UA Homecoming History
UA Homecoming Celebration One of Nation's Oldest
by Jon Alquist
The University of Arizona Alumni Association
September 20, 2001
The Homecoming football game is one of the great traditions of collegiate sports, and the University of Arizona, which held its first Homecoming in 1914, is one of the national pioneers in this colorful annual event.
Only four universities can trace an annual weekend return to the campus by alumni centering around a football game further back than the UA. The first recorded homecoming game was in 1910 at the University of Illinois. Indiana also held one that same year, and Wisconsin and Missouri followed in 1911. In 1914, Arizona became the fifth school to sponsor such an event.
The first Homecoming game at the UA saw the Wildcats — who had only acquired that nickname a few weeks before — defeat Pomona College, 7-6, on Thanksgiving Day, November 26. The game was played before an estimated crowd of 1,500 — many of whom watched from cars and horse-drawn buggies parked along the sidelines — on a field located northeast of the UA main gate at Park Avenue, about where the Arizona State Museum North Building (old library) now stands.
The first Homecoming game to be played in Arizona Stadium was the stadium dedication game on October 12, 1929. Arizona defeated Cal Tech, 35-0, before a crowd of some 6,000, including Governor J.C. Phillips, who gave the dedication address.
The first Homecoming Parade, featuring student-built floats driven around the new stadium track, also was held in 1929. The first Homecoming night game was played in 1931, a 32-0 loss to Rice, which was only the second UA loss in 17 Homecoming contests.
Following that 1931 game under the lights, night games became the norm for Homecoming, with 19 of the next 24 games (through 1957) being played in the evening. Homecoming games from 1958 through 1975 were daytime affairs, but night games predominated again for the next 20 years, with only one day game (1980) played between 1976 and 1994. Since 1995, three of the last six games have been played in the afternoon, usually to accommodate national television.
Only world war has caused the University to suspend Homecoming festivities, with no games in 1918 or 1943-45. The 1942 game, a 20-6 victory over Oklahoma State, was designated at Arizona's 28th Homecoming game, but no formal events were held on campus due to wartime travel restrictions.
Following World War II, one of Homecoming's most popular traditions began in 1947 with the election by the student body of the first Homecoming queen, Tucson sophomore Ruth Tackett. In 1983, the first Homecoming king, Don Hayes, was named. In 1988, the tradition was begun of crowning the Homecoming king and queen on Friday night at a bonfire and pep rally on the Mall near Old Main, following the Bear Down Bash in Bear Down Gym.
Beginning in 1949, the Homecoming Parade was held through the streets of downtown Tucson, with the queen's and winning floats being displayed at halftime of the football game. In the mid-1970's, the parade moved back to the UA Mall, where it has become the nation's largest in length and number of participants.
In conjunction with the UA's Centennial celebrations in 1985, the west end of the Mall between Cherry and Campbell Avenues became the scene of Saturday's "Tents on the Mall." The lively and colorful spectacle of red and white-striped and blue and white-striped tents, reminiscent of a medieval fair, has become the most widely attended event of Homecoming other than the football game itself. Sponsored by fraternities, sororities, and a variety of student, alumni, and other campus organizations, Tents on the Mall allows returning alumni, students, family and friends to gather for a variety of food, drink, and entertainment, and to reminisce and renew old ties.
Tents on the Mall quickly grew from its original 30 to more than 100 tents, eventually taking up the entire Mall from Campbell to Old Main. In 1998, due to construction work on the Mall west of Cherry, the tents and other Mall activities were moved to the west side of Old Main and the east Mall area in front of the Student Union.
Since that first game in 1914, Arizona has posted an overall winning record at Homecoming of 49-29-5 (.620). Until the arrival of Dick Tomey as head coach in 1987, the Wildcats hadn't given the old grads much to cheer about in recent years. In the 20 games between 1970 and 1989, Arizona won only 5 and tied one. In the Tomey era, the Cats were 8-5-1, highlighted by 1992's 16-3 victory over No. 1-ranked Washington before a record Homecoming game crowd of 58,510. Six other Homecoming games have drawn more than 55,000 to Arizona Stadium.
In addition to an all-time Homecoming record of 49-29-5 (.620), the UA is 38-29-2 (.582) in games at Arizona Stadium (since 1929), and 10-12-1 (.457) during the Pac-10 era (since 1978).
The highest scoring Homecoming football game in the modern era was the 1980 shootout between Arizona and University of the Pacific, in which the Wildcats prevailed 65-35, setting a number of school and stadium offensive records that still stand. Arizona also beat New Mexico State 73-0 in 1916, and recorded an 110-0 victory over an outmanned New Mexico Military Institute junior college squad in 1921.
The UA's worst Homecoming game losses were by 32 points, to Rice, 32-0, in 1931 and Texas Tech, 39-7, in 1950. Arizona's longest Homecoming game win streak is eight, between 1916 and 1924, 1935-45, and 1957-64. The most Homecoming games the Wildcats have lost in a row is five, from 1975 to 1979.
In 2000, with construction of the new Student Union Building scheduled to begin in December, the Bear Down Bash became the "Tear Down Bash" and was held in the Arizona Ballroom of the Student Union.