<p>[Houston</a> Selects Mark Appel With First Pick of MLB Draft - Stanford University’s Official Athletic Site](<a href=“http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060613aab.html]Houston”>http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060613aab.html)</p>
<p>"Appel joins the elite Cardinal company of fellow Houston-area natives Andrew Luck and Nneka Ogwumike as No. 1 overall picks. Luck went first overall to Indianapolis in the 2012 NFL Draft while Los Angeles chose Ogwumike to open the 2012 WNBA Draft. Each of the three finished their degree before leaving for the professional ranks. </p>
<p>Even more, Stanford now joins LSU as the only schools to produce at least one No. 1 overall pick in the MLB, NFL and WNBA drafts."</p>
<p><a href=“https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=62813[/url]”>https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=62813</a></p>
<p>"Hanging in the balance was “the streak,” Stanford’s unrivaled stretch of 36 consecutive years with at least one NCAA team championship.</p>
<p>The unheralded span of glory already seemed impossibly long. Twice the age of the tennis team’s youngest players, it spanned the Ford administration to the Obama years, not to mention bellbottoms to skinny jeans. By comparison, even Stanford’s string of 18 Director’s Cups looked adolescent."</p>
<p>@Texaspg. What is so intriguing and fascinating about Stanford and athletics is that Stanford provides the highest level of academics without compromise and demands as much from its scholar-geeks to scholar-athletes…</p>
<p>…it amazes me that athletes of the highest caliber (most of them national or international level…and many of them going into professional ranks or competing in the Olympics) would want to study and compete at Stanford which has the academic rigor of Princeton, MIT, Chicago, Harvard…</p>
<p>…to compete against other D1 teams in the PAC-12 and around the country that do not require the rigor as high as Stanford is quite astounding…</p>
<p>…to hear of students like Mark Appel (no.1 MLB draft pick) graduating with a degree in engineering, Andrew Luck (no.1 NFL draft pick) graduating with architecture degree, former great John Elway graduating with economics degree…it speaks volumes as to what kind of students Stanford looks for…they look for future champions not only in the classroom but in the “stadium”…</p>
<p>…the long list of former Stanford students/graduates like Jim Plunkett, Tom Watson, Tiger woods, Michelle Wie, John McEnroe…so on and so on…</p>
<p>…by the way Texaspg, Stanford won the Director’s Cup (Learfield) for the 19th consecutive year.</p>
<p>Mark Appel, like Andrew Luck, went back to get his degree although he was drafted in the first round last year. Luck could have left two years ago too but stayed to get a diploma.</p>