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— General history
— J.F. “Pop” McKale
— The games
— Comparisons then and now
— Wildcats nickname
— Military service
— Rankings
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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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Some may wonder why Arizona would adopt a nickname after a loss. The acquisition of the nickname “Wildcats” after a hard-fought 14-0 loss at Occidental in 1914 is the ultimate form of a moral victory.
The killjoys might say Arizona is cursed for it. Their derision: No Rose Bowl again? That’s OK. An eight- or nine-win season is just fine.
Can you imagine if they had post-game radio call-in shows in 1914? Or talking heads arguing all week about whether it’s a good idea to feel good about a loss to Occidental? Occidental? Internet message boards might be mixed between those in favor of patting Arizona’s “Varsity” on the back while others claiming there is no such thing as a moral victory.
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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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Walter Johnson
What they were talking about on this day in 1914
Sunday, June 21, 1914
Washington Senators ace Walter Johnson pitches a complete game and wallops a grand slam in a 7-3 victory over Detroit. The Tigers’ controversial Ty Cobb was the bigger news of the day, however, as he was not at the park but in jail because of a scuffle with a butcher’s clerk the night before. Cobb suffered a broken thumb in the fight and was out 10 days. He fought the clerk because the butcher refused to take back fish that Mrs. Cobb claimed was spoiled.
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If the Wildcats play Oregon, USC or UCLA tough on the road late in the season but come up short, thereby affecting their standing the Pac-12 title race, are you proud or do you think: “Here we go again”?
Everything is relative. Arizona was only in its 14th year as a program — if you can call it that — in 1914. J.F. “Pop” McKale was in his first season, the 11th coach already in Arizona’s brief history. Most before him were player coaches. The school did not field a team in 1906 and 1907 because of a lack of interest and a belief that football was hazardous.
Bill Henry, the L.A. Times correspondent who created the “Wildcats” nickname for Arizona, played for Occidental in 1913. He is on the top row to the far right (Occidental Library photo)
Occidental in that day and age was the equivalent of USC today. The Tigers were the two-time defending Pacific or California champions when Arizona played them in Los Angeles on Nov. 7, 1914. They were the Pacific/California champs because of victories in 1912 and 1913 over Whittier and Pomona, two other powerhouses on the West coast during that time.
USC, which was trying to become a football power, was also emphasizing rugby in 1914. UCLA did not field a football team until 1919. Stanford and Cal played only rugby in 1914 because of football’s perceived brutality.
Stanford played football for 15 years but switched to rugby from 1906-1917 before playing football again in 1919. The Cardinal did not play any sport in 1918 because of World War I. California played primarily rugby before switching to football in 1916.
Occidental defeated Arizona 27-0 in Tucson the year before the “Varsity” made the return trip to Los Angeles in 1914. Oxy, as it is called, went undefeated in 1912 and 1913. Little-known fact: Bill Henry, the Los Angeles Times correspondent responsible for creating the Wildcats nickname with his account of the Arizona-Occidental game in 1914, played for the Tigers in 1913.
Fortunately for the history of Arizona’s program and the concept of its “Wildcats” name, the administration saw fit before McKale’s hiring to schedule a series with Occidental. Playing Oxy tough in 1914 developed a belief that Arizona’s program could become competitive. It convinced McKale, his players and Tucsonans that Arizona could break out of the mold of scheduling high schools, YMCA teams and Indian schools.
That belief was solidified with the 7-6 win over Pomona in the 1914 season-finale on Thanksgiving Day in Tucson. Pomona came to Tucson after upsetting Occidental. The euphoria over the win against Pomona caused the student body to put a huge “A” on Sentinel Peak behind the planning and guidance of engineering student Albert Condron, a member of the 1914 football team.
“A” Mountain was finalized in 1916.
A rousing victory literally propelled Arizona to new heights in 1914. The Wildcats’ only loss that year, to Occidental, started that climb.
Now if only Arizona can continue on and conquer the “Rose Bowl” mountain. How many more moral victories can Wildcat fans take before that happens?
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.
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