"The Infamous Three," a group of thieves representing Stanford's chapter of Theta Delta Chi fraternity, yesterday accomplished the eighth heist in the 74-year history of the Stanford Axe.

The Axe, a trophy that traditionally goes to the winner of the Stanford-Cal football game, had been resting securely in a nuclear attack-proof case at the Cal Student Union, having been there since November, when the Bears won possession of the trophy by defeating the Cards, 24-21.

Securely, that is, until the Theta Delts implemented a plan they call "simple and "oh so smooth."

The heist was originally discovered at the weekly meeting of Northern California Football Writers, held yesterday at Ming's restaurant in Palo Alto. Cal Coach Mike White was paged and told by an anonymous Stanford student that the Axe had been captured -- captured in fact only a few feet from the coaches and the press in the Ming's parking lot.

Only one reporter, however, witnessed the heist. Lowell Hickey of the Hayward Daily Review saw a fight while he was parking his car. "I saw two guys wearing Cal letter jackets running with the Axe," Hickey said. "They jumped in a car and took off."

Hickey, an unusually competent reporter, noted that the car was a "little yellow coupe with the license number ASH-852."

But the fact proved to be an irrelevant sidelight to a fascinating story that unfolded yesterday afternoon and was confirmed last night in an anonymous statement released by the "Infamous Three" -- two of whom were wearing Cal letter jackets when their theft was completed in the Ming's parking lot.

The third accomplice, a Stanford Law student and brother of one of the two Theta Delts, was "Alias Coach White" in the plan -- a strategy that was originally conceived last summer. "Coach White" called Mr. Fredrich, the General Manager of the student union on Monday and informed his secretary that a wire service photographer had requested that the Axe be brought to the Writer's Luncheon for some publicity pictures.

"White," who had an early morning engagement in Oakland, would stop by for the Axe along with two of his athletes on the way to the luncheon.

"He then called back at 10:15 a.m. yesterday (presumably from Oakland), conveying the message that he would be late for the luncheon if he drove all the way back to Berkeley for the Axe. Instead, he suggested, the two players would pick up the Axe and meet him at Ming's.

The two "athletes," dressed appropriately in letterman's jackets, strode confidently into the student union and discovered that the Axe wasn't in its case -- that it had been removed for safe keeping by the Rally Committee several days earlier.

"Thinking fast," the two Theta Delts asked Friedrich to call the Rally Committee. Four committee members agreed to follow the Theta Delts to Ming's, with the Axe in the back seat of the Cal car.

A group of 10-15 fraternity brothers were supposed to meet them at the restaurant, but when the cars arrived, the parking lot was empty. Realizing that 4-2 was bad odds, one of the "Infamous Three" suggested that a committee member go inside and tell the real Coach White that they were there. Then, according to the Theta Delts, "All hell broke loose." One of the ingenious Infamous persuaded a Committee member to let him hold the Axe. He promptly started running with the fifty pound plaque, and after 100 yards, was tackled on the hood of a Cadillac.

The Axe flew onto the roof of the car at exactly the time the expected fraternity brothers came to the rescue. Within seconds, the Axe was on its way to the campus.

Theta Delt spokesmen refused to comment on the present location of the trophy.