Stanford football will play annual Spring Game at historic Kezar Stadium in San Francisco

The Stanford football team will return to competition for the first and only time this spring when the squad splits in two and faces off in the annual Cardinal and White Spring Game.

The contest, held at legendary Kezar Stadium in San Francisco at 2 p.m. on Saturday, serves as the conclusion of two sessions of practices that allow the coaching staff to evaluate the team for the coming year. With numerous positions up for grabs, the endeavor is formative both for the players and the overall program.

Offensive line coach Tim Drevno wil

l lead the White team, with the assistance of David Shaw, Vic Fangio, Randy Hart and Brian Polian. The Cardinal team will be headed up by outside linebackers coach Lance Anderson, who will be joined by Greg Roman, Derek Mason and Pep Hamilton. Head coach Jim Harbaugh will oversee the contest.

The two squads drafted players last weekend, with the Cardinal team selecting quarterback Andrew Luck first overall. White combated that with a strategy that both loaded up on the first team defense and stole away Luck’s best weapons, such as wide receivers Ryan Whalen and Chris Owusu and offensive linemen Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro. The Cardinal team, by contrast, focused on versatility, as it consists of two-way players such as Alex Loukas and Owen Marecic, as well as youth. Luck’s primary receiver in the game, for example, will likely be talented freshman Jamal-Rashad Patterson.

The team is playing at Kezar for the first time since 1942. Stanford Stadium is currently undergoing reseeding, and thus was not available for use, but Harbaugh said that he hopes that using Kezar becomes an annual tradition.

Since opening 85 years ago, Kezar has been the home stadium for both of the Bay Area’s professional teams—the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers—as well as the site of the East-West Shrine Game and numerous high school sporting events, including the city championship.

Arguably the most memorable moment in Stanford-Kezar history came in 1940, when the Cardinal opened its season with a shutout victory over San Francisco so dominating that it earned the team the moniker of “Wow Boys.” That squad would go on to win the Rose Bowl and finish the year undefeated.

Now, 70 years later, Stanford returns.

The gates will open at 1 p.m., admission is free and parking is 10 dollars. Fans coming from Stanford without cars can access Kezar via the Caltrain and the MUNI. For those that cannot attend, the game can be heard on KZSU’s internet-only stream.