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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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1914-15 Desert Yearbook photo of Emzy Lyncn, a freshman starting center on the football team
Emzy Harvey “Swede” Lynch made an immediate impact as the man in the middle, playing center for J.F. “Pop” McKale’s historic 1914 team.
Lynch, only a freshman from Yuma, established himself as a starter heading into the regular-season opener at Occidental (the fateful game in which the Varsity became the Wildcats) after practice games against the Douglas YMCA and Tempe Normal (ASU).
Although he was ahead of his time on the football field, he made a bold prediction with family members about air travel later in life that did not stand the test of time.
A U.S. Army veteran of World War I and II, Lynch spent 37 years of his life in the military. At the outset of World War II, when he was 47, he served as a recruiter with the Army air corps. He recruited aviation cadets, trainees for navigation-bombardiers and pilot commissions at various institutions in Arizona, including the University of Arizona campus.
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THE LAST WEEK IN THE SERIES:
— No. 20: Two 1914 Varsity football members part of student newspaper staff
— No. 21: Development of fraternity life significant 100 years ago
— No. 22: University of Arizona’s seal among firsts of 100 years ago
— No. 23: Rifle popular sport in 1914, football player captained teams
— 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
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He was fascinated about air combat in the war, which proved to be dubious as his son Floyd Allen “Sonny” Lynch was shot down and killed during World War II in 1942 while serving near the Philippines in the South Pacific.
“Emzy was my great uncle on my mother’s side of the family,” Margaret Overstreet of Sun City told me recently. “Emzy was quite a guy. His immediate family is all gone now, but I do know that he served as an officer in both World War I and II. He was an aide to Gen. McArthur.
“Emzy once said that planes were pretty handy things to have in a war, but that they would never be of any use in the civilian sector. Boy was he wrong.”
 Emzy Lynch when he was about 50 in 1945 with his niece G.G. and sister Faye (Lynch family photo) |
 Emzy Lynch as a small boy after his family moved from Texas to Yuma in 1900. He is pictured with his father William Edmund Lynch, mother Margaret Tennessee St. John and five sisters (Lynch family photo) |
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
Monday, Aug. 10, 1914
Arizona Republican (Phoenix) report: “Dr. Rufus B. von KleinSmid, head of the department of education at DePauw University, has been tendered the presidency of the University of Arizona. This action was taken at the last meeting of the board of regents of the university. Although he had not been an applicant for the position. Dr. von KleinSmid was invited by the board to visit the institution and look over conditions, with a view to accepting the presidency, and met with the regents last week. Following the meeting, he was formally offered the position. Dr. von Kleinsmid, who is the head of the department of psychology and education at the Indiana institution, was highly recommended for the position by a number of prominent educators of the country as being well qualified for the position. He is said to have good executive ability and a capacity for handling students, as well as being a thorough scholar and a man of high ability as a lecturer. Dr. von KleinSmid will announce his decision in the next week or ten days.”
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Emzy Lynch as a toddler before he headed west with his family from Texas to Yuma in 1900 (Lynch family photo)
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Emzy Lynch also served two tours of duty in Japan, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel with 37 years in the Army. Following his military career, he taught physics and served as a football coach at Northern Arizona University.
“One of his students was Andy Devine, who later became a famous actor and comedian,” Overstreet said of DeVine, who attended NAU before transferring to Santa Clara, where he became successful in football.
Later in his life, Emzy Lynch worked for the sheriff’s department as a bailiff and adult probation officer until he retired in 1966. He was an active member of the Arizona Alumni Association until his passing in 1979 at age 83.
Lynch, like many settlers of his generation, came to Arizona in 1900 in a covered wagon from his native Texas. The Lynch family moved to Yuma, where Emzy became a high school sports legend like his Arizona teammate Orville McPherson. After playing for Arizona from 1914-16, Lynch left college to serve in the Army in World War I from 1917-18. He returned to Arizona, became captain of the Wildcats in 1919 and graduated with a degree in mining engineering.
Emzy Lynch passed away in 1979 at the age of 83 in Phoenix (Lynch family photo)
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.
