In the 50 days leading up to Arizona’s season-opener against Toledo, on Sept. 1 at Arizona Stadium, TucsonCitizen.com and its affiliate WildAboutAZCats.net will rank the Top 50 games in the history of the football program. The ranking is at No. 32 as the kickoff to the Wildcats’ season — and the start of the Rich Rodriguez era — is only 32 days away.

SCORE: Arizona Wildcats 24, No. 8 California Golden Bears 20

DATE: Nov. 11, 2006

SITE: Arizona Stadium, 55,519 in attendance

WHY IT MADE THE LIST: Arizona fans and its players on the 1983 and 1993 teams must have really enjoyed this one in Tucson. Those were the years Cal rallied at home to force the Wildcats off the road toward a prosperous finish, including a trip to the Rose Bowl. This was Arizona’s turn to derail the Golden Bears, who had a BCS title and Rose Bowl appearance in their sight.

The Golden Bears tied Arizona 33-33 in 1983 despite trailing 26-3 early in the second half. The UA was 4-0 and ranked No. 3 in the nation heading into that game. The Wildcats finished 7-3-1. Ten years later, Cal upended the UA — ironically by the same 24-20 score — effectively knocking the Cats (atop the Pac-10 at 5-1 entering the game) out of their most serious Rose Bowl run in the program’s history. The UA finished the season with a 29-0 drubbing of Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, but a Rose Bowl trip would have been much sweeter.

California, on an eight-game winning streak after losing the season-opener at Tennessee, was 8-1 overall and 6-0 in the Pac-10 when it came to Tucson late in the 2006 season. A showdown for the Pac-10 title loomed a week later against USC for Cal but Arizona, 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the Pac-10, had other plans. The Wildcats, who upset No. 25 Washington State in Pullman a week prior to the game, were shutout against the Golden Bears in the two previous meetings. They were outscored 66-0 in those games. Arizona coach Mike Stoops and the Wildcats ended their frustrations against Cal in front of a regional TV audience.

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In the 50 days leading up to Arizona’s season-opener against Toledo, on Sept. 1 at Arizona Stadium, TucsonCitizen.com and its affiliate WildAboutAZCats.net will rank the Top 50 games in the history of the football program. The ranking is at No. 38 as the kickoff to the Wildcats’ season — and the start of the Rich Rodriguez era — is only 38 days away.

SCORE: Arizona Wildcats 52, UCLA Bruins 14

DATE: Nov. 5, 2005

SITE: Arizona Stadium, 55,775 in attendance

WHY IT MADE THE LIST: UCLA was ranked No. 7 in the country with eight victories without a loss in 2005. Arizona, meanwhile, under second-year coach Mike Stoops, had only won five games in two seasons in the post-John Mackovic era heading into this game. Some would argue this game deserves to be rated higher in the Top 50 list because UCLA was the highest-ranked team to lose to Arizona since the Wildcats beat No. 1 Washington 16-3 in Tucson on Nov. 7, 1992. The Bruins, however, were not as invincible as their record suggested.

They were 5-0 in the Pac-10, but in four of those games, they won by a combined 17 points, including overtime wins over Washington State and Stanford. The Bruins had come from behind in the fourth quarter to win in three of their previous four games, including erasing a 21-point deficit a week previously against a Stanford team that finished 5-6. UCLA lost 66-19 two weeks later against No. 1 USC for the Pac-10 championship. Arizona also had a significant win before that with Stoops, winning in Tucson against No. 18 ASU 34-27 to end his first season in 2004. The Sun Devils were also not overwhelmingly great, either, losing to USC and Cal by a combined score of 72-7 that season.

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RELATED LINK: Penn State coach, administrators let us all down — Andy Morales, TucsonCitizen.com

EDITOR’S NOTE This is a repost of a blog written by Javier Morales of TucsonCitizen.com and WildAboutAZCats.net on Nov. 8, 2011. Morales’ blog reflects on what Arizona’s loss in 1999 meant to the Wildcats’ program, which is miniscule in scope to what happened to the victims in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual-abuse case, but it was worth publishing. The NCAA announced this morning sanctions placed on Penn State because of the lack of institutional control. Among those sanctions is Penn State vacating wins from 1998 to 2011. One of those victories was the season-opening rout of Arizona, which was ranked No. 4 in the nation entering the game. Sandusky was on the sideline as part of Joe Paterno’s staff in that game. Although the win is vacated by Penn State, it does not mean Arizona is granted the victory. However, if justice was served before this game — as we have learned it should have been — it would have impacted this game between Penn State and Arizona.

“Jerry Sandusky admitted to my face, he admitted it. He admitted that he lathered up my son when they were naked and he bear-hugged him. If they would have done something about it in 1998, and then again in 2002 — there was two chances they dropped the ball and I think they should all be held accountable.” — Mother of one of the alleged victims in the Sandusky case as quoted by CBSSports.com

If law authorities decided to press charges against Sandusky, after concluding an investigation of the alleged 1998 sexual-abuse incident involving him and this mother’s son, the future of Arizona football and coach Dick Tomey could have been altered.

Penn State, with Sandusky as defensive coordinator, and Arizona played in the Pigskin Classic to open the 1999 season. The Nittany Lions, ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press poll, routed No. 4 Arizona 41-7 before a national television audience and 97,168 at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pa.

“It’s terribly damaging to them and for the conference,” former Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen was quoted as saying in an Associated Press story after the game.

After the UA posted the 12-1 record in 1998, it appeared that Tomey could have the Wildcats on the brink of finally making a Rose Bowl run and be a mainstay national power. The Wildcats, however, never recovered after that embarrassing loss to Penn State with Sandusky on the sideline coaching the Nittany Lions’ heralded defense, led by All-American linebacker LaVar Arrington.

Arizona running back Trung Canidate, mentioned as a Heisman candidate entering the game at Penn State, finished with only 37 yards on 10 carries. The Wildcats suffered an underachieving 6-6 season, losing their last three games.

Tomey was forced out following the 2000 season after the UA lost five consecutive games to finish 5-6. The mystique of the Desert Swarm and victory over Nebraska was — poof — gone.

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