The historic Bill Walsh Legacy Game between San José State and Stanford will return in 2024, SJSU athletic director Jeff Konya announced Wednesday.
The two teams have not played each other since 2013, but Wednesday’s announcement could respark the rivalry between the two south bay schools. The first game is scheduled for Nov. 30, 2024 at CEFCU Stadium.
“When I first arrived at SJSU's campus, I listened to a lot of our fans, donors and the SJSU community about enhancing the future football schedules and bringing high-quality opponents to CEFCU Stadium," Konya said in a Wednesday email. "Stanford certainly provides that for our fan base and we are excited about revitalizing the Bill Walsh Legacy series.”
Bill Walsh, the former three-time Super Bowl champion coach of the San Francisco 49ers, has ties to both schools.
He started his coaching career at SJSU under then head coach Bob Bronzan as a graduate assistant. When Walsh stepped away from coaching the 49ers, he coached at Stanford for four seasons, winning a then PAC-10 championship and leading the Cardinal to a bowl game win over Penn State in 1992.
The game used to be a staple between the two programs, but the tradition ended 10 years ago over disputes of where the game would take place.
According to a 2014 San José Mercury News article, then SJSU athletic director Gene Bleymaier argued SJSU should get at least six home games or more money upfront for playing Stanford. The two schools could not come to an agreement and stopped scheduling games altogether.
But in 2022, both SJSU and Stanford picked talks back up to possibly resume the once storied rivalry. The two schools tentatively agreed to have the first game return in 2025, but Wednesday’s announcement means the schools will see each other a year earlier than expected.
With Stanford’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024, it’s possible that the school wanted to schedule more geographically friendly games to mitigate travel costs and the flying toll on its athletes.
The Spartans canceled their scheduled game against Jacksonville State in order to schedule their matchup against the Cardinal.
Next season’s game comes at an interesting time of the season. It will likely be both team’s last game of the season with bowl game implications on the line.
“This will be the first time we host seven home games in a season since 2006 and playing the Cardinal on Thanksgiving weekend is a great way to close out the regular season," Konya said.
