Every once in a while a new tradition takes hold for an athletic team. It can
be a spontaneous creation, a conscious effort to establish lore, or a reflection of the emerging character of a team.
Stanford Football has had more than its share of traditions: The Stanford
Axe...The Immortal 21... The Vow Boys...The Wow Boys...The How Boys...The Now
Boys. Some stick and some don't: The Thunderchickens, The Northwest Road
Warriors, The Trenchdogs, The Walk. With the introduction of "The Blue
Collar Man" a week ago, this latest development has to be seen as a
combination of all three - spontaneous creation, lore, and a reflection of the
team's character.
Some of new traditions are established to separate and define distinctively a
special season. Despite the pigskin prognosticators' annual forecast of gridiron
doom for the Cardinal, one senses that 2008, Year Two of the current coaching
administration, could be a special season.
Jim Harbaugh wants every season to be special and this one has his full
attention. He must have been pondering way to motivate his players to be all
they can be. What did Stanford Football need? A way to counter the conventional wisdom that
Cardinal student-athletes are privileged and elitist. Hmmm....they are certainly
fortunate from an opportunity standpoint and and while hardly
"elitist" are unquestionably "elite" from an academic and
athletic selectivity standpoint.
There could be a bit of psychological genius happening down on the Farm.
Coach Harbaugh has taken the common perception of Stanford athletes - as
privileged white-collar rich kids unwilling to get their uniforms dirty - and
turned it completely upside down. We're goin' blue-collar! Our players
are going to get up every morning and go to work. No handouts, just good old
fashioned hard work.
Following an all-hands meeting on the first day of Fall camp, all players and
football staff were issued blue-collared shirts (see Harbaugh photo). Yes, the
kind with a sewn-on white badge with each person's first name stitched in red.
It's what you would expect to see worn by an auto mechanic, a plumber, or an
air-conditioning repair dude. Nothing fancy, just guys doing their jobs
and supporting their families. Coach Harbaugh apparently related to the team
stories of how his own grandfather was an old school, blue collar guy who
proudly pumped gas. Sure, some cynics may view such rah-rah inspirational stuff
as gimmicky, but the theme is a solid one and if it serves to motivate the team
to stay focused and get their jobs done, then it certainly has our blessing!
Stanford Athletics has won 14 consecutive Director's/Sears Cups, the
University produces Nobel Prize winners and industry-jarring technical
entrepreneurs. Great, elite, world-class. But what about the football team? What
has the football team done to match the top-tier performances that can be found
among other sports, academic departments and alumni accomplishments? Not much
recently, but things are starting to change. Harbaugh has attacked the very idea
of "entitlement." Under Harbaugh's watch, it seems, players aren't
going to be "entitled" to anything. The football team isn't
"entitled" to consider itself excellent just because it represents the
school known to many as as the "Home of Champions" in college sports.
The only excellence he wants associated with his program is that which is
produced on the field.
Okay, so the "Blue Collar Man" concept isn't entirely original in its creativity as it was an
idea Coach Harbaugh clearly borrowed/co-developed from his
brother John, the first-year head coach of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, who has
promoted a similar theme in his locker room in Baltimore. Nevertheless, it
appears rather astute of the second-year Stanford coach to find its relevant
application here at Stanford.
Look, let's face it. There most certainly is a perception of "elitism" surrounding Stanford University.
We the alumni and affiliates call it "pride" and excuse it as noble aspiration to be the best. Outsiders often perceive it
differently. The "elitism" tag is often used effectively by competing
programs to sell negatively against the Cardinal. "You won't fit in, you
come from a hard-scrabble working-class background, son, you aren't like those
brainy rich kids!"
They do have a point - Our guys are brainy and they are rich...but
they are "rich" in character and
personality. Coddled, privileged, silver-spooned sons of the rich and powerful?
Hogwash! Our kids tie their cleats and snap their chinstraps like everyone
else. The reality for the Stanford Football program is entirely opposite.
Very few of our players come from wealthy or socially-prominent families and
the great irony is that when the players arrive on campus they quickly realize
that Stanford Football is decidedly working class, as in "working",
"class" and going to "class". . A special season will
take blood, sweat, and tears.
If it takes all that to be just what I am, I gonna be a blue collar
man! - "Blue Collar Man" by Styx (1980).
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