In Arizona, there is no important game than the historic Territorial Cup matchup between our state’s two biggest universities

Here it is the day after Thanksgiving, Our tummies are full. Now it’s time to turn our focus back to football.

In Arizona, there is no important game than the historic Territorial Cup matchup between our state’s two biggest universities.

Since 1899 when the schools first competed, what started as a good-natured contest has evolved into one of the nation’s fiercest football rivalries.

The ultimate prize awarded to the winner of the annual “Duel in the Desert,” as the competition has come to be called, is the Territorial Cup. But what is mostly forgotten is the Cup wasn’t originally intended to be awarded to the winner of the yearly match-up.

How it started

For the real story, we’ve got to go back to 1899 when it all started.

American football, only about three decades old, was beginning to gain a foothold in Arizona. Enough so that the Arizona Football League was established on Sept. 30, 1899.

Initially the fledgling league was comprised of just three teams — Phoenix High School, Phoenix Indian School and the Territorial Normal School at Tempe. Not long after the University of Arizona was added to the conference.

The first season consisted of seven matchups between the four schools. The organizers declared, “The (team) winning the greatest number of games will be awarded a cup, an insignia of championship honors.”

Cup expert

There is no greater expert on the history of the Territorial Cup than ASU’s longtime archivist Robert Spindler who has spent considerable time researching the subject.

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His chronicle of the cup appeared in a 2014 Journal of Western Archives article titled “Fading Silver: The Territorial Cup, the Arizona Foot Ball League and the Mystery of the History.”

Spindler discovered the 8-inch tall, silver-plated trophy was purchased for about $20 (about $590 today) from a catalog of the Reed & Barton silversmith’s company in Taunton, Massachusetts.

First meeting

When it met in the rotation the UofA on Nov. 30 for the first time, the Normals, as the team was called, had recorded two wins and one loss.

The Normals beat the “UofA “Varsity” 11 to 2. And then went on to play three more games before the season concluded.

At the end of the 1899-1900 season with a record of 5-1-1, the Normals were proclaimed league champion.

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The trophy was ordered with the inscription “Arizona Foot Ball League 1899 Normal.”

A January 1900 photograph depicts the team posed with the trophy on the steps of Old Main.

Cup found again

Shortly after, and for still unexplained reasons, the cup disappeared. More than eight decades passed until, according to Spindler, Minister Ken Falk and ASU Professor Mac Bohlman discovered the cup in September 1983 “in the closet of the First Congregational Church of Tempe …”

Because of its fragile condition the original cup has been replaced with a replica.

Who will take home the oldest rivalry game trophy in college football this year? We’ll find out tonight.

Reach historian Jay Mark at [email protected]

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