College Sports

Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about Phoenix history and memorials. This month, she tells us about college sports in the early, when Phoenix was just a little speck of a town.

We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar “at” hotmail.com.

In 1910, there were limited options for higher education in the greater Phoenix area. Tempe Normal focused on training teachers but even Tempe was a distance to travel especially considering the potential wet river crossing (the Tempe Bridge was completed in 1931). And the University of Arizona in Tucson proved to be too far for many students as well as costly.

The Phoenix Union High School District, in response in part to all the returning veterans from WWI, decided to provide an opportunity for higher education. And so, Phoenix Junior College opened its doors September 13, 1920, sharing the facilities of Phoenix Union High School on East Van Buren. The college classes and students had to work around the schedule of the high school which made for interesting days.

As the popularity of this higher education site quickly grew (it was free to all Phoenix Union High School and some Federal Indian School graduates), it created a need for more buildings. And the community and high school responded overwhelmingly to that need in supporting bond elections. First the high school district purchased a building, Cottonwood Court. But the enrollment increased again and a new two-story building arose by Montgomery Stadium.

Believe it or not, sports very quickly became a part of the college life. The campus had team men’s sports starting in 1922. It fielded a rifle team, track and field, and football beginning that year. Speaking of football, back in the 1920s, it was a far different sport. Uniforms and helmets were not what they are today. And the fields might be more dirt than grass. The school’s first homecoming was just nine years after the doors open, Oct. 1929. Sadly football is no longer a part of the sports schedule at Phoenix College.

Men’s basketball was in full swing by 1923. In the early days of Phoenix College, comparable college teams did not exist. So, the men’s team had the opportunity to play four-year college teams from the likes of the University of Arizona and the University of Southern California! Yes, for a mere 50 cents you could have seen Phoenix College trounced 39-9 by the Trojans at the PUHS gym back on December 17, 1928. By 1927, the college was fielding men’s teams in baseball, volleyball, and tennis.

Women’s athletic teams also began in 1922 with basketball. Did you know that there were different rules for women’s basketball? Yes, the court was divided in two different sections and the players had to stay in their section except for the roving center. Now that the dribble was once again allowed, whew, but a team only received one point for a two-handed overhead field goal. Thank goodness all that craziness is now passé.