The UA announced last week its Oct. 19 homecoming football game against Colorado is a sellout. As far as I could research, not even an ASU-Arizona Territorial Cup game has been sold out more than a few days before kickoff.
Across the last 45 years, with the exception of UA-ASU games, the only Arizona home football games to be sold out before game day were Arizona-Notre Dame in 1980, Arizona-Ohio State in 2000 and Arizona-BYU in 2006.
Two Iowa-Arizona games, in 1987 and 2010, were sellouts, but none sold out before game day. An estimated 5,000 Iowa fans were at each game.
In 1980, about 3,000 Notre Dame fans held a pep rally near campus a night before the game. An estimated 10,000 Irish fans attended the game, won 20-3 by No. 4-ranked Notre Dame. There was no live TV of the game.
In 2000, the No. 18 Buckeyes, coming off a dreary 6-6 season, purchased roughly 7,500 tickets for a 27-17 victory over the Wildcats.
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And in 2006, BYU fans bought close to 10,000 tickets for a sellout of 58,450; the UA shut down ticket sales a day before kickoff. Arizona won 16-13 on a last-second field goal by Nick Folk.
Now comes Colorado and Deion Sanders, who have sold out all three road games this season, at Nebraska (86,906), Colorado State (40,099) and UCF (45,702).
A year ago, the Buffaloes sold out road games at TCU (53,094), Oregon (59,889), Utah (51,595) and ASU (54,086) and drew the largest UCLA crowd at the Rose Bowl (71,343) in a season the Bruins averaged just 43,272 for its other home games.
Here’s hoping for a late-afternoon kickoff and temperatures in the mid-80s.
From Greg Hansen's Notebook: In February 1985, Pete Rose was offered $3,000 to participate in Arizona Wildcat's annual All-Pro Alumni baseball game. Rose, 44, turned down the money, played and managed and gave fans on the UA campus a show.
From Greg Hansen's Notebook: Among the takeaways from Friday night's McKale scene, transfers Trey Townsend and Anthony Dell'Orso bring life and intrigue to Arizona basketball's Red-Blue Showcase.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at GHansenAZStar@gmail.com. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711