In more than a century of college football, Arizona has never faced a more consistently imposing opponent than Frank Kushβs ASU Sun Devils of 1965-73. Not USC, not Oregon, no one.
The Sun Devils rose to national prominence in the β60s and early β70s and part of the climb was based on Kush dominating and, in effect, downsizing Arizona.
Dominating? ASU went 9-0 against Arizona in that streak, outscoring the Wildcats 283-107. Two UA coaches, Darrell Mudra and Bob Weber, never beat the Sun Devils.
βWhen they beat us 55-19 in 1973, they rubbed it in and ran up the score,ββ UA head coach Larry Smith said, biting off his words in 1982. βI never forgot it.ββ
Things began to shift in 1974 when second-year head coach Jim Young, the former defensive coordinator under Michiganβs Bo Schembechler, rebuilt the Wildcats behind the 1-2-3 Backfield β No. 1 quarterback Bruce Hill, No. 2 running back Jim Upchurch and No. 3 running back Willie Hamilton β future NFL receiving standout Theopolis Bell and a defense based around Tucson High lineman Mike Dawson and linebacker Mark Jacobs.
This is what a shift looks like: After opening 5-0 in 1974, Arizona climbed to No. 9 in the AP poll, the highest ranking ever for a UA football team (at that time).
The UA sports administration began planning for a massive 16,000-seat addition to Arizona Stadium, which was to be completed for the 1976 season.
But there would be a significant delay before the Wildcats could say they had βarrived.ββ
ASU quarterback Dennis Sproul throws in the face of Arizonaβs Mike Dawson in 1974. The Wildcats ended a nine-game losing streak against their rivals with the 10-0 victory.
Texas Tech beat the undefeated Wildcats 17-8 that week in Texas. A week later, BYU slammed Arizona 37-13. The Wildcats were again unranked. Their late November Territorial Cup showdown against the Sun Devils could completely undo the progress of the season.
A crowd of 40,782 squeezed into Arizona Stadium for the Territorial Cup, the third-largest crowd ever in Tucson. This time Arizona ended the streak, beating Kush and the Sun Devils 10-0.
Young was carried off the turf as UA fans stormed the field. Kushβs dominance was over. Arizona finished 9-2, its best season in school history to that point.
βIβll never forget this,ββ said Dawson, who stood at midfield to admire the celebration. βThe reason I came to Arizona was to beat (ASU) and help give us a better future.ββ
The 10-0 victory was one of the most tense in Territorial Cup history. The game was scoreless with six minutes remaining when Jacobs, an All-State linebacker from Flowing Wells High School, intercepted a pass. It led to a field goal by Lee Pistor and a 3-0 lead, which was enough to end the nine-year streak. Hamilton scored on a 4-yard run on the gameβs final play to add an exclamation mark.
Dejected UA players sit on the bench after a 17-8 loss in Lubbock in 1974. The Wildcats had entered the game undefeated and ranked No. 9.
The UA went forward with plans to add the 16,000 seats, which increased capacity at Arizona Stadium to 56,000.
βIβm not saying this got us over the hump,ββ said UA athletic director Dave Strack, βbut sooner or later we had to beat ASU and get out of its shadow. This is just a start.ββ
It wasnβt a quick fix, but in 1982 Arizona began its own nine-year streak against ASU, going 8-0-1 through the 1990 season.
Youngβs stay in Tucson was a brief one; he became the head coach at Purdue after the 1976 season. Young went 31-13 in Tucson and changed the second-city image that was born in the 1960s and thrived until his β74 team shut out Kushβs Sun Devils.
βThat β74 team was a game-changer, but so was the 8-3 team of β73 and the 9-2 team of β75,ββ said Young, who returned to Tucson in 1992 as an assistant coach under Dick Tomey and has lived here since. βBut β74 was the year we beat ASU and it served to change the culture here as much as anything I can remember.ββ
