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CATCH UP ON THE COUNTDOWN BY VISITING: ARIZONA’S TOP 100 INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
Only 79 days separate us from the start of Rich Rodriguez’s fifth season, when the Arizona Wildcats football team plays Brigham Young on Sept. 3 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
As is customary on this Web site, we will count down the days with an interesting element associated with each day. This year the topic is the top 100 individual records in Arizona’s storied football past.
Compiling the list was no easy task, but it was feasible to do with the information provided in the record books by the Arizona media relations department, and we appreciate that.
In past years, we have counted down the top games and highlighted players and some of the top plays in Arizona Wildcats football history. A couple of years ago in our top 100 countdown, we showcased the 1914 team that was responsible for Arizona becoming the “Wildcats”.
Back to this year’s countdown of the top 100 individual records in the 117 years of Arizona football:
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Jackie Wallace (25) and Mark Neal hold the Kit Carson Rifle, awarded in the past to the winner of the Arizona-New Mexico game (University of Arizona photo)
Jackie Wallace returned a school-record four punts for a touchdown in his illustrious Arizona career
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No. 79
Touchdowns on punt returns, career: 4, Jackie Wallace, 1970-72
NCAA record: 8, Wes Welker, Texas Tech, 2000-03; Antonio Perkins, Oklahoma, 2001-04
Jackie Wallace had a stellar career as a cornerback with the Arizona Wildcats, twice earning All-WAC first-team honors. His athleticism and ability in the open field were evident with his four punt returns for a touchdown in a career, a longstanding mark since his last football game with the Wildcats 44 years ago.
Wallace had plenty of opportunities to score on punt returns as he holds the Arizona record with 41 in a season (1971) and 80 in his career from 1970 to 1972. Three of his four touchdown returns were in one season in 1971, which is tied for the Arizona record for most in one season with Floyd Hudlow (who had three punt returns for a touchdown in 1964).
Arizona coach Bob Weber said of Wallace to the Tucson Citizen: “(Wallace does) the unexpected, catch a punt right in a tackler’s lap and take before he knows what happened.”
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
