The University of Arizona has been in Tucson since 1885, but did you know the people of the town didn’t want it?
During Arizona Territory’s 13th Legislature, there was about $100,000 available to a town in the territory for a mental hospital, which Tucson desperately wanted. The “Thieving Thirteenth” legislature, though, gave that to Phoenix and awarded Tucson $25,000 for a university instead.
Tucsonans were so mad at the decision that they almost let the authorization expire without getting the 40 acres of land for the university, but two gamblers and a saloonkeeper donated the land. Tucson’s been Wildcat Country ever since.
– Alex Simon, The 100 Companies