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TABLE OF CONTENTS: — General history — J.F. “Pop” McKale — The games — Comparisons then and now — Wildcats nickname — Military service — Rankings |
LAST WEEK: — No. 53: McKale introduced spring practice — No. 54: Tucson businesses that started in 1914 — No. 55: Some “Varsity” members excelled in other sports — No. 56: McKale professed American history with vigor — No. 57: Honoring 1914 senior “football heroes” — No. 58: Where most of “Varsity” lived in 1914 — No. 59: Tucson’s entertainment in 1914 |
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Clipping of actual L.A. Times article published Nov. 8, 1914
Excerpt from L.A. Times, Nov. 8, 1914, authored by Bill Henry:
“Arizona’s cactus-fed athletes, despite heroic efforts on the part of their two halfbacks, (Asa) Porter and (Franklin) Luis, went down to defeat before the Occidental Tigers yesterday afternoon, the tally with all precincts heard from being 14 to 0 in favor of the Tigers.
Confident of rolling up a big score, the Tigers took the field with grins on their faces, but before the game was 10 seconds old they knew they had a battle on their hands.
The Arizona men showed the fight of wild cats and displayed before the public gaze a couple of little shrimps in the backfield who defied all attempts of the Tigers to stop them.”This site will conduct a countdown in a 100-day period, leading up to Arizona’s 2014 football season-opener with UNLV on Aug. 29 at Arizona Stadium. The 100 Days ‘Til Kickoff countdown will include information daily about the historic 1914 Arizona team that helped create the school’s nickname of “Wildcats” because of how they played that fateful day against Occidental.
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Arizona played Tucson High School five times from 1909 to 1912 and the “Varsity” had a 4-0-1 record, outscoring the Badgers 63-6 in those games.
Former Tucson High coach J.F. “Pop” McKale, whose teams were 0-2-1 against Arizona when he coached there, thought about the possibility of adding another game to the 1914 schedule against the Badgers after his team upset Pomona College 7-6 on Thanksgiving Day in the season finale.
The purpose of the game against Tucson High, according to newspaper reports in early December 1914, was to raise money for the Belgium relief fund. After being invaded by Imperial Germany in 1914, Belgium suffered a food shortage. The German occupiers in the Great War (World War I) took what little food was there to feed their army. The civilian population faced imminent starvation unless food was supplied to them.
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The 1914 Arizona football team that earned the honor of being named the first “Wildcats” was composed of (front row, left to right): Verne La Tourette, George Seeley, Leo Cloud, Richard Meyer, Asa Porter. Second row: Franklin Luis, Lawrence Jackson, Ray Miller, J.F. “Pop” McKale (coach), Turner Smith, Harry Hobson (manager), Orville McPherson, Albert Crawford, Ernest Renaud. Back row: Albert Condron, Emzy Lynch, Charley Beach, Vinton Hammels, Bill Hendry, George Clawson, Harry Turvey.
(AllSportsTucson.com graphic/Photo from University of Arizona Library Special Collections)
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What they were talking about on this day in 1914
Wednesday, July 8, 1914
In a conference in New York, former President Theodore Roosevelt sent a greeting to his progressive friends in Arizona. Roosevelt appears stronger after a bout with tropical fever that he caught while performing an expedition in the Brazilian rain forests earlier that year. He lost 50 pounds from the illness.
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Efforts in the United States and elsewhere included raising money for food and clothing for Belgium citizens.
Tucson High School contacted McKale and Arizona about the potential game. The Badgers wanted to bill it as a game for the championship of the southwest. Arizona held that title by winning all four games on campus that season against Douglas YMCA, Tempe Normal, New Mexico State and Pomona.
The Tucson Chamber of Commerce and local charity groups expressed interest of putting the game together and selling tickets, which indicated the popularity of the “Varsity” at the time.
The game never took place. McKale was open to other ways to raise funds for the charity.
The hard-fought season, which included a few injuries for the “Varsity”, took its toll. Arizona was also coming off the high of upsetting Pomona, which further sparked the excitement of the student body to adopt the nickname “Wildcats” for their athletic teams.
McKale’s scheduling philosophy of playing tougher opponents did not include Tucson High/ The Badgers never played Arizona again.
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
