Photograph courtesy of Bill Wulf

An interurban streetcar crosses a trestle near Villa Montalvo, perhaps carrying Los Gatos and Saratoga youths on their way to a Stanford football game.

Picture from the Past

Town's young football fans rode streetcars to Stanford

By John S. Baggerly

Los Gatos Little League has lost the names of two families who won Stanford football tickets awarded at last spring's opening ceremonies. The most urgent of their priorities is to find the name of raffle winners for this Saturday's UCLA game at Stanford.

Another winner at the raffle sale is entitled to four seats to the Oregon State University game on Oct. 15. Winners may obtain their tickets by calling John Baggerly at 354-1979 anytime up to midnight.

The tickets are the gift of Ted Fletcher and this writer, both of whom are 1935 Los Gatos High School graduates who annually purchase four Stanford season tickets to home games.

Both of us got hooked on Stanford football in the 1920s and '30s, when an entire goal-line section was free for children to attend. It was the actual showing up that was the problem for Los Gatos youngsters.

For 25 cents, Los Gatos and Saratoga youngsters could ride one of the "big red" interurban streetcars that rumbled their way through the towns and rural areas.

From Saratoga, the streetcar tracks went eastward along a two-lane highway toward San Jose. About two miles east of Saratoga, Palo Alto-bound passengers transferred to a northbound line that ran along the foothills through Los Altos and on to Mayfield, bordering the Stanford campus.

The walk to Stanford Stadium was a long one through a polo field and the stables where polo ponies were lodged. If in a spirited mood, polo ponies amused themselves by quick maneuvers such as running at high speed and, just in time, planting all fours and turning away from an imaginary foe or fence.

Needless to say, horses were big on the Stanford campus, also known as "The Farm." It was at Stanford in the 1870s, in fact, that Eadweard Muybridge proved via photography that a horse sometimes has all four feet off the ground when running.

Leland Stanford himself was responsible for hiring Muybridge for this investigation. Four cameras were set up side by side a few feet apart and clicked off in turn as a horse and rider ran past the cameras. The four prints showed that indeed there is an instant when all four hooves are off the ground.

Back at Stanford Stadium, the young trolley-riding fans found themselves sitting, for free, in Section A, often with their own bag lunches from home--another good way to save money.

Stanford's opponent for an opening game might have been the San Francisco Olympic Club or even the U.S. Army's team representing the Presidio of San Francisco.

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