QB split divided Cardinals, fans

More than 40 years ago, the Stanford team was divided over who should be the quarterback. Fans were booing their own starter.

The head coach, the late Jack Christiansen, was criticized for starting Mike Cordova rather than Guy Benjamin in 1975 and for going back and forth between them in 1976.

The Cardinals, as they were called then, were expected to finish high in what was then the Pac-8. Instead, they went 6-4-1 in 1975 and 6-5 in ’76, when Christiansen was fired just before the Big Game.

Benjamin thought Christiansen’s handling of the quarterbacks, in part, cost him his job. In an interview, Benjamin said he understood why the coach stuck with Cordova in 1975 even though Benjamin had played very well in short stretches and had the overwhelming support of the fans.

Christiansen envisioned Cordova as “the next great Stanford quarterback,” Benjamin said. “It made sense. I had injured my knee in 1974. Jack said the position was open, but everybody knew he favored Mike.”

The fan uproar “was ugly,’’ Benjamin said. “Mike Cordova is a great guy. People were booing him, and we’re 19 years old. It wasn’t fair the way it played out.”

Former Chronicle columnist Glenn Dickey led the support for Benjamin. Dickey doesn’t think the issue was the main reason Christiansen was fired. “He just wasn’t a very good coach,” he said.

The quarterback issue deeply divided the players, according to John Finley, then the starting fullback. “When we weren’t winning, the defense took it harder than the offense,” he said. “The offense had some loyalty to Cordova.”

Tony Hill, the leading receiver on the team, said offensive players supported Benjamin as well. He, for one, regarded Benjamin as a close friend. Hill, who became a three-time Pro Bowler with the Dallas Cowboys, said Roger Staubach was the best quarterback he ever played with. The secondbest was Benjamin.

Hill praised Christiansen as “a player’s coach. He was more concerned with the character of the players than the outcome of the games.” Cordova was talented, but Benjamin had a better touch with his passes, Hill said.

“Guy had the team’s support,” he said. “He was more outgoing, so the guys rallied around him.”

As the backup, Benjamin had an advantage that K.J. Costello shared. “When he came in, he had nothing to lose,” Hill said. “Mike had a really tough situation with so many people looking over your shoulder. It makes a big difference as a player.”

In 1976, Cordova continued to start, and the controversy “continued to get worse,” Benjamin said. “The more it was talked about, the more Jack dug in his heels.”

Eventually, Christiansen switched to Benjamin, although Cordova, as a senior, got to start in the Big Game.

Finley said Cordova was wary about returning to Stanford for reunions years later because of the way the fans treated him. “It was really unfair,” Finley said.

The following year, with Bill Walsh as head coach, Benjamin led Stanford to a 9-3 record and won the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation’s top passer.