This is an indication of the history of Arizona football — our discussion in this ZOOM conferencing show on the history of the Wildcats’ top wins and toughest losses was by far weighted more to the defeats.
Can they change the nickname to the What-if Wildcats?
Or possibly alter the motto to Bear Down More?
Everybody knows Arizona is the only Pac-12 institution that has not yet made it to the Rose Bowl and the Wildcats have been in the conference since 1978.
Think of it: Guys playing at that time are now grandfathers, some great grandfathers.
Our panel includes myself, a sports journalist since 1985, who has attended and reported on numerous Arizona football games over the last 30 years or so; my brother Andy, who has attended Arizona games longer than I have and has been a sports journalist for more than two decades; and Troy Hutchison, a budding sports reporter who is only 25 but has grandparents and family members who have been season ticket holders of football and basketball since the WAC days.
Does Hutchison have knowledge of some of the rough history of the program? His grandparents flew to watch Arizona play at Penn State in 1999 to watch the Wildcats take on the Nittany Lions.
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Arizona football is not all doom-and-gloom. The Wildcats have brought their fans players like Bruce Hill, “T” Bell, Mike Dawson, Cleveland Crosby, Ricky Hunley, Tom Tunnicliffe, Vance Johnson, Byron Evans, Chuck Cecil, Jay Dobyns, David Adams, Rob Waldrop, Tedy Bruschi, Chris McAlister, Rob Gronkowski, Nick Foles, Ka’Deem Carey, Scooby Wright III … this can go on and on.
Arizona football in the 1980’s and 1990’s was true bliss for Wildcat fans with “The Streak” against ASU, the win at Notre Dame, the upset of No. 1 USC at the Coliseum, the Desert Swarm defense, the annihilation of Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, the 12-1 season in 1998, and Larry Smith building hope for the future of the program and the hiring of Dick Tomey keeping that dream alive.
Here are the videos of our discussions of the top wins and toughest losses in Arizona football history:
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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.
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