STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Dick Gould has been around Stanford sports long enough as a tennis player and coach — a remarkable run of seven decades — that he clearly remembers some down years for the university's sports programs.
He heard the excuses by coaches and student-athletes back in the day of “we just can't win at Stanford, you can't be smart and be an athlete.”
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FILE - Director and Chair of Athletics John Donahoe speaks at a news conference in Stanford, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Maggie Steffens speaks to reporters during a news conference ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 24, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
FILE - Stanford head coach Kate Paye reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against California in Berkeley, Calif., Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer reacts during the first half of the team's second-round college basketball game in the women's NCAA Tournament against Iowa State in Stanford, Calif., March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
That's what makes the current streak of success on the national stage extra special for the retired, longtime tennis coach — Stanford just captured an NCAA championship for a 50th consecutive year.
“I think it's important to not take it for granted. I think that you get used to it, sometimes comfortable about it and I don't think we ever should do that,” Gould said. “I know when I was at Stanford we went 0-10 in football in 1960, my last year playing on the tennis team.
"There was a pervasive fuel among the coaches and the athletes and everybody. Men's golf won a championship in 1953 and men's swimming did in the winter of ‘67 the year I started (as tennis coach). They hadn’t done anything since the early 40s, I think we won a basketball championship in ('42) or something like that during the war, so our successes were really small and in between.”
During this current academic year, Stanford's women's cross country and soccer teams had already come up just short before the men's gymnastics team won Saturday night in Champaign, Illinois, and extended the remarkable run to a half-century.
The reign of dominance by Cardinal athletics began with a 13-12 men's water polo triumph over UCLA in 1976 and has featured 126 national titles.
And no other university currently even comes close: North Carolina is next with seven.
Southern California went 19 straight years with an NCAA championship, from the 1959-60 school year through 1977-78.
“Stanford has had incredible success. We have outstanding coaches and student-athletes,” said retired Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer said, whose teams captured three titles. ”It is really inspiring to be around such accomplished people.”
Stanford has won 126 of its record 138 overall NCAA team titles in the current 50-year streak.
Women’s tennis at Stanford ranks No. 1 at the school with 20 NCAA team titles — six in a row from 1986-91 — while men’s tennis has earned 15, men’s water polo and women’s swimming and diving have 11 each, and women’s water polo and men’s gymnastics have 10 apiece.
Gould coached the Cardinal, including players like John McEnroe and Roscoe Tanner, for 38 years from 1966-2004 and is the program’s winningest coach with a record of 776-148 (.840). His wife, Anne, coached the first women’s team to a national title in any sport at Stanford when she guided tennis to the 1978 championship.
“What we did in tennis coupled with football just kind of opened the floodgates,” Gould said.
Women’s basketball coach Kate Paye credited the leadership of Stanford President Jonathan Levin, new athletic director John Donahoe and others for leading the way with “a renewed commitment” to excellence in the classroom and athletic venues.
“We have a singular identity as the No. 1 academic and athletic institution in the country and in the world,” said Paye, born in Stanford Hospital and part of that 1992 NCAA championship team. “We call it one team, Stanford is one team. We're 36 strong. Stanford is a really special place, incredible student-athletes. ... Stanford athletics has so much momentum right now.”
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
FILE - Director and Chair of Athletics John Donahoe speaks at a news conference in Stanford, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Maggie Steffens speaks to reporters during a news conference ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 24, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
FILE - Stanford head coach Kate Paye reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against California in Berkeley, Calif., Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer reacts during the first half of the team's second-round college basketball game in the women's NCAA Tournament against Iowa State in Stanford, Calif., March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigned Tuesday moments before a hearing was to begin to consider what punishment to recommend after a House ethics panel found she had committed numerous campaign finance and reporting violations.
The congresswoman was facing the possible threat of expulsion, something that has only occurred six times in the history of the House. Support from her own party was increasingly in doubt.
It's the third resignation in a little more than a week from a House lawmaker. Reps. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, announced within hours of each other that they were leaving Congress. Both men were facing sexual misconduct allegations and possible expulsion.
In a statement, Chefilus-McCormick said a House committee denied her new attorney's request for more time to prepare a defense. Cherfilus-McCormick said she would not pretend that the investigation had been anything other than a “witch hunt,” and rather than play political games, she would choose to step away and her resignation was effective immediately.
“But let me say this plainly: we should be very careful about the precedent we are setting in this country, we do not punish people before due process is complete," she said. "We do not allow allegations alone to override the will of the people. That is a dangerous patch, and one that should concern every American, regardless of party.”
The committee had previously determined she committed 25 violations of House rules and ethical standards, including breaking campaign finance laws.
She is also facing federal criminal charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using the money to buy items such as a 3-carat yellow diamond ring.
Cherfilus-McCormick has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and says she is not guilty of ethics violations, either.
The allegations against the congresswoman center on how she received millions of dollars from her family’s health care business after Florida mistakenly overpaid the business by roughly $5 million with COVID-19 disaster relief funds. She is accused of using that money to fund her 2022 congressional campaign through a network of businesses and family members.
Cherfilus-McCormick declined to testify during a previous Ethics Committee hearing, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Her attorney, William Barzee, sparred with some of the lawmakers and argued that they should have allowed a thorough ethics trial, at which he could present witnesses and evidence to counter the conclusions of House investigators.
A group of supporters in Cherfilus-McCormick's congressional district had weighed in on her behalf with the lawmakers who lead the Ethics Committee, urging committee leaders to proceed with caution in sanctioning her.
“Our communities deserve stability. Our voices deserve to be heard. And our right to representation must be protected,” said one of the letters sent to the committee and signed by about a dozen local faith leaders, union officials and others.
Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, along with other members of the caucus, issued a statement that said during Cherfilus-McCormick's time in Congress she “worked to uplift her constituents and elevate issues impacting underserved communities at home and abroad.”
“We extend our appreciation for her service and offer our prayers for her and her family," the caucus members said.
In all, the panel's two-year investigation led to the issuance of 59 subpoenas, 28 witness interviews and a review of more than 33,000 pages of documents.
House Democratic leaders had declined to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick, saying they wanted to see the ethics process play out. Potential punishments included a reprimand or a censure, which serve as forms of public rebuke. The committee could also have recommended a fine. The most severe form of punishment is expulsion.
But the House has historically been reluctant to serve as the final arbiter of a lawmaker’s career, preferring to give that final say to the voters. Of the six House members expelled, the first three fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War and were expelled for disloyalty. The next two had been convicted of crimes. The final one was George Santos, the scandal-plagued freshman who was the subject of a blistering ethics report on his conduct as well as federal indictment. Santos, a New York Republican, served time in prison for ripping off his campaign donors before President Donald Trump granted him clemency, and he has apologized to his former constituents.
Under the Constitution, at least two-thirds of the House has to vote for expulsion for it to occur, a high threshold that requires enormous bipartisan support.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters last week he believed the House would move to expel Cherfilus-McCormick.
“The facts are indisputable at this point," Johnson said.
FILE - Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., condemns hate speech and misinformation about Haitian immigrants, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
