Arizona Wildcats to wear uniforms honoring USS Arizona (Photo)
The Arizona Wildcats football team pays tribute to the USS Arizona battleship with special uniforms and gear during their game against Hawaii on September 17.
2016 marks the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii, and the University of Arizona Wildcats are celebrating their ties to the USS Arizona all season long, starting with special uniforms and gear for this Saturday’s game against Hawaii at Arizona Stadium.
The jerseys read “USS Arizona” and are the same color as the ship’s hull. The pants are the same color as the ship’s keel and the helmets feature the same color of the masts. The helmets also read “12-7-41” to commemorate the date of the attack. In lieu of names on the backs of the jerseys, they all have BB-39 to represent the ship’s hull number.
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On June 19, 1915, the Pennsylvania-class battleship USS Arizona launched from its Brooklyn Navy Yard shipyard as only the second and last member of the “super dreadnought” class of battleships. While it didn’t participate in World War I, it was one of the ships that escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. Over the years between World War I and II the USS Arizona participated in training exercises, and it even had a starring role in the James Cagney film Here Comes the Navy.
The USS Arizona was stationed in Hawaii when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. That day, which has always lived on in infamy, saw the deaths of hundreds of sailors, including 1177 sailors aboard the Arizona. The ship exploded so violently that it sank quickly, and the damage was so bad that the Navy was unable to recover it. The USS Arizona remains at the bottom of the harbor, and in 1962 the USS Arizona Memorial was dedicated to all those who lost their lives onboard.
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Arizona has always had strong ties to the USS Arizona. The campus student union is called the Memorial Student Union in commemoration of the ship and memorial site, and the building features some of the same design elements of the ship. In November, the men’s basketball team travels to Hawaii to play Michigan State and is planning to visit the USS Arizona Memorial site at Pearl Harbor.
Arizona takes on Hawaii at Arizona Stadium on Saturday at 10:45pm ET on the Pac-12 Network.