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.
This entry is part of longtime Star columnist Greg Hansen's weekly notebook. Looking for more? Find updates and Greg's archive at Tucson.com/Hansen.
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.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders runs the perimeter of the field before the Buffaloes’ game against Arizona on Nov. 11, 2023, in Boulder, Colorado.
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.
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