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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
— General history
— J.F. “Pop” McKale
— The games
— Comparisons then and now
— Wildcats nickname
— Military service
— Rankings
— The players
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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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In the next few days, the series will provide multiple quick facts of each player. Today’s player is:
In addition to playing bass in the marching band, George Clawson played violin for Arizona’s orchestra (Arizona El Sahuaro Yearbook picture)
George Albert Clawson (1890-1977)
Senior left guard from Los Cerritos, Colo.
Clawson played bass on Arizona’s marching band starting in 1913, when the “Pride of Arizona” became a common tradition at the school. Clawson’s music talents extended to being part of Arizona’s 10-member orchestra. He played the violin, an instrument that helped get him involved with square dancing. His obituary in the Provo (Utah) Daily Herald mentions that Clawson, an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized and participated in square dancing in Arizona. Many of the square-dancing events Clawson staged in Tucson in the 1950s were for charity. According to the Tucson Daily Citizen in 1951, his square-dancing group, Boots and Bustles, commonly took part in a fund-raising event at the Pioneer Hotel Ballroom in downtown Tucson. The annual square-dance jamboree raised money for the Crippled Children’s Clinic.
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THE LAST WEEK IN THE SERIES:
— No. 49: Charles Pablo Beach, senior right guard
— No. 50: The Father of the Arizona Wildcats
— No. 51: Captain makes claim for 1914 All-Southwestern Eleven
— No. 52: Add-on game against Tucson High at end of 1914 season doesn’t materialize
— No. 53: McKale introduced spring practice
— No. 54: Tucson businesses that started in 1914
— No. 55: Some “Varsity” members excelled in other sports
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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
Sunday, July 12, 1914
Horace Harmon Lurton, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, dies suddenly from a heart attack at age 70. He started to serve on the Supreme Court when he was 65, the oldest justice appointed to the Court. From Tennessee, he was a sergeant major of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, appointed Lurton to the Supreme Court.
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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.
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