| Year: | 1937 |
| Team: | Stanford Indians |
| Sport: | football |
| Conference: | Pacific Coast Conference |
| Short Conf: | PCC |
| Record: | 4–3–2 |
| Conf Record: | 4–2–1 |
| Head Coach: | Claude E. Thornhill |
| Hc Year: | 5th |
| Stadium: | Stanford Stadium |
The 1937 Stanford Indians football team represented Stanford University as a member of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) during the 1937 college football season. Led by fifth-year head coach Claude E. Thornhill, the Indians compiled an overall record of 4–3–2 with a mark of 4–2–1 in conference play, placing second in the PCC. The team played home games at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California.
Stanford had been scheduled to play two games in Hawaii—against a Honolulu town team and the Hawaii Rainbows—in December, but the games were canceled due to steamship schedule changes that meant the team would miss a week and a half of classes in winter quarter.[1] [2] Washington replaced Stanford for both games.[2]
The Indians were 4–1–1 in the Pacific Coast Conference entering the Big Game against 5–0–1 California. A head-to-head win over the Bears would almost certainly have given Stanford a bid to the 1938 Rose Bowl.[3] However, the Bears scored two touchdowns in quick succession in an eight-minute stretch of the second quarter and held the Indians scoreless, winning 13–0.[4]
Stanford faced Columbia for the third time in four years. The Indians had lost to the Lions in the 1934 Rose Bowl and lost in New York the previous season; this year, in what would be the final meeting of the teams, the teams played to a scoreless tie.[5]