A look at the history of the Territorial Cup: By the Numbers

Partly because it’s tucked away in the southwestern United States, and partly because neither school has been a national contender for more than a couple years at a time, the annual Territorial Cup football game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and Arizona Wildcats doesn’t get a lot of national attention.

Based on the trajectory of each program, that may all soon change.

Led by a pair of skilled third-year head coaches, ASU and UA have a chance to turn their annual football game into one that means more than statewide bragging rights and low-level bowl games.

The Sun Devils have followed up a 10-win season and a Pac-12 South championship in 2013 with nine wins this season and at least two games (including a bowl game) to go.

The Wildcats are guaranteed a winning Pac-12 record for the first time in five years, have back-to-back wins over national powerhouse Oregon and have loads of young talent — especially on offense — that could carry them to new heights in the next several seasons.

With the 88th matchup between the Sun Devils and Wildcats fast approaching — and carrying more meaning than it has in perhaps nearly 30 years — here’s a look at the history of rivalry by the numbers:

0

If it takes two great teams to make a great rivalry, ASU coach Todd Graham and UA coach Rich Rodriguez may be leading this one into a golden era.

Consider: The Wildcats have won at least eight games in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 1973-75, and the Sun Devils have won at least eight games in three straight years for the first time since they did it seven years in a row from 1967-73. But never before had both schools won at least eight times in three straight seasons at the same time.

2 (part I)

The Rose Bowl likely won’t be on the line Friday, though ASU still has an opportunity to win the Pac-12 South and/or advance to the Fiesta Bowl. But one of the Wildcats’ favorite pastimes is preventing the Sun Devils from reaching Pasadena.

UA twice prevented ASU from earning what would have been its first-ever Rose Bowl bid with a 28-18 upset in 1982, and again with a come-from-behind 16-13 victory in 1985. In the latter contest, Wildcat kicker Max Zendejas booted a game-winner in the final seconds at Sun Devil Stadium.

2 (part II)

Contrary to popular belief, more than one Territorial Cup game has been decided by a blocked extra point.

In 2010, ASU defensive end James Brooks blocked two Alex Zendejas PAT attempts to give the Devils a 30-29 double-overtime win in Tucson. But a similar incident occurred 55 years earlier — only in that game, it went in the Wildcats’ favor.

In the 1955 Duel in the Desert, ASU running back and placekicker Bobby Mulgado rushed for a second-quarter touchdown, but his extra-point attempt that would have tied the game was deflected wide by UA lineman Eddie Sine. The block proved to be the difference, as the Wildcats held on to win 7-6 and earned their third straight Territorial Cup victory.

3 (part I)

Frank Kush, Darryl Rogers and Todd Graham are the only three ASU head coaches to win their first two games against Arizona. But Kush and Rogers both failed on their third try. That means Graham will have the opportunity Friday to go down in history as the only man to open his ASU career 3-0 against the Wildcats.

3 (part II)

At the same time Graham has a chance to go down in history, Rich Rodriguez will try to avoid going down in infamy in Tucson. If the Wildcats lose to ASU, Rodriguez will become the first man since Bob Weber in 1969-71 to lose his first three games against the Sun Devils as UA head coach.

5

The Wildcats will host this year’s game, but based on recent Territorial Cup history, it’s difficult to call Tucson a home-field “advantage.”

Since the turn of the century, ASU has won five of seven meetings with the Wildcats in the Old Pueblo. In fact, the road team has won 13 of the last 22 games in this rivalry, and had won four in a row until ASU’s blowout victory in Tempe last season.

9

Since ASU became an accredited university via a 1958 statewide vote, the longest rivalry winning streak for either team has been nine games. Kush’s Sun Devils beat Arizona every year from 1965-73 by an average margin of 19.6 points.

Many UA fans remember the period from 1982-90 as a nine-game winning streak for the Wildcats, but that streak was interrupted by a 24-24 tie in 1987. To be fair, that game may have felt like a Wildcat win, as the Sun Devils squandered a late lead and allowed UA to pull even on a last-second field goal.

28

You have to go back 28 years — Nov. 22, 1986, to be exact — to find the last time the Sun Devils and Wildcats were both ranked in the Associated Press top 25 when they met.

In that game, No. 14 UA handed No. 4 ASU its only loss of the season, 34-17 in Tucson, thanks in part to a late 100-plus-yard interception return by UA defensive back Chuck Cecil. Six weeks later, the Devils went on to defeat Michigan for their first and only Rose Bowl victory.

37

The Wildcats will look to avenge last year’s 58-21 Territorial Cup beating, which was the Sun Devils’ largest margin of victory in the rivalry since their 56-14 pounding of the Wildcats in 1996 en route to their second-ever Rose Bowl appearance.

38

You have to go back 38 years to find the last time ASU and UA both had at least nine wins when they met. On Nov. 29, 1975, the 10-0 Sun Devils rallied to beat the 9-1 Wildcats 24-21, thanks in part to John Jefferson’s iconic diving touchdown reception (known in Tempe as “The Catch”) at the end of the first half.

1899

The first Territorial Cup game was played in 1899, when ASU (then known as The Territorial Normal School at Tempe) defeated UA 11-2 on Thanksgiving. (Touchdowns were worth five points in those days.)

The Wildcats, however, went on to win 20 of the next 21 matchups, including 11 in a row from 1932-48.

2001

The Territorial Cup was awarded to ASU in 1899, not specifically for beating UA, but for going undefeated in that year’s short-lived Arizona Territorial Football League.

The cup actually went missing for decades until it was randomly discovered in a closet at Tempe’s First Congregational Church in 1983. Only since 2001 has it been awarded to the winner of the annual ASU-UA football game. The Wildcats won the ’01 game 34-21 in Tempe.