UA Wildcats will not go to the Rose Bowl and other truths about Tucson
by Hugh Holub on Nov. 08, 2010, under humor, tucson life and heritage
There are some things that ain’t ever gonna happen in Tucson.
The most likely thing to never happen is the UA Wildcats going to the Rose Bowl.
That truth was proven again when the Wildcats blew the best season they ever had by losing badly to Stanford.
The UA can spend all the money in the world on its football program, and Mike Stoops can recruit like mad, but there is just something about UA football that always comes out badly at the end. There is always that outrageous loss…usually to some second rate school. The Wilcats can beat number 1 teams, and then lose to a number 212th team every season.
Never could understand this because the UA basketcats under Lute Olson were a wonder. We actually got used to at least getting into the NCAA playoffs, and many of us treasure our Final 4 tee shirts and our NCAA championship memories.
So it isn’t the University that is incapable of winning the PAC 10 or 11 or whatever it is called now.
Maybe our destiny is to keep landing space craft on Mars and other seriously important research achievements.
Harvard and MIT never won a major bowl game. Too bad we can’t raise the kind of money and community support for academic achievement as we can for football.
Other things that are never going to happen in Tucson:
–we’ll never have a major league baseball team. Heck, we can’t even manage a Triple A league team any more.
–we’ll never have a new major high paying jobs industry locate in Tucson. Big news in town is getting another 300 call center jobs. Tucson works hard to be second rate and poor.
–we’ll never build a cross-town freeway. Too many neighborhood opponents who want everyone to ride a bike to work.
–we’ll never see a Tucsonan elected Governor of the state again. Or US Senator. Too many Republicans in Maricopa County.
Tucson is known as “the place where dreams go to die”.
Maybe we need a community-wide assessment of what Tucsonans are really good at and concentrate there.
Tucsonans are good at blocking new industries locating in town. Maybe we become a world center of expertise in avoiding economic development.
Tucsonans are good at coming up with really complicated business regulations that drive businesses out of town. Maybe we could export our city codes to communities that hate capitalism. Our Sister Cities should all be in Russia.
Tucsonans are good at filing lawsuits to protect endangered owls and snails. We’re already famous for this.
Tucsonans are good at creating creative enclaves and then tearing them down. Arts district? Warehouse district? More buildings waiting to be converted into parking lots in anticipation of fancy new developments that never get built. What we’re good at is developing parking lots.
Tucsonans are good at interplanetary explorations. We can’t find our way to a Wal Mart but can find water on Mars.
Tucsonans are good at building golf courses in the desert. So many golf courses…so little water. Maybe we’ll build the first golf course on Mars.
Rose Bowl? The closest we’ll ever get to Pasadena is to enter a precision Mariachi bicycle drill team in the Doo Dah parade.
August 24th, 2010 on 3:26 pm
I have to point out that there are excellent academic universities out there that also excel at football. The Georgia Institute of Technology is ranked in the top 5 engineering programs in the country (along with MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and Cal Tech), and was the ACC Champion last year for football and went to the Orange Bowl. Georgia Tech has 4 national titles in football.
November 8th, 2010 on 9:22 am
The last visionary that Tucson had was Howard Hughes. And he didnt even live here. Besides Hughes Aircraft he bought all that land out by the airport. Smart guy. That land is still being developed.
Maybe its not that there are too many Republicans in Maricopa County but that there are too many democrats in the center of Tucson. Lots of Republicans in the foothills and NW and far east /NE of Tucson.
November 8th, 2010 on 10:31 am
Well said fraser… This guy just demonized Tucson/Tucsonans, rightfully so I might add, and goes on to refuse to accept the reason for it. The Left. He just named a few of the Lefts/Demoncrats policies as the reasons for Tucsons failures, but can’t see the where those horrible ideas originate. Go figure…
November 8th, 2010 on 10:34 am
My mistake, I thought this was an opinion written by the Desert Hot Dog Mexican guy. My apologies Hugh.
November 8th, 2010 on 10:41 am
Joel:
Hugh makes a lot of good points. I may not agree with him sometimes but he does put a lot of good raw data on the border into his blogsite. The Three Sonorans is a good guy too but he is far more political. You can take a shot at him anytime he “usually” has a thick skin and can handle it.
November 8th, 2010 on 10:43 am
Just tink what kind of city we would have if we had all “Koz’s” on the City Council??? I cant wait for the next City Council election!!!
November 8th, 2010 on 10:44 am
typo..”think”…sorry
November 8th, 2010 on 11:03 am
I too think there are too many democrats in Tucson. I don’t think that is why the Arizona Wildcats haven’t been to the Rose Bowl. Someday it will happen, in spite of the democrats. Maybe even because of some of them. That will be a happy day for me.
November 8th, 2010 on 1:01 pm
There was a time recently when I was in a malaise over the many ways that Tucson is not as cool of a place as it used to be.But,rather than dwell on the lost baseball teams and bowl games, I decided to concentrate on the positive.So I started putting together a list of world class things in Tucson.
1) The Sonoran Desert Museum
2) U of A Swim Teams
3) U of A Softball
4) Monsoons
5) Raytheon
6) Telescope Optics
7) Rodeo & Parade
8) The A110 tank killers at DM
9) Resort Hotels
10) Linda Ronstadt
11) Mexican Food
12) Old Tucson
13) PGA Golf Tournament
14)Top Civil Attorney in the USA, Richard Grand
Then there are the really cool things just a notch below.
1)The Gaslight Theater
2) The Pima Air & Space Museum
3) The Mighty Catalina Mountains
4)Saguaro National Monument
5)Colossal Cave
6) Paul Bunyan
7) San Xavier Mission
8) EEGEE`s
November 8th, 2010 on 1:11 pm
See, running out of room for my list, makes me feel a lot better, and I didn`t even get to:
8) Mount Lemmon
9) Agua Caliente Park
10) Diamondback bridge
11) Flandrau Planetarium
12) The Boneyard
13) Valley of the Moon
14) U of A Basketball
November 8th, 2010 on 3:13 pm
As noted by azcapusc a lot of the good things about Tucson are tied to the U of A…which is threatened with even more drastic budget cuts by the right wingers in Phoenix.