When student body president, starting QB, and starting catcher John "Button" Salmon, laying on his deathbed, all bent and broken from a car accident the day after the first game of the 1926 season, told his coach, Pop McKale, "Tell them.. tell the team to bear down", the identity of the University of Arizona was born.
Now, I'm not sure what Bear Down means to you, but I'm going to share a little bit of what Bear Down means to me. So bear with me a second...
I love our motto. I love it for its origin. I love it for its simplicity. I love it for the fight song it birthed. I love it for all that it represents in me. You see, I feel like every day, in ways both big and small, I bear down. Sometimes it's about digging a little deeper when it comes to being patient. Sometimes it's about standing up a little taller, making my voice heard, and claiming what is mine. Sometimes it's about carrying on when I don't know that I can.
In 2000 my dad got sick. That football season was a nightmare of high expectations for both him and the team and then watching them both wither away as fall turned to winter. Basketball was much more of a relief, but with Bobbi's death I watched that team with a very heavy heart. By the time March Madness rolled around my dad was in his last days. He passed away not too long after we lost to Duke, but I knew that if Lute and the Arizona basketball family could Bear Down and go on, I could too.
Leaving school and wandering from Tucson to New Orleans to New York and eventually to Chicago, there was no greater joy for me than to find a fellow alum or fan and to give him or her a hearty Bear Down. As a greeting, there aren't too many that are better. Wearing my Arizona gear was bound to get me at least one Bear Down a week no matter where I was in the country. At Lollapalooza one year I counted 14 Bear Downs from strangers over the course of three days. We are . . . everywhere.
What I truly love about Bear Down is how often we see it embodied on the court or field. RichRod loves to chant "60 Minutes of Arizona Football", and he couldn't be more right. There haven't been too many teams over the years that haven't given us a great Bear Down moment. Just this season we have any number to choose from. Scooby's Strip. Skowron's Revenge. Hill Mary. And past years are no different.
But what I think I may love most of all is that I get to instill Bear Down into the next generation. I doubt my kids will end up going to UofA, and that's ok with me. They're being raised in the mid-west of the Midwest, so it's more than likely they'll go to some Big Ten school if they choose to go to college at all. But I'm still going to teach them that digging deep within yourself to find that last ounce of strength is the very essence of Bear Down. That what others say is impossible they should see as just not having been done yet. That when things look their bleakest and you're ready to throw in the towel, that is the time to Bear Down, get up, and go forward.
Heck, they already know the song...
Like I said, I don't know what Bear Down means to you, but for me it has shaped my life in ways that far transcend the small, insignificant words that make up that short little phrase. So wherever you are, whoever you are, and whatever may come, my simple greeting to all of my fellow Wildcat brothers and sisters is...
BEAR DOWN!
