The Territorial Cup, a football game played by educated men


If you've ever been puzzled as to why schools encourage students to play sports, and not just always be studying, it's a very old concept called "mens sana in corpore sano" and the young men playing football in 1899 would have definitely known what that meant - Latin was a requirement for students both at Arizona University and the Tempe Normal School (what is now Arizona State University). It meant "a sound mind in a sound body".

So make no mistake, these were educated men. In Tucson, which was already a University, they were preparing to become the world's leaders. And in Tempe, which was a Teacher's College, they were preparing to become teachers.

Whenever I wear my ASU colors, inevitably someone asks me about "the big game". And I understand. Marketing brings in a lot of much-needed money to both Arizona and Arizona State. But these are schools.

I'm a college man. In my lifetime I've seen that scoffed at by people, who consider it "book learning", and it is. Getting a degree at a University tells people that you've at least been exposed to learning beyond what a high school, or the school of hard knocks, can provide. No, of course it's not perfect, and ASU and Arizona aren't the Library of Alexandria, but they're part of that type of continuing reverence for education.

I studied Marketing at ASU, and I understand how promotions can make a lot of money for a brand. I have to admit that I really wasn't prepared to see how many people saw my school simply as a football team. I have usually heard that from people who have never gone to a University, or people who have gone, and remained innocent of what was taught there.

The men who won the Territorial Cup in 1899 were studying to be teachers. They were educated men, and they understood the balance of physical activity with mental activity. And so did their fellow competitors, in Tucson.

Go Wildcats! Go Normals!

Image at the top of this post: On the steps of Old Main in 1899.
The Territorial Cup
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