Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 05/12/1999 All articles from this issue

Former U. S. Sen. Alan Cranston talks about Stanford track, field at Stanford

printer friendly version

Voice of the Past

Alan Cranston, a longtime resident of Los Altos, got his start in politics at Mountain View High School as president of the Boys League. He eventually spent 24 years serving in the United States Senate, 1969 to 1993. He was interviewed at his home in Los Altos by Erin Finnegan in 1995, and by Paul Nyberg in January 1998.

My family moved to Los Altos in 1915, to a house on Edith (Fremont) Avenue. It was about 13 acres including some apricot trees. In about 1923 we moved down Edith Avenue, just before you get to the Foothill Expressway, to Cypress Avenue. That's where I spent the rest of my childhood, through my time at Stanford.

My father grew up in San Francisco. His father was a builder and an architect who built many of the elegant Victorian homes in San Francisco. My father eventually went into real estate, primarily in Palo Alto, but in other areas, too. He went to Stanford.

Mother was born in Sacramento and also went to Stanford. My mother and father happened to choose the same boardinghouse in Palo Alto while they were students. That's how they met.

Just think how many coincidences there are in a lifetime that bring people together. You think, "How many other coincidences are there like that in all of our histories?" It's remarkable.

My father was on the Stanford track team. He did the mile walk in the class of 1901. In the early 1920s, he started taking me to track meets and football games. He took me to Stanford Stadium when it was being built. I remember seeing the big piles of circular dirt, which were to become the stadium.

In football, I had some wonderful heroes. A guy named Murray Cuddeback did a fantastic piece of work in the Big Game. Ernie Nevers, one of the great all-time players for Stanford football, 1923-1925, was also one of my heroes. Some of his records have never been broken. Ted Miller was my hero in Stanford track.

Although I was interested in politics at Stanford, I was more interested in athletics. I was on the football team and was a runner - a sprinter and a quarter-miler. Actually, I'm still interested in track.

I learned a lot from participating in track. I learned about the need to focus. I should have been in the Olympic Games in 1936, but I didn't quite make it. I was good enough to do it, but I just, in effect, goofed off. I didn't concentrate enough. That taught me a great big lesson that has stayed with me through my lifetime: Success isn't a matter of coincidence or happenstance. You need to be disciplined and focused. When you want to achieve something, you've got to really work at it.

-Adapted by Donna Shoemaker

Courtesy of History House of Los Altos