Nostalgia & History > Edgar McDowell

According to this obituary from the SF Chronicle, he had a 40 year career with the SP. Anyone have more info?

Edgar McDowell -- Stanford grad who saw 82 Big Games
- Ulysses Torassa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, July 31, 2004


Edgar McDowell, probably the most ardent fan Stanford football has ever known, died July 24 at age 96, having attended the famous annual Big Game between Stanford and UC Berkeley an astounding 82 times.

Mr. McDowell died in his sleep at the Palo Alto Commons, an assisted- living facility. He had moved there only a few months earlier from his condominium apartment across from the Stanford Shopping Center, according to his longtime friend Pat Taylor of Sacramento.

In a 2000 Chronicle profile, Mr. McDowell, then 93, estimated he'd attended more than 650 Stanford football games, including 10 of the 12 Rose Bowl games Stanford played. During the interview, he easily rattled off details and final scores from memorable Big Games of the past. A heartbreaking loss in 1982 prompted him to write a poem, which included the line "the Stanford special-teams eleven, with an IQ of seventy-seven.''

"I grew up with the Big Game, always hearing my father talk about it when I was a child, and it has been special for me as far back as I can remember,'' Mr. McDowell told The Chronicle.

A quiet, reserved teetotaler, Mr. McDowell never brought attention to himself with rowdy cheering in the stands, but he took the outcomes to heart, sometimes needing the half-hour walk back to his condo to cool off after a Stanford defeat, Taylor said.

Mr. McDowell's life was deeply entrenched with the university he loved. He was born and raised on campus where his father was one of the school's early administrators. Stanford's third president, Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, was the physician who attended Mr. McDowell's delivery.

Mr. McDowell also grew up playing with the children of Herbert Hoover, a Stanford graduate, and was in the Hoover house when news came that Hoover had won the 1928 presidential election.

"That was one of the high points of his life, being able to participate in that historic moment,'' Taylor said of his friend.

A bright student, Mr. McDowell graduated in 1926 with a degree in economics from Stanford at age 19 and went on to a 40-year career at Southern Pacific Railroad. In his apartment he kept a collection of Stanford Quad yearbooks back to the first issue in 1892 and a collection of Stanford football programs dating back to 1895.

He also spent several years volunteering as a scoutmaster, which is how Taylor met him at age 10. Mr. McDowell kept in touch with many of his scouts throughout their lives. Ten years ago, one of his troops came together for a reunion, Taylor said.

Mr. McDowell, who had requested that no services be held, was cremated and buried at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto. He is survived by two nephews and three nieces.

Page B - 6
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/31/BAGDR80KTR1.DTL