ASU to mark 50th year as university

The Arizona Territorial Legislature founded ASU on 20 acres of pasture in 1885. But it wasn't until 50 years ago that Arizona State became a "university." Now, ASU is preparing celebrations for its half-century as a full four-year school, and to honor those who fought to achieve that status.

Up to that point, the University of Arizona alone had educated most of the state's leaders and used its significant influence against its fledgling rival in Tempe.

The Arizona Board of Regents, which runs the state higher education system, was packed with UA alumni, as was the Legislature. Neither group would agree to convert Arizona State College into a university.

In fact, members of both repeatedly worked against the change on UA's behalf.

"They had everything up to that point. They had all the professional schools and we had been a teachers' college until fairly recently before that time," said Dean Smith, a retired ASU history professor and the university's unofficial historian. "They weren't about to have anybody challenge their monopoly of higher education."

So Grady Gammage, then ASU's longtime president, took the measure to the state's voters in 1958.

Professors' wives stood on street corners across the Valley to gather petition signatures, said Jack Fuchs, a retired ASU chemistry professor. The wives also marched on the state Capitol, with children in tow, to campaign for the name change, which became Proposition 200 on the ballot.

But UA partisans more than matched the effort.

Richard Harvill, UA's president at the time, campaigned against the proposition himself, said Frank Kush, then ASU's head football coach. ASU's opponents argued a second public university would cost taxpayers more money and would dilute UA's quality.

"That mentality has always prevailed, that they are the premier university," Fuchs said.

Campaign materials supporting the name change were vandalized.

When Kush's Sun Devils took the field at Arizona Stadium to play the Wildcats that year, the coach found the game itself had become political. The words, "No Prop. 200," were burned into the grass, each letter about 5 feet tall.

"Oh yeah, they burned that with oil or something," Kush said. "And it was just brown, ugly."

Katherine Gammage, the ASU president's wife, spoke to civic groups in support of the proposition. But, apparently, on one occasion she attempted to make her pitch at a restaurant too deep in UA territory and the owners kicked her out, Smith said.

"Emotions were high, I'll tell you," he said.

ASU relied on its smaller alumni base, primarily made up of teachers, to sway the electorate.

In the weeks leading up to the election - Nov. 4 that year - Smith said he kept count of how many bumper stickers he saw supporting or opposing the proposition. The informal polling told Smith that Maricopa County's voters were largely in favor of the measure, despite thousands of UA alumni living here.

Smith's projection proved accurate as the proposition passed easily. On election night, Gammage announced ASU's victory from the top of the Memorial Union, which had opened just three years earlier.

Like many higher education institutions, Arizona State's enrollment began to swell at the end of World War II.

In 1946, the college had 553 students. Just 15 years later, there were more than 11,000, according to "The Arizona State University Story," a history of the university's early years.

It began as simply a teachers college, and had expanded to include a business school, liberal arts and engineering.

ASU grew quickly after its election victory. The regents granted it a law school and the university moved to strengthen its engineering program.

Today, there are 19 colleges and schools spread across four campuses. It's the nation's largest university with about 65,000 students.

ASU is now almost twice UA's size.

While the universities collaborate more than they battle these days, tensions between the rivals still surface.

Mike Stoops, UA's football coach, said ASU recently is becoming "a JC," or junior college, in response to losing three recruits to the Tempe university. One of those players said ASU could more easily enroll him academically. Stoops subsequently apologized.

And even now, UA continues to point to its age as evidence of its quality. The Tucson school's motto is, "Arizona's first university."

UA wants Arizona residents to think of it first when considering higher education, said Stephen MacCarthy, the university's public relations director. The current motto is failing to project that.

"Most people, when asked what it means, think of it as just, you've been around the longest," MacCarthy said. "And I'm not sure that's the best positioning for us."

By several measures, UA is one of the nation's better public research universities.

MacCarthy said UA is looking for a more compelling attribute than how it's an older university than ASU.

"In truth," he said, "that's something we're going to be using less of in the future."