How was our crowd

Overall game experience?

Hard to tell on UH crowd. Maybe 3,000, but total SWAG. I talked to one guy and his squad of 5 was only 1 since 4 were impacted by the storm.

They had a decent crowd. They chant U of A using 3 sides of the stadium. Their slogan is Beardown (still trying to understand since they are cats). The announcer got very irritating with first down saying. The campus is pretty and the students we met were very nice and asked about flooding.

3 Likes

I asked a student.
The “beardown” saying goes back @100 years.

The Ariz QB was in an accident.
His last words to the team were bear down.

2 Likes

I noticed the announcers used the phrase “bear down” a couple of times. I wonder if it just snuck into their head from seeing it on the field and other places in the stadium.

Side note: When I was managing one of the off campus bookstores in Tucson, I sold a ton of girls shorts that had “Bear Down” written on the back.

Bear Down Story from the UA Website

In the fall of 1926, John Byrd “Button” Salmon was the newly installed student body president at the UA, a promising student and member of note of several of the school’s honor societies. He also was a varsity quarterback, a baseball catcher and generally acclaimed popular campus figure. He embodied all-around.

In early October after the Wildcat varsity defeated the freshman squad in an annual match at the time, Salmon and several friends were returning from a visit to Phoenix, and an automobile crash north of Tucson near Florence left the young athlete critically injured.

Salmon, then 22, lost his battle and died the morning of Oct. 18. A memorial service was held on campus that week, drawing a reported thousand mourners, and a line of cars stretched miles to his burial plot.

The coach at the time, J.F. “Pop” McKale, had visited Salmon in the hospital regularly before his death, and later told the squad the young athlete’s last message to his teammates was, “Tell them… tell the team to bear down.”

1 Like

I think he said, “Hey guys, check this out! This is super cute! There are three bear cubs and a mama bear down…AUGGGGHH!!!”

I thought they may have been referring to the Baylor Football team…as in

Bear Down :sunglasses:

1 Like

Timmy that’s terrible. lol :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

You noticed that since UA fans wear red it was difficult to tell in the stands. I would say that 3k was about right. Thinking about what has happened this was a great number. By the way we had quite a few fans that drove from So Cal. I can only imagine if we were part of the PAC12. I also found out that we have over 900 alums in the Phoenix area. Please encourage our out of town alums to make the away games. Very proud for all that made it from Houston. This was awesome ladies and gentlemen.

5 Likes

Aside from the occasional chant “U of A”, I thought the AZ crowd was rather subdued most of the game. Eerily so.

Nice folks. Got a little good natured ribbing towards our group for wearing UH gear downtown and around campus, but gracious fans I thought. Just not an enthusiastic bunch.

I agree that the start of the game had a weird vibe from a crowd’s perspective, but this may be attributed to both sides wondering about the outcome. I had a guy before the game tell me we would win and the AZ fans were super nice.