the Christmas holidays , with the winner of that tournament receiving the Cooper Keith Trophy . Return to football . In 12 seasons of rugby , Stanford was remarkably successful : the team had three undefeated seasons , three one - loss seasons , and an overall record of 94 wins , 20 losses , and 3 ties for a winning percentage of . 816 . However , after a few years , the school began to feel the isolation of its newly adopted sport , which was not spreading as many had hoped . Students and alumni began to clamor for a return to football to allow wider intercollegiate competition . The pressure at rival California was stronger ( especially as the school had not been as successful in the Big Game as they had hoped ) , and in 1915 California returned to football . As reasons for the change , the school cited football rule changes , the overwhelming desire of students and supporters to play football , interest in playing other East Coast and Midwest schools , and a patriotic desire to play an " American " game . California ' s return to football increased the pressure on Stanford to also change back in order to maintain the rivalry . Stanford played its 1915 , 1916 , and 1917 " Big Games " as rugby against Santa Clara and California ' s football " Big Game " in those years was against Washington , but both schools desired to restore the old traditions . The onset of World War I gave Stanford an out : in 1918 , the Stanford campus was designated as the Students ' Army Training Corps headquarters for all of California , Nevada , and Utah , and the commanding officer , Sam M . Parker , decreed that football was the appropriate athletic activity to train soldiers and rugby was dropped . After the war , Stanford resumed its football program and relegated rugby to a minor sport . Several Stanford rugby players who played during those years — including Daniel Carroll , Dink Templeton , Morris Kirksey , Erwin Righter , John Patrick , and Charles Doe — went on to win a gold medal for the United States in rugby at the 1920 Summer Olympics . Season results . 1906 season . In its first season of rugby , Stanford retained head football coach James F . Lanagan as its first rugby coach . Lanagan had coached the football team for three years , including an undefeated 1905 season . With no experience playing or coaching rugby , Lanagan initially offered his resignation , but Stanford insisted he stay on , so he traveled to Vancouver , British Columbia to study the sport . Stanford won its first five games , including two wins over a visiting club team from Vancouver . As winners of the first Big Game against California played as rugby , Stanford competed against Vancouver - area club teams for the Cooper Keith Trophy , losing two games and tying one . 1907 season . In Stanford ' s second season of rugby , Jimmy Lanagan returned as coach and the team finished 8 – 4 . Stanford continued its series with Nevada , Vancouver , and Victoria and added games against Bay Area club team the Barbarians and a Los Angeles club called the Castaways . Stanford won its second Big Game rugby match , earning a second straight tournament in British Columbia . 1908 season . Lanagan returned for his final year as Stanford ' s coach and the team finished 12 – 2 , winning not only its third consecutive Big Game , but also going on to win the Cooper Keith Trophy in the end - of - season Vancouver tournament . Stanford added two games against San Francisco ' s Olympic Club and played a final game against the Australian national team , the Wallabies . 1909 season . Following Lanagan ' s departure , George Presley was named Stanford ' s new rugby coach . Presley played one year of rugby under Lanagan in 1906 and had been an assistant coach in 1907 and 1908 . Presley also coached Stanford ' s baseball team . Stanford won its first eight games — seven by shutout — but then lost Big Game for the first time in seven years . 1910 season . In Presley ' s second year as coach , Stanford was led by Ben Erb and Jim Arrell . The season was almost identical to the previous year : the team won its first seven games by shutout , and then lost Big Game to undefeated California . Stanford led in that game 6 – 0 , but did not score again as California won 25 – 6 . This Big Game is recognized as the first intercollegiate game to feature card stunt s . 1911 season . In the 1911 season , Stanford went 10 – 3 and added USC to the schedule , as the school dropped football in favor of rugby . 1912 season . In Presley ' s last year as coach , Stanford finished with a 5 – 3 – 1 record , its worst record of the rugby era . Stanford avoided a fourth straight loss in the Big Game by tying California . Despite an outstanding 30 – 8 – 1 overall record as coach , coach Presley was 0 – 3 – 1 against the Bears . 1913 season . Floyd C . Brown succeeded George Presley as coach . Like Presley , Brown had played for and served as an assistant under the previous coach . Stanford finished with an 8 – 3 record , including its first Big Game win in five years , led by Danny Carroll , who had won a gold medal in the 1908 Summer Olympics as a member of the Australia national rugby union team and who was now earning a degree in geology from Stanford . Stanford played its final rugby game against USC , who returned to American football the next year , and suffered two blowout losses to the famed New Zealand All Blacks , who were on a North American tour . 1914 season . Brown ' s second year as coach was the best in Stanford rugby history : the team was undefeated entering the Big Game at California , who was also undefeated . A record crowd of 26 , 000 turned out to see Stanford defeat the Bears , 26 – 8 . This would be the last Big Game for several years as California returned to football for the 1915 season . Despite Stanford ' s success in rugby , the previous year ' s humiliating defeats to the All Blacks and the switch by rivals USC and California to football intensified the sentiment for Stanford to switch back as well . 1915 season . By 1915 , there was only one other U . S . college playing intercollegiate rugby : Santa Clara . The rest of Stanford ' s schedule was made up of local club and all star teams . The team played to a scoreless tie with the Olympic Club team to start the season , but recovered to win the rest of the games on the schedule . 1916 season . In their last full season of rugby , Stanford won all its games except the " Big Game " against Santa Clara , played for the second year at Ewing Field in San Francisco . This was Stanford ' s first loss since 1913 . 1917 season . Like the two coaches before him , Stanford ' s new head coach James Wylie was a former Stanford player . He had also been a member of the New Zealand All Blacks team that had crushed Stanford ' s team in 1913 . But with World War I imminent , Stanford played just one game , the " Big Game " against Santa Clara , winning 15 – 11 . This was also Stanford rugby ' s last game as a major sport . The following year , Stanford president Ray Lyman Wilbur canceled all intercollegiate athletic events due to students ' enlisting in the military for the war , and due to Stanford ' s designation as the regional headquarters of the Students ' Army Training Corps . When Stanford reformed a team in 1919 , the school returned to American football as its major gridiron sport .