Friday, November 30, 2007

My Favorite ASU-U of Tucson Memory

As Saturday's Territorial Cup match-up approaches, the Bob Young of the AZ Republic had a blog about the Top 10 Territorial Cup moments. He put as number 1 John Jefferson's TD catch in the 1975 game that led to an ASU win. Given that I was four at the time, living in Houston and had no clue who ASU was, that one obviously doesn't mean a lot to me.

It was easy to remember however which one was my top one - the 1991 ASU 37-14 win where we snapped Tucson's 8-0-1 streak against us. To this day I still say that it is the absolute best football game I have ever been to and really ignited my passion for Sun Devil football. Sitting in the student section with some friends, a couple of whom were dating gals from U of Tucson that made the un-wise choice to sit with us.

It wasn't the competitiveness that made it special, it was the thrill of being there when the streak was snapped. ASU was in control the entire game and we just wanted to see them keep scoring and run it up and take out 9 years of frustration on the kitties. ASU was going nowhere that season, this was their bowl game and coach Larry Marmie was canned soon after. None of that matter, the streak was over and I was there to take in the moment. We stormed the field after the game, tore down the goalposts which subsequently fell apart and we carried pieces up to the top of the stadium. It was an amazing night.

I guess my other favorite one would be Kevin Galbreath's 51-yard TD run in the Devils' 7-6 victory in Tucson the next season. It was against the "Desert Swarm" Kitties that had been leading the nation in scoring defense at the time. Overall, it was a boring game but an exciting play and the Sun Devil D made it stick in a game we had no business winning.

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