Citizen Staff Report
Moments great and small
In 1899, the University of Arizona lost its first collegiate football game to what is now Arizona State – yikes! – but the Wildcats went on to win 497 games in the next 100 years and now lead the series with rival ASU 42-29-1.
Not bad for a program that labored in national obscurity in the Border and Western Athletic conferences before gaining momentum in the Pacific-10 and finishing 12-1 in 1998 – the finest record in school history.
From ”Pop” McKale to NCAA probation to No. 4 in the polls, here’s a century of UA highlights and lowlights:
• Chuck Cecil intercepts a pass deep in the end zone on Nov. 22, 1986, and returns it 106 yards (officially 100 yards) for a touchdown against Arizona State as the Cats thump the Sun Devils 34-17. This was voted the best play in UA history by Citizen readers.
• UA finally breaks through in postseason play, beating North Carolina 30-21 on Dec. 27, 1986, in the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu, the Cats’ first bowl game victory.
• Steve McLaughlin wins the 1994 Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top place-kicker. He kicked 23 field goals and 26 extra points during the season, including 12 of 16 from beyond 40 yards and three of five from over 50 yards.
• Linebacker Ricky Hunley becomes UA’s first consensus AllAmerican, in 1982. He becomes UA’s first two-time consensus AllAmerican, in 1983.
• Rob Waldrop wins the 1993 Outland Trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman.
• Darryll Lewis wins the 1990 Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back.
• The Wildcats win 10 games for the first time by thumping 10thrated Miami, one of the top collegiate powers over the past decade, 29-0 in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix on Jan. 1, 1994. UA’s famed ”Desert Swarm” defense limited the ‘Canes to a Fiesta Bowlrecord low of 35 net yards rushing. The Cats intercepted three passes and recorded four quarterback sacks.
Tailback Chuck Levy had his finest offensive game at UA, 142 yards on 17 carries.
UA wound up 10-2 on the season.
• In the gloaming at Notre Dame Stadium, Max Zendejas kicks a 48yard field goal in the final seconds to stun the South Bend faithful and give the Wildcats a 16-13 victory over the Fighting Irish.
• Hank ”Birdlegs”Stanton from tiny Clifton sets a national passreceiving record in 1949 with 50 receptions for 820 yards.
• UA is invited to its first bowl game, the East-West Christmas Classic Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 26, 1921. The Cats were a bit overmatched as Centre College of Kentucky administers a 38-0 shellacking.
• The Wildcats win the unofficial ”Championship of the Southwest” by beating Pomona College 7-6 before 1,500 fans in Tucson on Thanksgiving Day 1914.
• Punting was the name of the game on Nov. 11, 1935, when UA edged Texas Tech 7-6 in the snow in Lubbock, Texas, to win its first Border Conference football title. The teams combined for 39 punts.
• Walt Nielsen is picked for the 1939 East-West Shrine Game, the first Wildcat football player to be invited to this postseason all-star game.
• Notre Dame quarterback Blair Keil fooled the UA defense by running almost the length of the field off a fake punt in the closing seconds of the first half. That play turned a close game into a 20-3 Fighting Irish victory.
• Arizona goes into its 1975 game with New Mexico 5-0 and got 451 yards in total offense from quarterback Bruce Hill. However, the Cats couldn’t stop New Mexico quarterback Steve Myer, who passed for over 400 yards in a 44-34 Lobos victory.
• He had one of the great nicknames in college football, ”Nosey.” In 1925, Harold McClellan led the nation in scoring with 121 points, which still ranks No. 2 on UA’s all-time singleseason list.
• Punter Sergio Garcia was the hero in UA’s 23-17 upset of UCLA at Arizona Stadium in 1980. He continually backed up the Bruins with long-distance kicks, including one 80-yarder from his own end zone. Garcia averaged a whopping 54.7 yards on seven punts.
• In the season opener for 1982, UA and Oregon State squared off during a monsoon at Arizona Stadium. Oregon State won the toss and elected to take the elements, which meant kicking off. Vance Johnson spoiled the strategy by returning the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown, propelling the Cats to a 38-12 win.
• It’s still called ”The Catch.” UA and Arizona State fans know it by that name. Arizona went to Tempe in 1975 with a 9-1 record and faced another Frank Kush powerhouse. The Sun Devils scored the winning touchdown when wide receiver John Jefferson made a diving catch – or did he? – on an eight-yard slant pattern. The Sun Devils came away with a 24-21 victory, and UA’s dreams of a Western Athletic Conference championship were dashed.
• UA went to Los Angeles as the heavy underdog against UCLA in the second game of the 1976 season. The Cats led 3-0 near the end of the first half and lined up for a long field goal. Holder Bill Baechler muffed the snap from center and attempted a pass. It was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. The Bruins went on to a 37-9 victory.
Afterward, coach Jim Young said he called for a fake field goal, but after the season revealed that he was just trying to protect Baechler, who had used bad judgment in trying to pass.
• ASU fans were starting to celebrate the end of the five-game losing streak to archrival UA in the 1987 meeting before 70,839 in Tempe and a national ABC-TV audience. The Sun Devils, ahead 24-21, seemingly had victory assured when Eric Allen intercepted a Ronnie Veal pass on the ASU 31 with 1:21 to play. On fourth down, ASU punter Mike Schuh fumbled the snap from center, then drew a penalty for illegally kicking the ball, which UA defensive back Chuck Cecil recovered with only 13 seconds left. UA tried one pass into the end zone from the ASU 13 before settling for Gary Coston’s gametying field goal from 30 yards.
• Arizona Stadium opened on Oct. 12, 1929, as a 7,000-seat facility. The low bid for the stadium, with dressing room, playing field plus a grandstand for baseball and a men’s swimming pool, came in at $133,600. The bid, however, did not include putting down grass in the stadium. The most-expensive seat in the house when UA hosted Cal Tech was $2.50. Arizona posted a 35-0 victory.
• Quarterback Fred Enke leads the nation in total offense in 1947 with 1,941 yards. Enke, who served in World War II, passed for 1,406 yards and added 535 on the ground.
• Utah manages only five first downs and six net yards rushing, but uses a 72-yard kickoff return to set up the winning touchdown in a 16-13 victory over Arizona in the 1994 Freedom Bowl in Anaheim, Calif.
• Syracuse ends Arizona’s 214game scoring streak – the second longest in NCAA history – with a 28-0 victory at the rain-drenched 1990 Aloha Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii. While 32,217 tickets were sold, only 14,185 spectators showed up.
• Georgia and Arizona tie 13-13 in the 1985 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, after Max Zendejas, who already had kicked kicked field goals of 22 and 52 yards in the game, puts a 39-yard attempt right and short with 10 seconds left.
• Coach Dick Tomey gets his first bowl triumph in 13 years as a head coach when the Cats defeat North Carolina State 17-10 in the inaugural Copper Bowl in 1989 at Arizona Stadium. UA gets only eight first downs and 130 yards in offense the game, while North Carolina State has 23 first downs and 310 offensive yards. But Arizona gets big plays from two unlikely heroes: Olatide Ogunfiditimi catches at 37-yard first-quarter TD pass and Scott Geyer races . 85 yards for a touchdown with a pass interception.
• UA limits the National Football League’s future all-time passing leader, Dan Marino, to 172 yards when the Cats meet Pittsburgh in 1979 Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix. Buthe Pitt defense comes up with three pass interceptions and a fumble recovery in a 16-10 victory before 55,347 fans.
• Jim Young parlays four successful years at UA into a head coaching job at Purdue University, leaving the Wildcats after the 1976 season. Young was 31-13, including 8-3, 9-2 and 9-2 marks. Athletic director Dave Strack considers Young’s top assistant, John Mackovic, and University of Hawaii head coach Dick Tomey before turning to Tony Mason at the University of Cincinnati. Mason lasts three years, goes 16-18-1, and leaves after the NCAA puts UA on probation for various violations.
• After lights are installed at a cost of $4,800, Arizona Stadium hosts its first night game when the Cats open the 1931 season against San Diego State with an 8-0 loss.
• Arizona closes a lackluster 1996 season by hosting a juggernaut ASU team that was to become the first Pac-10 team in five years to go 11-0. The Sun Devils roll up 32 first downs, 450 yards rushing and 651 yards in offense in a 56-14 rout. The game is marred by an ugly incident when UA defensive tackle Daniel Greer is clipped far from the play as teammate Mikal Smith returns an interception 98 yards for a touchdown. Five players, three from ASU, are ejected for personal fouls.
• In one of the greatest shootouts in college football history, California beats UA 56-55 in 1996, the first year of the NCAA tiebreaker. Tied 35-35 at the end of regulation, neither team could stop the other in four overtimes. UA finally gambles on its final touchdown, trying a faked extra-point kick that fails. Freshman quarterback Keith Smith completes 25 of 36 passes for 418 yards and five touchdowns and runs for 84 yards and two scores. He sets school and NCAA freshman records for total offense. UA receiver Jeremy McDaniel has 14 catches for 283 yards, both school records, and a Pac-10 mark for receiving yardage.
• ASU travels to Tucson in 1982 needing a win to clinch its first Pac-10 football title and accompanying Rose Bowl trip. The Sun Devils leave town 28-18 losers after UA stuns ASU’s blitzing defense in the first quarter with a quick pass over the middle from quarterback Tom Tunnicliffe to tailback Brian Holland, who races 92 yards for a score. The secondlongest TD pass play in UA history helps UA build a 26-0 third-period lead and hold on for the win.
• Arizona is victim to what was then the greatest fourth-quarter comeback in NCAA history when Utah erases a 27-0 deficit and beats the Cats 28-27 in Salt Lake City in 1973. Utah quarterback Gary Van Galder throws scoring passes of 52 and 36 yards in the final period, and after a Utah 68-yard interception return for a TD cuts UA’s lead to 27-21, runs for a touchdown from the UA 4 in the closing seconds.
• Quarterback Eddie Wilson attempts only six passes at Colorado State in 1961, but completes five, two for long touchdowns, and racks up 212 passing yards in a 28-6 UA victory. He still holds the UA record for yards gained per attempt (35.3) and yards gained per completion (42.4).
• Nebraska’s ground game, one of the most potent forces in college football over the past decade, is held to 87 net yards by UA in the 1998 Culligan Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The resulting 23-20 UA victory gives Arizona a 12-1 mark – a school record for wins – and propels the team to a No. 4 ranking in both major polls.
• Four UA interceptions help seal a 20-14 victory over New Mexico in the 1997 Insight.com Bowl at Arizona Stadium. UA coach Dick Tomey gives the start to fifth-year senior quarterback Brady Batten, who missed most of the year with an injury. Kelvin Eafon scores two touchdowns and gains 75 yards while halfback Trung Canidate rushes for 97 yards. By mutual agreement, the schools retire the ”Kit Carson Rifle,” previously held by the winner after any game played in the longtime rivalry between former WAC teams.
• Halfback Walter Nielson is the No. 1 pick of the New York Giants in the 1939 National Football League draft. He had been one of UA’s first major California recruits, a prized running back from Redondo Beach, Calif., who was coveted by USC. Nielson chose UA because he was asthmatic, and his family thought Tucson would be beneficial to his health.
• Defensive lineman Mike Dawson, a Tucson High product, becomes the No. 1 draft pick of the NFL St. Louis Cardinals in 1976. Dawson plays with the Cardinals through 1983, then plays at Detroit and Kansas City before retiring.
• Offensive tackle John Fina is the No. 1 draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 1992.
• Linebacker Ricky Hunley was drafted No. 1 by the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL and immediately traded to the Denver Broncos, where he played in two Super Bowls. Hunley was the seventh player chosen, the highest ever by a Wildcat.
• In 1990, linebacker Chris Singleton becomes the No. 1 draft pick of the New England Patriots, and the No. 8 selection overall.
• Defensive lineman Anthony Smith becomes the 1991 firstround draft pick of the Oakland Raiders.
• Defensive back Chris McAlister becomes the No. 10 pick in the 1999 draft and the first selection by the Baltimore Ravens.
• Arizona cornerback Chris McAlister caps an outstanding three-year career by winning the 1998 Mosi Tatupu Special Teams Player of the Year Award as the nation’s top college football player in the kicking game. McAlister averages 29.5 yards on punt returns and has five interceptions during his senior season.
• Linebacker Ricky Hunley becomes the first Wildcat elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, with induction in 1998. Hunley had 566 tackles in his 1980-83 UA career and was a consensus first-team All-American in 1982 and 1983. He was a threetime all-Pacific-10 Conference choice and 1983 Pac-10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year. Hunley also set a school record with five fumble recoveries in the 1983 season.
• Wayne Wyatt, starting center for UA in 1995 and 1996, is named one of 16 National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame National Scholar-Athletes in ’96, earning an $18,000 scholarship for postgraduate studies, which he uses for dental school.
• In the highest-scoring game of the series, UA defeats ASU 50-42 in 1998 as Wildcat junior tailback Trung Canidate rushes 18 times for three touchdowns and a schoolrecord 288 yards. Canidate scores on runs of 80, 66 and 48 yards; ASU’s team net rush yards is a mere 51, thanks in part to UA linebacker Marcus Bell, who records 21 tackles.
• The 10th-ranked Wildcats and third-rated Bruins go toe to toe for 50 minutes last year at Arizona Stadium. The Bruins score on three consecutive offensive plays in the fourth quarter, turning a 31-28 lead into a 52-28 victory, the only blemish on UA’s 12-1 season. The Bruins outmuscle Arizona up front, rushing for 297 yards while the Cats muster only 90.
• Arizona’s famed ”Desert Swarm” defense leads the nation in rushing defense in 1992, allowing opponents only 30.1 yards per game on the ground.
• UA coach Dick Tomey is named the 1992 Pacific-10 Conference Coach of the Year.
• Former UA head football coach Jim Young is inducted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame in 1999. Young coached at UA from 1973-76 and later at Purdue (1977-81) and Army (1983-90). His final numbers: 120-71-2, including 31-13 at Arizona.
• End Dave Hibbert leads the nation in pass receiving in 1958, grabbing 61 for 606 yards.
• UA fields its first football team in 1899 under volunteer coach Stuart Forbes. The UA squad – it doesn’t have a nickname – battles the Tucson Town team to a scoreless tie.
• Student manager Quintus Anderson, told to buy new uniforms for the 1900 season, finds a good deal on red and blue jerseys and purchases them even though the school colors are sage green and silver. The student body likes the new jerseys so much that it makes red and blue the university’s new colors.
• UA hires James Fred McKale from Tucson High School in 1914 to be its first athletic director and coach of everything. McKale’s Tucson High team had held UA to a scoreless tie in 1911.
• In ”Pop” McKale’s first season as head coach, the underdog UA squad performs so well against West Coast power Occidental College (losing 14-0) that Los Angeles Times reporter William M. Henry writes: ”….the Arizona men showed the fight of wild cats.” The UA student body immediately adopts ”Wildcats” as the school nickname.
• In 1915, with interest in football running high after a ’14 victory over Pomona College for the mythical West Coast title, the student body completes a huge, whitewashed stone ”A” on Sentinel Peak west of town. From then through the 1970s, UA students follow the annual tradition of torching the ”A” on the night before the season’s first football game and whitewashing it the following morning.
• The Wildcats blame food poisoning after losing to Phoenix Indian School 13-0 in 1901 in Phoenix. ”Six of the football players became sick on milk used in the mess hall,” a local newspaper reports. On the return game in Tucson, Indian School has a 6-5 lead when UA attempts a ”try for a goal,” which would have given the Wildcats the lead. To the amazement of the spectators, the Indians walks off the field and go home. Stunned officials, all from Tucson, award UA a 6-0 victory by forfeit.
• Wildcat football makes its television debut in the 1953 season finale against ASU. Fans across the state watch UA win 35-0.
• Ontiwaun Carter, a 5-foot-10, 177-pound tailback, rushes for 67 yards against USC in the 10th game of the 1994 season to become Arizona’s all-time rushing leader, passing Art Luppino. Carter finishes his four-year career with 3,501 yards on 815 carries.
• Art Luppino, the ”Cactus Comet,” leads the nation in rushing, scoring and all-purpose yards in 1954. Luppino gains 1,359 yards, scored 166 points and has 2,193 allpurpose yards.
• Quarterback Eddie Wilson leads the nation in passing efficiency rating in 1960 with a 140.8 mark. He completed 62 of 116 passes.
• Quarterback Eddie Wilson repeats as the nation’s leader in passing efficiency in 1961 with a 134.2 mark.
• Tailback Art Luppino wins the national rushing title for the second straight year in 1955, running for 1,313 yards. Luppino also ties for first in all-purpose running with 1,702 yards and is third in scoring with 96 points.
• Arizona erases a 12-point fourthquarter deficit and defeats ASU 28-27 in 1994 at Arizona Stadium. UA marches 79 and 56 yards for touchdowns in the final period, then watches as ASU kicker Jon Baker’s 47-yard, potentially gamewinning field goal attempt was inches wide to the right with 28 seconds left. The win gives UA a tie for second place in the Pac-10.
• ASU’s Kevin Gilbreath breaks away for a 51-yard TD run in the third period, giving the Sun Devils a 7-6 win victory over UA in 1992. UA turns the ball over twice on the ASU 5-yard line. Steve McLaughlin’s 57-yard field-goal attempt in the final minutes was short. The Sun Devils win despite being outgained 298-191.
• In 1930, Bill ”The Eel” Hargis becomes the first UA back to rush for more than 1,000 yards. A swift 167-pound halfback, Hargis runs for touchdowns of 20, 71 and 80 yards against California Tech and rushes for 167 yards against Arizona State College at Tempe. He also has an 84-yard punt against Rice, the longest in UA history.
• In his first game as a Wildcat, sophomore halfback Art Luppino rushes for 228 yards on six carries and scored 32 points. He scored on runs of 37, 48, 74 and 53 yards and has an 88-yard kickoff return. He quickly earns the nickname ”The Cactus Comet” the next weekend with a four-touchdown performance against Utah.
• The UA football program receives national headlines in October 1951 when several players are arrested for stealing prize chickens worth up to $100 apiece from the UA Poultry Farm. The players claim they stole the chickens to eat. Time magazine carries the story, and the Wildcats are greeted with a sign that reads ”Welcome, Chicken Thieves” when they go on the road to Texas the following week.
• The 1967 Wildcats pull off a huge upset, beating Ohio State, coached by Woody Hayes, 14-7 in Columbus. UA had lost to Wyoming by 19 points in its opener and was such an underdog against the Buckeyes that the oddsmakers didn’t set a line on the game. But UA coach Darrell Mudra, in his first of only two seasons with the Wildcats, sends to Columbus one of his assistant coaches, who stations himself in a high-rise dorm overlooking the Buckeyes’ practice field. The assistant calls Mudra, noting that Hayes, apparently unconcerned with the Cats, is using only five running plays in practice. Armed with this information, UA is ready for the Buckeyes, and unveils an additional surprise when Mudra brings in substitute quarterback Bruce Lee for Marc Reed, who was the nation’s No. 2 passer the year before. The Wildcats go to a ground game that stuns Ohio State.
• Defensive back Chuck Cecil is a consensus All-America selection in 1987.
• Quarterback Ted Bland is UA’s first All-America selection, gaining first-team Little All-America honors in 1935.
• Tony Mason is fired after the 1979 season after it is discovered that he and his assistants participated in an airplane ticket scam. That scandal and recruiting violations earns the Wildcats NCAA probation that banned them from postseason play and TV appearances for three years. Larry Smith, a former UA assistant under Jim Young, is hired from Tulane University to replace Mason.
• Defensive back Darryll Lewis puts a crushing tackle on Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave at the 1-yard line on fourth down in the closing minutes to preserve a 22-17 victory over the Ducks in a 1990 meeting at Arizona Stadium.
• Arizona plays its first game east of the Mississippi in 1936, losing 7-0 to Michigan State.
• UA defeats Camp Harry Jones 167-0 in 1920, the highest-scoring game in school history.
• The 1921 Wildcats thrash Texas Mines (now Texas-El Paso) 74-0, which still ranks as the most points UA has scored and the largest margin of victory over a collegiate opponent.
• J.F. ”Pop” McKale retires as head football coach after the 1930 season. In 16 seasons he posted an 60-31-6 record and had only one losing season.
• The 1993 Wildcats gain the school’s first Pacific-10 Conference championship, which they shared with UCLA. The Bruins, however, get the Rose Bowl nod because they beat Arizona 37-17 during the year.
• After compiling a seven-season mark of 48-28-3 at UA, Larry Smith becomes head coach at USC following the Wildcats’ victory over North Carolina in the 1986 Aloha Bowl. The Wildcats attempt to lure ex-Ohio State coach Earle Bruce, but eventually hire Dick Tomey, head coach at Hawaii, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the job in 1977, when UA hired Tony Mason.
• Dave Strack became UA’s new athletic director in 1972 and fired head football coach Bob Weber. Jim Young, an assistant at Michigan, became UA’s new coach. Young’s teams posted 8-3, 9-2 and 9-2 marks in his first three years but did not win a Western Athletic Conference title.
• The 1968 Wildcats enter the season finale against Arizona State with an 8-2 mark and a chance to play in the Sun Bowl, which is wavering between UA and the 7-2 Sun Devils. UA coach Darrell Mudra, believing the Wildcats deserve the bid, gives the Sun Bowl a ”take-us-now-or-not-at-all” ultimatum. The Sun Bowl committee agrees and takes UA. Word of the deal leaks out before the game, and the Sun Devils take out their anger with a 30-7 thumping at Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats lose 34-10 to Auburn in the Sun Bowl, and Mudra, 11-9-1 in two seasons, quits after the game, in large part because of a running battle with then-UA President Richard A. Harvill.
• The UA football program, which had competed in the Border Conference from 1931-61 and in the Western Athletic Conference from 1962-77, makes another major jump up in competition when the school, along with ASU, joined the Pacific 8 Conference in 1977. The new league becomes the Pacific-10 Conference.
• Place-kicker Max Zendejas becomes UA’s all-time scoring leader in 1985, surpassing Art Luppino. In four seasons Zendejas kicked 123 extra points and 79 field goals for 360 points. Luppino had held the former mark of 337.
• UA is one of five founding members of the Border Conference in 1931, joining Arizona State, New Mexico, Northern Arizona and New Mexico State. Texas Tech joined in 1932, followed by Texas Mines (now Texas-El Paso), West Texas State (now Texas A&M) and Hardin-Simmons.
• Michael Earle ”King Kong” Nolan became the first UA player to play in the National Football League, joining the Chicago Cardinals in 1937.
• The 1937 team goes 8-2, the best record in school history at the time, then loses coach Tex Oliver to Oregon.
• Quarterback Tom Tunnicliffe concludes his four-year career in 1983 with a school-record 7,336 yards passing.
• Safety Chuck Cecil sets a school record with four interceptions in UA’s 23-13 win over Stanford in 1987.
PHOTOS
The 1981 Wildcats, 2-2 and coming off and unimpressive 17-13 win over Stanford, visit Los Angeles as 21 1/2-point underdogs to top-ranked USC. UA gives up 211 yards rushing to Trojan tailback and Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen but the rest of the USC offense is stymied by a fired-up UA defense. The Cats, coached by Larry Smith, gain 405 yards and come out with a 13-10 upset victory that gives the program positive national exposure after suffering NCAA sanctions from the Tony Mason regime. Above, UA defensive lineman Julius Holt can’t hold back in the game’s final minutes.
John ”Button” Salmon, UA student body president and quarterback of the football team, dies on Oct. 18, 1926, of injuries from a car accident. His final words, spoken to J.F. ”Pop”McKale: ”Tell them … tell the team to bear down.” Soon afterward, the student body adopts ”Bear Down” as the school’s athletic motto.
It’s a highlight play that would be shown time and again during the 1998 season. With the Wildcats trailing Washington 28-24 with nine seconds left, sophomore quarterback Ortege Jenkins takes off for the end zone from the Huskies’ 9-yard line. Three defenders converge on Jenkins at the 2. He leaps and flips over the trio, landing on his feet in the end zone for the winning touchdown. His miracle flip provides an exclamation point to a 13-play, 80-yard drive and gives the Cats a 5-0 record.
MUG
In 1914, during James Fred ”Pop” McKale’s first season as head coach, the underdog UA squad performs so well against West Coast power Occidental College (losing 14-0) that Los Angeles Times reporter William M. Henry writes: ”… the Arizona men showed the fight of wild cats.” The UA student body immediately adopts ”Wildcats” as the school nickname. McKale (at left) would retire as head football coach in 1930 after posting a 60-31-6 record that included only one losing year.