No. 16 • Arizona Stadium becomes Wildcats' football home in 1929

Oct. 11, 1929: Arizona Stadium opens

USC, Cal, Ohio State and what would become the Rose Bowl all began or completed construction of football stadiums in 1921. UA football coach Pop McKale planted seeds do to the same at Arizona.

But it wasn’t a fully popular notion.

An Associated Press commentary of 1921 said: “The mere bigness of intercollegiate athletics constitutes a danger to amateur sports. Immense stadia will breed professionalism.”

Professionals? In 1921 Tucson, the UA’s first bowl team, which played Centre College of Kentucky in the Christmas Bowl, didn’t have enough money to buy new bowl uniforms.

Readers of the Star contributed $243 to a fund to properly outfit the Wildcats. The paper reported: “Our readers were determined those boys should not make a shabby appearance before their adversaries.”

Incredibly, Tucson High School was judged to have a better football facility than the UA.

The Badgers completed their new football field in December of 1922.

“The field will be, by all odds, the best in the state,” the Star wrote. “As soon as a University stadium is built, Tucson will have the two highest class fields in the state. Such a variety will make Tucson the center for athletic activities for years to come.”

Building what would become Arizona Stadium was a long and frustrating campaign.

The Board of Regents stipulated that the alumni must raise $100,000 before an architect could be hired and property acquired. Ultimately, that fund reached $160,000 of the final cost of $166,888.

A list of donors reflected on the magnitude of the copper industry in 1920s Arizona.

Donors of $3,000 or more were: United Verde Copper Co., $20,000; Phelps Dodge Co., $7,500; Inspiration Copper Co.; $7,500; Colonel and Mrs. Boice Thompson, $5,000; New Cornelia Copper Co., $4,370; Miami Copper Co., $4,000; Calumet and Arizona Copper Co., $3,790; Nevada Consolidated Copper Co., $3,000.

The state appropriated no money to the project, although the Board of Regents purchased two blocks of land. The entire project was called Varsity Stadium, replacing West Stadium.

Finally, Arizona Stadium debuted against Cal Tech on Oct. 11, 1929. It was an event like few others in Tucson history.All 8,000 seats were full for a 3 p.m. kickoff. Gov. John Phillips gave a speech before the game.

“Ceremonies will be short and the kickoff will mark another round of the Wildcat gridiron crews advances up the ladder of southwest football prominence,” the Star reported. “It will mark the graduation of Arizona into big-time football.”

All of the male spectators at the game wore white shirts and ties. Most wore hats.

Arizona won 35-0. Two years later, with the UA as a driving force, the Border Conference was created. By 1931, lights were installed at the stadium for $4,800.

Bear Down Gym had been completed two years earlier, a basketball plant that endured until 1973. Arizona Stadium will begin its 87th football season in September, although it now has 48,000 more seats than the original building.

In an editorial after the debut game in 1929, the Star wrote: “The stadium will call attention to an athletic plant for Arizona’s sons who leave home for college. … The future plant contains 14 acres on which stands the stadium, the gymnasium, swimming pool, baseball field and several practice fields.”

Where are they now? Tucsonan Roy Place was the architect of Arizona Stadium. He also designed the Pima County Courthouse and many buildings on the UA campus. He died in 1950 at 63.

How they did it: Place created step-by-step plans to expand Arizona Stadium over the next 25 years, many of which were implemented. In 1949, the first permanent press box was built for $14,000. In 1965, Place’s son, Lew, designed an addition of 10,600 seats to the west side of the stadium for $1.4 million. It included another new press box, which was used until 1989.

The only debt from the original construction was for east-side bleachers and turf. It left the athletic department $20,000 in debt.