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Arizona senior football player Verne G. LaTourette was also a captain of the school’s rifle team in 1914-15 (Desert Yearbook photo)
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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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Although not popular and not televised on ESPN, rifle continues to be an NCAA-sanctioned sport today with West Virginia the two-time defending champion.
Because of the evolution of the rifle into American gaming at the turn of the century, the sport made headlines in 1914. Arizona, behind senior captain Verne G. LaTourette, also a member of the football team, won the “Officers Cup” on the long range and finished fifth in their class in the intercollegiate indoor matches in 1914-15.
RELATED: Brief Verne LaTourette profile
LaTourette was busy in the fall, balancing his time with the rifle team, football team and the school’s battalion, leading drills as a cadet major and rifle instructor. According to the school’s yearbook The Desert, indoor rifle matches in the fall included competition between 32 of colleges and universities. The teams ranking ahead of Arizona were Yale, Kansas State, Nebraska and Michigan.
On the long range during the spring, Arizona snatched won the Officers Cup from a Phoenix club team.
Shooting competition continues today at Arizona, although it is at a club level. The Sonoran Shotgun Club at Arizona trains at the Tucson Trap and Skeet, a certified training center for USA Shooting, which is the national governing body for the Olympic Shooting Sports.
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THE LAST WEEK IN THE SERIES:
— No. 24: 1914 team members part of required military program on campus
— No. 25: More 1914 love for the “Wild Cat”
— No. 26: Formation of “A” Club also evolved 100 years ago
— No. 27: McKale established identity for Arizona in first season
— No. 28: Unlike Rodriguez today, McKale afforded three preseason games in 1914
— No. 29: The “Wildcat Yell” hits Arizona’s campus in 1914-15
— No. 30: Update of player size then and now
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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
Thursday, Aug. 6, 1914
World War I develops further with Austria-Hungary declaring war on Russia as well as Serbia, which declares war on Germany. Dennis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the French Foreign Legion, becoming the first American to fight in World War I.
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This 1912 postcard displays what reads to be Arizona’s rifle team, but it actually was the school’s battalion because the rifle team was comprised of no more than 10 players (University of Arizona Library Special Collections)
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.
