Welcome to A Brief History of Stanford-Utah. I’ll be looking back at the ups and downs of this cross-division series. The Stanford Cardinal and Utah Utes have met a handful of times throughout the decades and this sporadic series has produced an eclectic mix of games with various degrees of importance.
Stanford and Utah first met on the gridiron on November 27, 1902. The contest was held in the football infancy of both schools. Stanford’s program began in 1891 and the Utes began sponsoring the sport the following year. Football out West was still very young and neither team had risen to the ranks of the elite in the sport, although Stanford was considered one of the stronger West Coast programs at the time.