How to Go to the Duel In the Desert, Arizona vs. Arizona State

Next Saturday, the football teams at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University will play each other, in a rivalry known as the Duel in the Desert, at UA's campus in Tucson.

Before You Go. You know the cliche about weather in Arizona: "But it's a dry heat." AZcentral.com, the website for Phoenix's largest newspaper, the Arizona Republic, and Tucson's paper, the Arizona Daily Star, are both predicting that the entire Thanksgiving weekend will have daytime temperatures in the high 60s, and nighttime temperatures in the mid-40s. You'll need a jacket for the evenings, but not the mornings and afternoons.

Arizona's infamous Daylight Savings Time issue has been settled: The State is on Mountain Time when New York is on Daylight Savings Time, and on Pacific Time when we're on Standard Time. This is the DST time of year. So you'll be on Pacific Time, 3 hours behind New Jersey and New York City. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. Arizona State usually comes close to selling out, but Arizona usually falls a few thousand short. But this game will be sold out. Get your tickets while you can.

At UA, tickets are $47 on the sideline in the lower level, and $21 in the end zone and in the upper deck. At ASU, they're $125 in midfield, $80 toward the goal lines and in the end zones, $20 in the upper deck

Getting There. Keep in mind, this will be Thanksgiving weekend. The normal travel rules may not apply, due to demand reducing the available seats and jacking up prices.

It's 2,406 miles from Times Square to Arizona Stadium in Tucson, and 2,469 miles to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. In other words, if you're going, you're flying.

You think I'm kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days' worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don’t get pulled over for speeding, you'll still need nearly 2 full days to get there. One way.

But, if you really, really want to... You'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Take it to Exit 14, to Interstate 78. Follow I-78 west all the way through New Jersey, to Phillipsburg, and across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. Continue west on I-78 until reaching Harrisburg. There, you will merge onto I-81. Take Exit 52 to U.S. Route 11, which will soon take you onto I-76. This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation's 1st superhighway, opening in 1940.

The Turnpike will eventually be a joint run between I-76 and Interstate 70. Once that happens, you'll stay on I-70, all the way past Pittsburgh, across the little northern panhandle of West Virginia, and then across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, into Missouri.

At St. Louis, take Exit 40C onto Interstate 44 West, which will take you southwest across Missouri into Oklahoma. Upon reaching Oklahoma City, take Interstate 40 West, through the rest of the State, across the Texas Panhandle, and into New Mexico. At Santa Rosa, take Exit 275 onto U.S. Route 54 South, to Almagordo. There, take U.S. Route 70 West, through Las Cruces to Interstate 10 West. This will take you into Arizona. Take Exit 263 onto the South Kino Parkway North, and that will take you right to the UA campus.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours and 30 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Indiana, another 2 hours and 45 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours in Missouri, 6 hours in Oklahoma, 3 hours in Texas, 6 hours and 15 minutes in New Mexico, and 4 hours and 30 minutes in Arizona. That's about 41 hours. Counting rest stops, you're probably talking about 54 hours.

Driving to ASU, follow the same directions until you get to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Instead of taking Route 54, keep going west on I-40, until you reach Flagstaff. Take Exit 195 onto Interstate 17 South, which will take you into Phoenix. Take Interstate 10 East to Exit 147A, which will lead you to Arizona Route 202, the Red Mountain Freeway. Exit 7 will bring you to North Scottsdale Road. Turn right, cross over the Salt River, and you'll be on the ASU campus.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours and 30 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Indiana, another 2 hours and 45 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours in Missouri, 6 hours in Oklahoma, 3 hours in Texas, 6 hours and 15 minutes in New Mexico, and 5 hours and 15 minutes in Arizona. That's about 41 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, you're probably talking about 55 hours.

In each case, that's still faster than Greyhound, averaging around 68 hours. To either Phoenix or Tucson, it's a whopping $904 round-trip, maybe as low as $673 if you order on advanced purchase. To get to Phoenix by Monday afternoon, you'll have to leave on Friday night. The station is at 2115 East Buckeye Road, adjacent to Sky Harbor International Airport. Number 13 bus to downtown. And Amtrak's schedules to Arizona make them inadvisable.

Flights to Phoenix' Sky Harbor International Airport  are usually among the cheapest to any big-league city. Not this time: You'd have to pay over $1,500. And if you're going to Tucson International Airport, not only will you not save any money, but you'd probably have to fly to Phoenix anyway and change planes.

Once In the City. The name Arizona apparently comes from a Native American word meaning "small spring." Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran who in 1867 founded what became the State's capital city, accepted the suggestion of a fellow settler, an Englishman named Lord Duppa: Since it was on the site of a previous Indian civilization, it should be named Phoenix, for the mythical bird that rose from its own ashes. The city was incorporated in 1881, making it the youngest city in American major league sports.
Home to just 100,000 people in 1950, Phoenix saw huge growth in the 2nd half of the 20th Century: 440,000 by 1960, 580,000 by 1970, 800,000 by 1980, and it surpassed the 1 million mark in the early 1990s. It's 1.6 million now, with about 4.6 million people in the metropolitan area.

All this made it an expansion target. The NBA's expansion Suns arrived in 1968. The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals in 1988, changing their name from the Phoenix Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. The USFL's Arizona Wranglers played there in 1984, and became the Arizona Outlaws the following year. This was around the time that the Philadelphia Eagles nearly moved there due to owner Leonard Tose's fractured finances.

The MLB team that became the Diamondbacks was awarded in 1995, to begin play in 1998. And the NHL's 1st Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1997, changing their name to the Arizona Coyotes in 2013. This was after the World Hockey Association had the Phoenix Roadrunners in the 1970s -- and, yes, I'm well aware of the cartoon connection: Roadrunners replaced by Coyotes. The WNBA's Phoenix Mercury also began play in 1997. Today, the Suns are the only Phoenix-area team to keep the city's name as their identifier, rather than the State's name.

The sales tax in Arizona is 5.6 percent, but it's 8.3 percent within the City of Phoenix. ZIP Codes for Arizona start with the digits 85 and 86, and the Area Codes are 602 (for Phoenix), 480 and 623 (for the suburbs).
Central Avenue is the source street for east-west house numbers; oddly, the north-south streets are numbered Streets to the east, and numbered Avenues to the west. Washington Street divides addresses into north and south. State Route 101 forms a partial "outer beltway," while Interstates 10 (north and east) and 17 (south and west) form an "inner beltway."

Arizona Public Service provides electricity and water. The Phoenix metropolitan area has a population that is about 58 percent white, 31 percent Hispanic, 5 percent black, 3 percent Asian, and 3 percent Native American. Tucson is about 47 percent white, 42 percent Hispanic, 5 percent black, 3 percent Asian, 3 percent Native American.

A single ride on Phoenix buses and Valley Metro Rail is $2.00, with an All-Day Pass a bargain at $4.00. With the ballpark being downtown and thus probably near your hotel, you probably won't need the light-rail system to get there. But in the heat, you may still want to take a cab. If you do take Metro Rail, it's Washington at 3rd Street station going westbound, and Jefferson at 3rd Street station going eastbound.
Sun Devil Stadium opened in 1958. The address is 500 E. Veterans Way, about 8 1/2 miles east of downtown Phoenix. Light Rail to Veterans Way & College Avenue, a station located near the stadium's southwest corner, about a 24-minute ride. If you drive in, there are parking lots within a 10-minute walk for just $5.00.

The Cardinals played there from 1988 to 2005, and the Fiesta Bowl was held there from 1971 to 2006. Both then moved into what's now named State Farm Arena. From 2006 to 2015, it hosted the Cactus Bowl.

The Dallas Cowboys treated Sun Devil Stadium as a 2nd home field when they played the Cardinals, because there always seemed to be more Cowboy fans there. This was emphasized when they won Super Bowl XXX there, when the world learned A) it was possible for the Pittsburgh Steelers to lose a Super Bowl, and B) Terry Bradshaw was smart compared to Neil O'Donnell. It also hosted 2 U.S. soccer team matches in the 1990s.

Fiesta Bowls held there turned out to be National Championship games for the seasons of 1986-87, Penn State over Miami; 1988-89, Notre Dame over West Virginia 1995-96, Nebraska over Florida; 1998-99, Tennessee over Florida State; and, controversially, 2002-03, Ohio State over Miami. However, unlike the stadiums in Pasadena, Miami, Dallas and in a few "minor bowl" cities, it has never been officially named the Fiesta Bowl; unlike the long-gone Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, it has never been been nicknamed the Fiesta Bowl. 

The stadium opened with 30,000 seats, and was increased to 57,000 in 1976, 70,000 in 1977, and 72,000 in 1988. It is the opposite of Arizona Stadium: A horseshoe, with the open end at the south. The field has always been natural grass, and was named Frank Kush Field for their former coach in 1996.

By 2007, the stadium's concrete base was buckling, because the steel supporting it was rusting. They couldn't figure out why. It was because it wasn't waterproofed. They didn't waterproof it because they didn't expect much rain in the Arizona desert. But the seating area was hosed down to clean it after every game.

So, rather than move the ASU football team to the Cardinals' stadium in Glendale and completely demolish Sun Devil Stadium, a renovation plan was set up, essentially rebuilding the stadium piece by piece, much like the 4 sides of an old English soccer stadium getting rebuilt. Renovations are expected to be done in time for next season. It currently seats 53,599.
The stadium appeared in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born, Used Cars, Jerry Maguire (Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character Rod Tidwell played for the Cardinals), and 2 concert films: The Rolling Stones' 1982 Let's Spend the Night Together and U2's 1988 Rattle and Hum. 

The Wells Fargo Arena, previously known as the ASU Activity Center, is to the southeast of the stadium. It opened in 1974. ASU's basketball team has never gotten any closer to an NCAA title than the Sweet 16, in 1995. Elvis Presley sang there on March 23, 1977.

The US Airways Center, Wells Fargo Arena, University of Phoenix Stadium, and the McKale Center have all hosted NCAA basketball tournament games, but, as yet, the State of Arizona has never hosted a Final Four -- although the University of Phoenix Stadium certainly could. 

Food. As a Southwestern State, you might expect Arizona's stadiums to have a Mexican/Spanish food theme. But this is not really specified on either university's website.

Arizona Stadium relies heavily on barbecue, including BrushFire BBQ and the Memphis-style Carole's Up in Smoke BBQ. Epic Café, according to the University website, "will offer a variety of sandwiches that was satisfy customers that are meat lovers, vegetarian, vegan and those who want gluten-free options."

Sweet Dough Co. Donuts is on the west concourse. On the west, east and south concourses, Eegee's (probably a variant of "E.G.'s") sells frozen-fruit drinks, or what most of us would call "smoothies." Arizona Stadium also has Hebrew National hot dogs, which would certainly catch the attention of a visiting New Yorker).

In the stands under the north end zone, they have jumbo pretzels, corn dogs, beef skewers, egg rolls and roasted nuts. Under the east stand, they have smoked turkey legs, chicken wings, fries, grilled cheese sandwiches... and then it all goes wrong: Focaccia bruschetta sandwiches, veggie dogs, black bean burgers, chicken tenders in a waffle cone, and -- if you can believe this -- macaroni and cheese in a waffle cone. That's just wrong. Especially the last one.

ASU says, "Multiple concession stands are located on all levels throughout Sun Devil Stadium. All stands offer a variety of food and beverage items. Some of the specialty concessions offer for the 2018 season include Chick-fil-a located behind section 238 and the south end zone student section, Somburros located behind section 33 and Scoop located behind section 243."

Team History Displays. Arizona State began playing football in 1897; Arizona, in 1899. Both schools were independents until joining the Border Conference in 1931, and moved to the Western Athletic Conference in 1962. After both teams had some frustrating lack of respect from the national ranking systems, they realized they had to leave the WAC. In 1978, both joined the Pacific-8 Conference, turning the Pac-8 into the Pac-10. It became the Pac-12 with the addition of Colorado and Utah in 2011.

Arizona has 6 Conference Championships: The Border in 1935, 1936 and 1941; the WAC in 1964 and 1973; and the Pac-10 in 1993. They won the Pac-12 South in 2014, but lost the Conference Championship Game, getting throttled by Oregon.

Arizona State thought they should have been awarded the National Championship after Frank Kush led them to undefeated seasons in 1970 and 1975, but only minor polls recognized them as such. They've won 17 Conference Championships: 1931, 1939, 1940, 1952, 1957, 1959 and 1961 in the Border; 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1977 in the WAC; and 1986, 1996 and 2007 in the Pac-10. Unlike the Wildcats, the Sun Devils have not yet won the Pac-12 South or appeared in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Neither school appears to have any notations for these titles in the open stadium area.

Arizona has appeared in 21 bowl games, winning 9. They didn't win a bowl game until the 1986 Aloha Bowl. And their only major bowl win is the 1993 Fiesta Bowl -- on ASU's home field.

ASU has been a bit more successful in this regard, appearing in 30 bowls, winning 14. But they also took a while to get their 1st bowl win, in the 1970 Peach Bowl. They not only hosted the Fiesta Bowl, but appeared in the 1st 3, and 5 of the 1st 7 from 1971 to 1977. It became a New Year's Day bowl in the 1982-83 season. They've won it in 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1983.

In Rutgers' 1st 2 bowl games, they hosted Arizona State at the Meadowlands in the 1978 Garden State Bowl, and lost 34-18; and traveled to Phoenix to play ASU at the Diamondbacks' stadium in the 2005 Insight Bowl, and lost 45-40. They've been in 2 Rose Bowls, beating Michigan in 1987 and losing to Ohio State in 1997.

Arizona retires jerseys, but not uniform numbers. They honor 9 players: 22, Art Luppino, 1950s running back, a 2-time NCAA rushing leader, but never played in the pros; 98, 1980s linebacker Ricky Hunley, who reached 2 Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos; 26, 1980s safety Chuck Cecil, a Pro Bowler with the Green Bay Packers; 29, 1980s cornerback Darryl Lewis, a Pro Bowler with the Houston Oilers; 98 again, 1990s defensive tackle Rob Waldrop, who won 2 Grey Cups with the Toronto Argonauts; 68, linebacker Tedy Bruschi, a Pro Bowler and a 3-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots; 3, 1990s placekicker Steve McLaughlin; 28, 1990s cornerback Chris McAlister; a 3-time Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl winner with the Baltimore Ravens; and 20, 2000s cornerback Antoine Cason.

Hunley, Cecil, Waldrop and Bruschi are in the College Football Hall of Fame. So are 3 head coaches: Warren Woodson, 1952-56; Darrell Mudra, 1967-68; and Jim Young, 1973-76. Oddly, Frank Kush is not.

Other notable Arizona football players include: 1940s quarterback Fred Enke Jr. (his father Fred Sr. was an assistant coach at the time), 1950s cornerback Warren Livingston, 1980s Broncos receiver Vance Johnson, longtime NFL punter Josh Miller (a year behind me at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey and a Super Bowl XXXIX winner with the Patriots), Carolina Panthers Pro Bowl receiver Michael Bates (helped them reach Super Bowl XXXVIII), former Jets kicker Nick Folk, Pro Bowl and Super Bowl XLII Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce (now crossing the line to be linebackers coach at ASU), Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. Noted referee Ed Hochuli is also a UA graduate.

Arizona State has only 1 retired number: 42, for 1990s safety Pat Tillman. After the 9/11 attacks at the beginning of the 2001 season, Tillman played out the season with the Arizona Cardinals, left the NFL, enlisted in the U.S. Army, graduated from Ranger School, was deployed to Afghanistan, and was killed in a "friendly fire" incident on April 22, 2004. ASU players now pass a statue of him as they enter the field.
ASU's All-Americans include Tillman, 1940s running back Wilford White (who, like running back and later Supreme Court Justice Byron White, was nicknamed "Whizzer"), 1960s defensive tackle Curley Culp, 1960s receiver J.D. Hill, 1970s defensive tackle Junior Ah You (one of the earliest Samoans in pro football, inspiring both ASU and UA to recruit them), 1970s quarterback Danny White (son of Wilford), 1970s linebacker Bob Breunig, 1970s cornerback Mike Haynes, 1970s receiver John Jefferson, 1980s running back Gerald Riggs, 1980s linebacker Jim Jeffcoat, 1980s kicker Luis Zendejas, 1980s guard Randall McDaniel, 1980s cornerback Eric Allen, 1990s safety Darren Woodson, 1990s quarterback Jake Plummer, 1990s tight end Todd Heap, 2000s linebacker Terrell Suggs and 2010s defensive tackle Will Sutton.

Culp, Haynes and McDaniel are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Woodson, a 3-time Super Bowl winner with the 1990s Dallas Cowboys, and Heap and Suggs, both stars on the 2000s Baltimore Ravens, could make it. Ah You is in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Included in Sun Devil Stadium is the Ed and Nadine Carson Student-Athlete Center, which includes the Bill and Judy Schafer Sports Hall of Fame, honoring various ASU performers. It is open on game days.

There is an Arizona Sports Hall of Fame, but it doesn't have a permanent display. The Wildcats in it are football players Fred Enke Jr., Warren Livingston and Karl Eller (also a founding part-owner of the Phoenix Suns and the founder of the Fiesta Bowl, and not to be confused with Minnesota Vikings star Carl Eller); baseball players Shanty Hogan and Hank Lieber; basketball star Sean Elliott; horse trainer Bob Baffert; and coaches Pop McKale, Fred Enke Sr. (basketball head and football assistant), Miles Casteel (football), Frank Sancet (baseball), Ed Doherty (football) and Lute Olson.

Sun Devils in it are football players Wilford and Danny White, Curley Culp, Darren Woodson, Randall McDaniel, and Jake Plummer and Pat Tillman, teammates in both college and pro ball; baseball player Bob Horner (but no others, not even Reggie Jackson or the admittedly problematic Barry Bonds); basketball player Fat Lever; track star Herman Frazier; wrestlers Art Matori and Anthony Robles; golfers Billy Mayfair and Heather Farr; coaches Ed Doherty (football), Frank Kush (football), Ned Wulk (basketball), Royce Youree (basketball), Rudy Lavik (football and basketball) and Linda Vollstedt (golf); and athletic director Clyde B. Smith.

Arizona and Arizona State first played each other in football in 1899, UA's 1st season, and have played each other every season since 1946. ASU won the 1st game, then UA won 20 of the next 21. ASU won 9 straight from 1965 to 1973, UA went 8-0-1 from 1982 to 1990, and since then, it's been more or less even. The Sun Devils won last year, but the Wildcats still lead 49-41-1.

The rivalry has been called "The Duel In the Desert" and, from the beginning, since both teams began play before Statehood in 1912, "The Territorial Cup." A trophy with that name was awarded with the 1st game, but it got lost until 1980, when it was found in the basement of a church near the ASU campus. It was restored, and is the oldest college football rivalry trophy -- though, obviously, not the oldest continuously awarded one. 
Stuff. Sparky's Shop, named for the mascot, is in the south end of Sun Devil Stadium. In contrast, Arizona Stadium doesn't seem to have a team store. The University of Arizona Bookstore is at 1209 E. University Blvd., 5 blocks north of Arizona Stadium. The ASU Bookstore is at 525 E. Orange Street, about a 10-minute walk south of Sun Devil Stadium.

There doesn't seem to be a comprehensive book about Wildcat football history. In 2007, Jeff Van Raaphorst published Game Day: Arizona State Football: The Greatest Games, Players, Coach and Teams in the Glorious Tradition of Sun Devil Football. In 2013, Shane Dale published Territorial: The History of the Duel in the Desert. In 2008, a pair of DVDs arrived: The Legends of Arizona Wildcats College Football, and The Legends of Arizona State.

During the Game. For the most part, Arizona fans -- including Arizona State fans -- are okay, not making trouble for fans of teams playing their teams. UA vs. ASU is the State's biggest rivalry. It's a heated rivalry... but it's a dry heat. (Yeah, I had to use that line.) So you should be safe.

In spite of UA's mascot being the Wildcats, they, like the Chicago Bears, have "Bear Down" as a motto, and a fight song: "Bear Down, Arizona!" Actually, that's an unofficial fight song. The official fight song is "Fight! Wildcats! Fight!" They have not just a mascot, but a mascot couple: Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat. The costumed Wilbur debuted in 1959, Wilma in 1986, and they were "married" on the field. Wilbur wears Number 12, because he's representative of the fans, "The 12th Man." Wilma wears a cheerleader's uniform. Gender stereotypes, and all that.