Bear Down 100: A century of determination and discovery

Bear Down. It's just two small words, but together, they help guide the best university in the Southwest in its efforts to deliver on its promise to support the potential of every student, explore and act on new insights to solve the world's problems, and uplift our community.

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Nobody could have known how deeply the words would continue to resonate a century after they were first uttered in a moment of tragedy.

John "Button" Salmon, University of Arizona student body president and star quarterback of the football team, entered the fall semester of 1926 full of promise and possibility. A devastating car accident on Oct. 3 claimed his life on Oct. 18, just days before his 23rd birthday.

His coach, J.F. "Pop" McKale, frequently visited Salmon in the hospital and relayed Salmon's final inspirational message to the campus community.

"I asked him what word I should take to the boys out on the field, and he replied, 'Tell them to bear down.' And I believe that the message he would have left you if he could, would have been this: 'Fight – keep faith – bear down.'"

A century of 'Bear Down'

One hundred years later, the campus community continues to find inspiration in these words, as they have come to define the university's adventurous spirit.

"When we realized the 100-year anniversary of Bear Down was approaching, we saw a perfect opportunity to celebrate its true meaning and strong connection to our brand," said Christie Harper, the U of A's chief brand officer. "We often hear the question, 'Why do Wildcats say Bear Down?' We want to let the world know that Bear Down is more than a rallying cry. It defines a shared ethos and commitment to excellence among U of A alumni, employees and friends worldwide."

That idea became Bear Down 100.

Frank Camp, executive director of brand strategy, and David Miller, executive director of brand storytelling and creative, began engaging the campus community and collecting the most quintessential Bear Down moments.

How did they know what qualified as a "Bear Down" moment? Anything that made them say "Wow! I can't believe that really happened here."

U of A's greatest hits

The first wave of Bear Down 100 moments includes the origin of the phrase, the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory mapping the moon for exploration, the establishment of the Center for Creative Photography, the 1997 men's basketball national championship, the development of chest-compression-only CPR and the total artificial heart, and the OSIRIS-REx and OSIRIS-APEX missions.

"We found this common thread of upending expectations, or making the impossible into something not only possible, but achievable," Camp said.

Bear Down 100 will feature commercials airing during the Big 12 and NCAA basketball tournaments, as well as billboards, websites and social media campaigns. Arizona Athletics and the Alumni Association will also release Bear Down 100 content throughout the year. You can watch one of the commercials below.

Faculty and staff can take part in the campaign by sharing a Bear Down moment on social media and tagging it #BearDown100. Let your friends and family know about the amazing accomplishments that have taken place here – especially the ones they might not know about. Tell a story about a colleague who exemplifies the Bear Down spirit.

Bear Down 100 isn't simply a trip down memory lane, Miller said. The Bear Down spirit doesn't exist solely in the past – it's a guiding principle for the next wave of incredible discoveries for present and future Wildcats.

"We have this well of experience as a university that pushes us to do great things and do things people said were impossible," Miller said. "We have been told since the day we were founded in 1885 that starting a university in the middle of the desert wouldn't work, or that mapping the moon was impossible, or that bringing asteroid dust back to Earth was unimaginable. At the University of Arizona, we have a history of doing things that couldn't be done, and we aren't about to stop now."