After the first football game of the 1926 season, UA starting quarterback, baseball team member and Student Body President John “Button” Salmon was involved in a car accident. Football Coach Pop McKale (by the way also head basketball, baseball and track coach and the namesake for “McKale Center” the 14,000 seat arena the Wildcats play basketball in) visited Salmon in the hospital daily. At the end of his last visit Salmon told Coach McKale to relay to the team “Tell them, tell the team to bear down.” On October 19, 1926 Salmon passed away from the spinal cord injury he had incurred in the car accident. The cheer “bear down” was shortly thereafter officially adopted as the primary one for Arizona Athletics. A statue on campus of Salmon is dedicated to all Arizona Athletic Letterwinners – one of whom is Robert Eugene Howell (my father), for basketball, 1953. (note: some historical info from Wikipedia) Our fight song: Bear down, Arizona! Bear down, red and blue! Bear down, Arizona! Hit em hard let em know whos who! Bear down, Arizona! Bear down, red and blue! Go, go, Wildcats go! Arizona, bear down! youtu.be/gVreLW_519M Let’s hope I am singing this after our game against Weber State just about to tip off, and hope that “Button” is smiling down on us as we play today!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 18:05:42 +0000
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