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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. 63: Three yards, cloud of dust prevailed in 1914 — No. 64: 1964 homecoming celebration — No. 65: Color barrier broken in 1949 — No. 66: Three members of team also part of band — No. 67: Majority of team came from other parts of country — No. 68: Top 10 Arizona moral victories — No. 69: Much gained after ultimate moral victory |
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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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The Berger Memorial Fountain in front of Old Main honors the 13 Arizona students who lost their lives in World War I. This is a picture of the 1920 ceremony following its creation. (University of Arizona photo)
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The chain of events that started World War I, and ultimately the United States’ inclusion in the war in 1917, started on this date 100 years ago when Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire) and his wife were assassinated by a Serb nationalist.
Newspapers in the U.S., including the Chicago Tribune, depicted the assassination as a positive development because Ferdinand was unfriendly toward America and was “feared and disliked”.
“To such an extent has Francis Ferdinand been regarded, both at home and abroad, as the disturbing factor, and as committed to forceful and extremely aggressive policies, that the news of his death is almost calculated to create a feeling of universal relief,” an article in the Chicago Tribune, published June 29, 1914, states.
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A brief synopsis of what happened afterward: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia a month later. Russia had a treaty with Serbia and began to prepare its own army for the war. Germany had a treaty with Austria-Hungary and declared war against Russia on Aug. 1, 1914. France had a treaty with Russia so it joined war against Germany two days later. Germany invaded neutral Belgium on Aug. 4 in its march to attack France. Britain had a treaty with France and Belgium so it declared war against Germany on Aug. 4. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand all joined with Britain.
The United States, which tried to remain neutral under President Woodrow Wilson, did not join the war until April 7, 1917. This occurred after Germany decided to resume submarine warfare on all commercial ships headed toward Britain. Germany also offered a military alliance to Mexico in the Zimmermann Telegram, and publication of that offer outraged Americans just as German U-boats (submarines) started sinking American ships in the North Atlantic.
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
Sunday, June 28, 1914
Because of the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a staunch ally with Germany, the Germans withdraw from the Davis Cup that was to be played in Boston in August of 1914.
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Emzy “Swede” Lynch was an officer in World War I and World War II
The Zimmermann Telegram hit particularly close to home in Tucson. It was a diplomatic proposal from the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, to Mexico to join the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria), if United States entering World War I on the side of the Entente Powers (Russia, France and England). The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents outraged American public opinion.
Twelve members of Arizona’s 1914 football team served in World War I. All survived. One of them, Emzy “Swede” Lynch, was an officer in World War I and World War II.
Thirteen other students from Arizona, many of whom attended classes with members of the “Varsity” because they attended the university at the same time, were not as fortunate. Those from the school who perished in World War I are honored with the Berger Memorial Fountain in front of the entrance of Old Main.
The list of those honored:
— Alexander Tindolph Berger
— Karl Thomas Hurst
— Morgan Bland McDermott
— William Orville Bloys
— James Preston Jones
— Cornelis Molenbeek
— Hugh Daye Campbell
— Ritchie William Jones
— Leslie Abram Waterbury
— Corlande Brown Curry
— Louis Edward Kengla
— Homer Donald Whipp
— Leonard Low
U.S. Army General John J. Pershing addresses the crowd at the 1920 ceremony of the Berger Memorial Fountain outside Old Main, honoring fallen University of Arizona students who served during World War I (University of Arizona photo)
The fountain is named after Berger because he was the nephew of Alexander Berger, an important Tucson benefactor from 1910 to 1940. In the memory of those who lost their lives in World War I, including his nephew, Alexander Berger donated $5,000 to the university in 1919 for the construction of a Memorial Fountain on campus.
On Jan. 31, 1920, the Memorial Fountain in front of Old Main was dedicated amid a large turnout of students, faculty, townspeople, and military who came to honor the university’s World War I dead and to greet the guest of honor, General John J. Pershing. University president Rufus B. von KleinSmid gave Pershing — a general officer in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I — an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Later in the day, at a ceremony in Douglas following Pershing’s visit of U.S. Army camps there, the general lauded Arizona’s efforts during World War I.
“It is with great pleasure that I speak of the way in which you met your duties in support of the government during the war,” Pershing was quoted as saying by the Bisbee Daily Review. “I know of no section in the country which has a finer record of patriotic service and foresight.”
Pershing was especially appreciative of Southern Arizona’s mining of copper, an important industry for ammunition during World War I.
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.
