This year marks the 125th year since the University of Arizona first got its start on 40 acres of land donated by two gamblers and a saloon owner. The UA has since risen beyond the very first classes held at Old Main in 1891… the University of Arizona is now one of 62 prestigious member institutions of the American Association of the Universities and ranks No. 15 among public universities by the National Science Foundation.
The yearlong "Silver & Sage Celebration," named for the school's original colors, will culminate with events leading up to this year's October 23 Homecoming.
The UA’s first school colors, sage green and silver, symbolized the indigenous sage bush and the state’s mining industries. As an editorial in the school newspaper in 1898 declared, “We think those colors well chosen, as they show originality and individuality.”
By November 1900, however, the newspaper had issued an editorial suggesting that the combination of sage green and silver had “outgrown its usefulness.” The writer asserts that school colors should work on a decorative college pins, flags and varsity sweaters, and that sage and silver failed to do so. The December issue that same year reported that a committee had been selected to review school colors, and soon after students almost unanimously adopted cardinal red and navy blue as the new school colors.
How to launch a university in Arizona circa 1885 It was a bold move in 1885 to start a university in the middle of the desert before Arizona was even a state. There were no high schools yet in Arizona, and elementary schools were few and scattered. Population was 40,000.
The launch of the University of Arizona could be considered either good luck or bad timing. Tucson had sent a delegation to the Arizona Legislature with instructions to get the state capital moved to Tucson. But the weather was bad, the trip to Prescott by stagecoach was long, and the Tucson delegation arrived late to the session.
At the time, it seemed like a very costly delay. Phoenix received an insane asylum with an unheard-of budget of $100,000; Prescott kept the capital; Tempe was given a normal school with a budget of $5,000; and Tucson’s prize was the University of Arizona, with a budget of $25,000 and a provision from the legislature that Tucson had to furnish the land within one year or the appropriation would lapse.
It was a close call. Jacob Mansfeld, a Tucson merchant and a friend of education, identified 40 acres of mesquite-covered land and tried to get the owners to donate it to the Board of Regents. The owners were two well-known gamblers, E.B. Gifford and Ben C. Parker, and a saloon keeper, W. S. “Billy” Read. As the state's deadline loomed, all parties agreed on the gift.
So the origins of the University of Arizona can be credited to a few forward-thinking politicians -- Selim Franklin, C.C. Stevens and Jacob Mansfeld -- and also to Tucson’s business community, who took a gamble with the hopes that something great would grow on this very campus.
Arizona Public Media salutes the UA's accomplishments since its humble beginnings. Happy Birthday UA! Information on 2010 Homecoming events can be found on the Arizona Alumni website.
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