The First Football Team - 1899

On Thanksgiving Day, 1899, UA played its first intercollegiate game with the Tempe Normal School (later to become ASU), which had a more seasoned team since it had made an earlier start in football. Tempe won, 11-2, but the loyal local paper thought the University "showed more skill and science . . . . lacked the physical strength . . . the Tempe team outweighed the Tucson team by about one-third."

In time the players got "uniforms": padded canvas pants, old shoes to which a local shoemaker attached cleats, shoulder pads made of old shirts and stuffed into their playing shirts. No head-gear at all. "Training" consisted of getting up early and running four or five miles -- perhaps as far as Fort Lowell and back -- before showering and going to class.
Sage Green and Silver were the colors of The University of Arizona's first football team.