To get ready for the upcoming Arizona football season, All Sports Tucson offers a countdown, which will include history notes and a look ahead to the season — a good way to keep Arizona football on the mind in the summer months leading up to fall camp in early August and then kickoff against New Mexico on Aug. 31 in the start of the Brent Brennan era.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS PREVIOUS DAYS IN THE COUNTDOWN
A LOOK BACK — NO. 22 ART LUPPINO
With it being the 22nd day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 22 for Arizona is running back Art Luppino, the “Cactus Comet” who became legendary at Arizona from 1953-56. Luppino, 90, returned to the public eye last season before Arizona played Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl at San Antonio, which is close to Luppino’s Kerrville, Texas, home. Brandon Sanders, who is part of Arizona’s staff, visited the Wildcat legend and offered him some Wildcat garb with autographs. Luppino was nicknamed the “Cactus Comet” by the local media in 1954, when he led the NCAA with 1,359 rushing yards. He became the first running back to win the national rushing title in consecutive years after gaining 1,313 yards in 1955. Luppino, whose No. 22 jersey was retired during a halftime ceremony in 1999, held the Arizona single-game rushing record of 228 yards on only six carries against New Mexico State for 19 years until Jim Upchurch gained 232 yards against UTEP in 1973. Luppino’s 38 yards per rush against the Aggies remains a school record. His 21 rushing touchdowns in 1954 and 44 in his career remained school records until Ka’Deem Carey broke both marks in 2016. Luppino also holds the school record with the 32 points against New Mexico State in the 1954 game and 166 points that season. The “Cactus Comet” was also awarded the Swede Nelson Award for sportsmanship in 1954, which is one of the most memorable seasons for an Arizona football player in the program’s history. He was selected for the award by a panel of coaches for his sportsmanship exhibited against Texas Tech in a 28-14 loss. A Texas Tech lineman delivered a forearm to Luppino’s face, an illegal play, and Luppino lost a tooth and bled openly from the mouth. Instead of retaliating, Luppino motioned to the restless crowd to take a seat and he carried about his business. Luppino lived in Tucson and La Jolla, Calif., following his Arizona career and was an educator and martial arts trainer in the San Diego area before moving with his wife Camille to Kerrville, close to where her family is from.
NO. 22 IN 2024
No current players on Arizona’s roster wear No. 22 with Luppino’s jersey retired.
NOTE
Defensive line is the greatest concern for Arizona after losing nine starters or backups from that unit last season to the NFL, graduation and the transfer portal. New defensive line coach Joe Semaulo talked to reporters on Thursday about having a rotation of 12 players fill the two end and tackle positions. During spring practice, he metioned the rotation as being eight to 10 players. The starters will likely be players added through the transfer portal — Stanley Ta’ufo’ou (USC) and Tre Smith (San Jose State) at the ends and Chubba Ma’ae (UC Davis) and Kevon Darton (Syracuse).
THEY SAID IT
“Twelve is the goal. I feel good about twelve guys at this point. It’s just a random number that I just came up with.” — Seumalo about rotating up to 12 players at the four defensive line position
“I believe we should all take time to service others. My goal is to have an impact on everybody in some way.” — Smith about working with his fellow D-linemen
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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. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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