WSR Gridiron Report

If you are passive about the beginning of fall camp for Wildcat Football, then I question your fan credentials. In fact, if there isn’t a welling up of interest, passion and excitement, well, then just drop your “I’m a really great Arizona fan” card at the door on your way out of whatever glass house you’ve built for yourself.

Totally agree! I haven't been this fired up for football ever. Have to disagree about the red/red/white uni combo though but to each their own. I like the copper lids with navy btw. Becoming a big fan of the Buchanan Report, keep up the good work!

To my loyal subject:

Your combination works. The BD did not cite it because similar combos have been used by Notre Dame and Navy. However, you are accepted, my friend. The copper would look different than the Gold these use.

All I can say is that I have good mentors, Gary, Brad, Blake and all who have created this fabulous site, where we can all get together and discuss Arizona sports.

Wow, that is a great idea.

Some of the past game opening videos have had a few of those as you may remember, and the one that featured the Wildcat atop A Mountain throwing the football from there to the Stadium, and ended with the fireworks and the team bursting onto the field. The videos that preceded that included some of the great moments of he past, including Cecil's interception of Rappaport, a run by Trung Candidate, etc.

But you're right, we need something that spans the generations and this Centennial year would be the ideal time. Maybe the promotions people at the University have something up their sleeves?

Steve.....yes, that partial video came from archives. The main thrust though, is to get a few bucks allocated so that Dud can produce a whole 45- 60 minutes of narrated video. It would be awesome, inspirational, and would promote great pride within the team. Plus, I think it would pay for itself many times over if it was made available for sale to fans.

Steve....yep, it's a past-due item.
The last time I mentioned it was in an email to Greg Byrne. The answer was that it had a lot of merit, so it won't be a total shock to the Athletic Department is someone approaches the subject again.

Even the thought of a "Knute Rockne-Gipper tape" makes my hair stand up. I KNOW the players would love it as well as the fans. No one can buy a motivational speaker who could deliver a message with as much power as a visual with this concept.

The 1914 team, Salmon's games and his death, Luppino's +220 yard game, Cecil with 30 hits himself, Chuck Levy spinning an Oregon DB out of his jock, the dominance of Swarm, all of it. We have a hell of a history in moments, and it's a great story to be told.

I see this video starting from the cemetery over on Oracle and Prince with a headstone of John "Button" Salmon and then going from there. If we don't have video, we certainly have stills of the Comet that could be woven into the video. I know the photo I saw of the Comet was a close up, where he wasn't being tackled but you could see the intensity and vision in his eyes and face what with the old single face guard helmets. Hell, I would think if the A.D. got on this they could get Gentleman Jim LaRue, Tomey and Jim Young to introduce a few key moments. Mason, Weber and Larry are gone and you prolly wouldn't want Mason anyway.

PS: I think the name was Daht.com and he is/was a digital and photo genius with elements of stealth scouting as well. I'll never forget the year we opened at Utah and his sneak peeks.

There are stills, but there are game FILMS in the UA archives, of whole games, going back to the 20s, maybe deeper. I even have a tape of Comet going for 135 yards at Wyoming. So, the stuff is available. Some of the early stuff will surprise people in it's ferocity. Tom Duddleston (SID) has custody of most of it.

It's just a matter of viewing it, pulling the very best, and editing it together, verifying the players, dates, and games, writing the narrative, and then adding a great voiceover. Brian Jefferies I'm sure would be glad to do it, and we have lots of other talent available. One of our alums is a top Hollywood producer.

Heck, I can write, I've done some radio, and I'd be glad to help in any way.

Well, my head hurts again on a Saturday morning and I can't blame the schizophrenic tendencies caused by the Friday Fizz.

If I'm reading this correctly, you guys want to digitize a "supposed archive" of film dating from the turn of the 19th century. Since I don't have the use of bullets in a post I'll just run through a few complications and thoughts.

In my hour of research, there doesn't appear to have been any effort made on this front. I've used UA library resources and other online archives. This suggests that either the film doesn't exist or the funding and the manpower simply wasn't there. Or that it simply was never thought of.

If the film archive did exist, we are talking high-dollar amounts for the conversion equipment. There are companies that will do this for a fee but you need to look at the amount of media and then justify it against doing it yourself through purchasing of equipment of having the experts do it. I would imagine that an archive dating from the 20's could potentially turn to dust if mis-handled. The potential permanent destruction of priceless historical footage hangs in the balance and I don't even want to get into the complications of read/write errors on conversion due to natural age. Of course, the footage isn't getting any younger, much like many of the posters on this board. ;-)

I thought this link was interesting for different types of film from a film conversion company.

http://www.colorlab.com/archives/home_movie.html

Your best bet is to throw a lot of money at it. This would be a non-profit "Friends of Arizona Athletics for Film Digitization" group or something along those lines. The Arizona State Museum (The only time I can string those two words together without cringing) has a group called Friends of the ASM Collections that deals with donor collections for preservation of items (see link). This would be your business model.

http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/support/membership/friends/index.shtml

Arizona Archives Online would be an intriguing partner. They operate on a grant from...wait for it...

"The current iteration of AAO has been made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)."

http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/search?smode=browse

I have also attached a link below to demonstrate AAO current Arizona Athletic collections, all two of them and none in media form. Just boxes. AAO is a site that looks like it could use some help and funding.

Technical Considerations:

[nevermind - its my day off. Ask Blueleaf Productions]

Other notes:

You should ask rdotrbennett, who was around for the Battle of Little Bighorn and potentially, the First Battle of the Bull Run, to perform a "total recall" and transfer his thoughts to media.

I have always liked gjfimbres, who used to post on Javier's old board and may still be lurking around, for his video editing skills. I could spend a Saturday afternoon watching the various clips and I just may.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gjfimbres

Sometimes you can find archived material from sites that have crawled your website and archived it. The chances of success are limited but the amusement factor can be high. Check this link for an example.

http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://wildcatinsider.com

Final thought:

This post is way too long.

Correct.

So there is my contribution to the starting point.

This is not an easy call with regards to the fragility of the media. Still, if doing nothing is the decision, the media only becomes more fragile...

Most universities do maintain old athletic film for posterity by varying policies in varying degrees of controlled storage. As with Hollywood, the dangers of storage over time were unrecognized by anyone for a long time.

I'm sure that Arizona's film is in varying degrees of condition, some very good, some nearly gone.

Any attempt at reviewing and re-recording our old film will come with surprises good and bad as it's pushed forward. It just needs to get started. None of the film will improve as it sits.

UCLA, Utah, several other film schools, and private businesses are becoming experts at restoration where necessary. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has done a lot of the work or has farmed it out also, with movie collections.

To be sure, there are lots of questions, but the thrust of what we're looking for is a good video of Arizona Football hits from as early as we can find them.

The ancillary questions of restoration and preservation are broader and though interrelated and very important, are not the focus.

I view the project as ongoing. We need to produce what we can, but wnen we find, or restore and old piece of important film, it should be added.