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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:
Ernest Renaud was part of a famous big-game hunting family
Ernest James Renaud (1895-1944)
Junior fullback from Los Angeles
Renaud, a three-year letterman in football, was a reserve fullback with the 1914 team who went on to join the U.S. Army reserves during World War I in 1917 and 1918. He was a second lieutenant in the field artillery. After the war, Renaud returned to Southern Arizona and became an educator at Union High School in Pearce, which is in Cochise County. Renaud eventually moved to the Dallas area to become an oil field operator. He died at age 49 in 1944 from a heart attack.
The wedding of his father Charles Renaud and mother Soledad Appel was reported by the Arizona Weekly Citizen (later the Tucson Citizen) in 1891. The elder Renaud was from Willcox and Appel was born in Los Angeles but lived in Tucson. The Citizen proclaimed that the ceremony drew the largest attendance of any wedding that took place in Willcox until that time.
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THE LAST WEEK IN THE SERIES:
— No. 39: Franklin Luis, halfback
— No. 40: George Sweeney, right end
— No. 41: Emzy “Swede” Lynch, center
— No. 42: Verne La Tourette, left halfback
— No. 43: William Asa Porter, quarterback/fullback
— No. 44: Bill Hendry, right tackle
— No. 45: James Vinton Hammels, left end
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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 22, 1914
An armistice is signed in Mexico City between the Mexican government and the constitutionalists. The signing was done with the hopes of ending the hostilities between the two factions. The United States government is apprehensive believing peace was restored to Mexico. It was too early to believe Mexico could go back to normal after the revolution.
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Ernest Renaud’s brother, Charles L. Renaud, played with the Wildcats in 1917 and 1918. He was a center with the 1917 football team and served as student body president in 1918. He also moved to Texas to work in the oil industry as an oil geologist. The entire Renaud family was known as big-game hunters.
Ernest Renaud was also a member of Arizona’s marching band.
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.
