15 McKenzie Barnes
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:21 pm
Barnes is a 6-1, 178, Freshman cornerback from Edison HS, Fresno, CA. An early signee, last year Barnes had 35 tackles (2 for a loss) and 28 pass deflections as well as returning 19 punts with a 34.6 average return. He is a tall corner and with our sudden lack of depth at the position Barnes has an opening to see the field this season (regardless of what I might have said earlier in the countdown).
15 is the jersey number of Ted Bland who Greg Hansen lists as the best Arizona football player prior to Art Luppino. The whole article is well worth reading (since Greg is at least good at history), but here is the last section which everyone should read:
The best football player of Arizona’s first 35 years of football was reported missing in action in late September 1944. Two weeks later, a telegram arrived at the Bland home on Ninth Street.
Their son had been killed by a bullet of a German sniper. He was buried at the Epinal American Cemetery just above the Moselle River in Dinozé, France.
Seventy-one years ago today, a headline in the Tucson Citizen said:
UA’s Mighty Mite,
Ted Bland, Killed
Now his name is on display at Arizona Stadium’s Ring of Honor, bottom row, seventh from left.
Every time I stand for the national anthem at Arizona Stadium, I think of Ted Bland. It’s about so much more than football.
