For over a decade, this was Tucson's most anticipated high school football showdown

After the 1962 high school football season, in which Flowing Wells had gone 0-10 and fired coach Bob Maxwell, its sixth coach in its nine-year history, the Caballeros were searching for more than a winning coach.

Looking for more of a buzz than Class B opponents Morenci, San Manuel and Safford had created, Tucson’s relatively new north side school sought change.

The Flowing Wells student body voted to change the school’s nickname and settled on four finalists: Rebels, Mavericks, Rams and Vikings. When none received overwhelming support, they stuck with Caballeros. More importantly, they hired Larry Hart, a mid-century all-state running back at Amphitheater, who had turned small-town Ajo High School into a Class B football powerhouse.

Over the next dozen years, Hart coached the Cabs to six Class A state championship games, winning the big one in 1975. Just as important, Hart found Flowing Wells a long-sought rival, the new Canyon del Oro Dorados, who followed Flowing Wells’ ’75 state title by winning it all in 1976 and 1977. From 1966-80, it was probably Tucson’s most anticipated football showdown.

Or put it this way: In the yearly FW-CDO showdown, someone from the Cabs usually painted the word “Doritos” on the CDO gymnasium, and someone from the Dorados often poured gas on the grass at the Flowing Wells football field and set it afire.

Before the 1967 CDO-Flowing Wells game, the Star printed a cartoon drawing of a Caballero holding a hot poker stick, ready to smack a Dorado sitting near a fire pit. The Dorados had such disdain for the Caballeros that they referred to the school as a “Seeping Sewer.”

“Beating CDO meant everything to our players, students and community,” says Ted Sorich, a long-time coach and Pima County Sports Hall of Fame coach from Flowing Wells. “Every game, whether home or away, guaranteed a sellout crowd. It gave everyone bragging rights for an entire year, especially our players.”

Flowing Wells won the inaugural game, 1966, with the new school from what Caballeros faithful called “the across the river” in Oro Valley. Blew ’em out, 48-19.

But that all changed in 1967 when coach Art Mangels’ Dorados stunned the heavily favored Caballeros 33-27. Game on. CDO’s star was running back Ed Hochuli, who had gained 802 yards entering the game. Hochuli, who played college ball at UTEP, went on to be perhaps the most high-profile NFL referee for 28 seasons.

A year later, Flowing Wells, which would finish 8-1-1, squeezed past the newbies from across the river, 3-0. The annual CDO-Flowing Wells football game was thereafter usually scheduled as the final game of the regular season, typical of big-game rivalries.

“I got to Flowing Wells in 1959 and we were playing all the small schools,” remembers Ed Nymeyer, a Flowing Wells legend who coached the boys basketball team to 1963 and 1968 state championships, and the girls volleyball team to a then-state record 300 victories. “But when CDO opened (1964), they became good right away in almost every sport: tennis, baseball, golf, football, basketball, all of them. They were our No. 1 rival.”

Hart’s Caballeros took command of the football rivalry from 1969-75, a time the Caballeros played in four state championship games. Future Wildcat standouts Mark Jacobs and Paul Schmidt led the Cabs, who, even though highly-ranked in Arizona football, struggled to beat CDO 12-10 in Flowing Wells’ 1975 title season.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

CDO then hired a game-changer, Bob Smith, to replace Mangels, and the rivalry took it up a notch, if possible.

Smith, a former linebacker from NAU, coached the Dorados to the state championship in his first season, 1976. He repeated in ’77. His defense was so good it shut out Flowing Wells in both years, 20-0 and 10-0.

“It was a heart murmur,” said Smith, who went on to be superintendent of the Amphitheater School District. “You can say it was a thriller at Caballero stadium. They can’t beat you if they can’t score.”

Typical of a great rivalry, Hart’s Caballeros bounced back in ’78 and beat CDO 9-0.

“We played nearly perfect defense,” said Hart. “We were fighting to kill time.”

It was time that killed the Flowing Wells-CDO rivalry.

In 1979, Hart resigned his football position to be Flowing Wells’ principal. Smith then steered CDO to a higher classification, 3A, leaving Flowing Wells in 2A. The teams did not play again until 1985, a year after Smith resigned to work in the school district administration.

The glory days were gone.

Since ’85, Flowing Wells and CDO didn’t play one another from 1992-98, and took another break from 2004-09. The old rivals haven’t gone head-to-head since 2019 when CDO won 59-0. Repeated changes in the Arizona high schools’ classification system — and differences in enrollment size — have squashed the old-time rivalry. For the last 50 years, CDO has been in a growing suburban district. Flowing Wells is, you might say, “on the wrong side of the river.”

Even though they are both in Class 5A, Flowing Wells is in the Southern League and CDO is in the Sonoran League. They don’t play one another again this year.

When CDO moved to 3A in 1979, Hart summed up the once-grand rivalry. “We have no desire to be with the big boys,” he said. “But we’re losing CDO. That’s not good.”