Sun Devil Football Military History by Joe Healey Arizona State's Proud
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Sun Devil Football Military History By Joe Healey Arizona State’s proud history of military service by football players dates back to the initial years of the program’s existence, starting in 1898 with three players that were members of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry in the Spanish-American War, otherwise known as Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders”. Due to the similarities of climate to where the troops would eventually wage battle, the Arizona Territory one of the four main areas Rough Rider volunteers were gathered. Crantz Cartledge, Oscar Mullen and Jack Stelzreide, football team members in the late-1800s, served with Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, a cavalry primarily consisting of Native Americans, college athletes, cowboys and ranchers. Cartledge and Mullen played the first two known years of football at Territorial Normal School at Tempe, with Cartledge starting at tackle on the school’s first officially recorded season in 1897. After his two athletic seasons in Tempe, Cartledge, at age 20, volunteered for the Rough Riders in May 1898. Mullen played center as a senior on ASU's first football team in 1896 before joining the Rough Riders and after just four months of service, Mullen made the rank of corporal. He became a member of the Arizona Rangers in 1903. After leaving a cowboy life behind, the Territorial Normal School graduate became a Tempe Union High School trustee in 1909. A few years later, Mullen was Florence's postmaster and school principal. He finished his career as superintendent of schools in Jerome and retired in 1949. Stelzreide left Tempe at age 21 in 1898 and ultimately became Rough Rider Troop C's trumpeter in September 1899. Upon his return, Pvt. Stelzreide suited up at fullback for Tempe Normal’s undefeated 1899 squad—the first to defeat rival Arizona. As Tempe Normal football pushed into the 20th century, members of the football program continued to be compelled into military service, including Robert Finch and Aaron McCreary, both soldiers in World War I. Finch, who rose to the level of first lieutenant, played in Tempe from 1914-15, while McCreary, who came to Tempe Normal after his service, ultimately became the school’s winningest head coach of the program’s first half-century with a 25-17-4 record from 1923-29. Approximately three dozen known Arizona State football players fought in World War II including: Sidney Anderson, Ted Anderson, Bob Baccus, Art Bunger, Bob Buntz, Dom Campolo, Francis Clevenger, Anson Cooper, Claude Duvall, Joe Garcia, Harold Herty, Albert Huber, William Hudgens, Glenn Johnson, Max Julian, Heber Kleinman, Frank Komadina, Robert Lackey, Tom Lillico, J.B McDonald, Jim Montgomery, Ira O’Neal, Wendell Patterson, Ralph Peckovich, Dom “Rocky” Pellicino, Jr., Clayton Peterson, Rex Phelps, Noble Riggs, Henry Rockwell, Barney Rouse, Bill Saunders, Czeslo Schmidt, Clyde L. Smith, Williard Smith and Morrison Warren. Herty, Hudgens, Kleinman, Lackey, Pellicino, Peterson, Rouse and Williard Smith gave the ultimate sacrifice and were killed in action during World War II. Initially drafted into the 1st Army Corps in 1942, O’Neal served in the 42nd Aviation Squadron as a first lieutenant and was a pioneering member of the all-African American “Tuskegee Airmen” squadron, the first African-American military aviators in the history of the United States armed forces. O’Neal re-enlisted with the United States Air Force in 1949, where he proudly served his country until he retired in 1972. After retiring, he started a security service that contracted with the Watergate apartment and ultimately it was O’Neal’s report that started the Watergate episode. In 2004, O’Neal received the Roots in Scouting Award recognizing a lifetime of work with the Boy Scouts of America. In 2007, O’Neal and the other Tuskegee Airmen received the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest civilian award that Congress bestows and is given to an individual who performs an outstanding deed or act of service to the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United States. Warren was a true pioneer in a multitude of ways during his multi-decade connection with Arizona State. During service in WWII, Warren, while driving an officer to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Weimar, Germany, was forever compelled to a life of public service after he witnessed the inhumanities suffered by thousands of Holocaust victims. Upon his return to Tempe, Warren became one of the program’s first African-American football players and the team’s leading rusher in 1946. In 1959, Warren earned a doctorate degree from Arizona State and went on to spend his career as a greatly respected teacher and administrator in the Phoenix area, as well as a professor in ASU’s College of Education. Additionally, he was the first African-American to be elected to the Phoenix City Council (1966-70) and the first to be elected President of the Fiesta Bowl (1982). Ted Anderson and Cooper were the most highly decorated servicemen of the group in WWII, with Anderson earning a Bronze Star and Cooper being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star. On the football field, Riggs earned All-Border Conference honors at guard in 1939, while Jim Montgomery, a member of ASU’s Sports Hall of Fame, was a two-time All- Border Conference recipient at end in 1946 and ‘47 after serving in WWII. Montgomery led the nation in receiving in 1946 with 32 catches for 399 yards and he later became Arizona State’s first post-WWII National Football League draftee. Both Riggs and Montgomery served as team captains during their time in Tempe. In addition to the player service, head coach Dixie Howell fought in WWII after leading the football program from 1938-41, as did Hilman Walker, the main assistant under Howell and head coach in 1942. Also, before beginning his eventual Hall of Fame coaching career at Arizona State, Dan Devine served as a B-29 flight officer in the Army Air Corps. Bill Kajikawa, one of the most legendary Sun Devils in school history, lettered in football from 1934-36 before enlisting with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was manned entirely by Japanese Americans and was the Army's most- decorated combat unit in World War II. Kajikawa, the namesake for ASU’s outdoor football practice facility, coached football, basketball and baseball over a span of five decades before retiring in 1978. In addition to military service, Jake Davis, Richard Davis, Gino Dellalibera, Albin Derbis, Tom Futch, John Gumpf, Clifford Jensen, Karl Kiefer, Joe Matesic, Manuel Muniz, Richard Napolitano, Danny Seivert, Ivan Vucichivech and Frederick Yuss all took the field for the Sun Devils in the 1950s during a pivotal period of tremendous growth and success for both the football program and ASU as an academic institution. Futch, a standout in football, baseball and basketball at Arizona State, was inducted to ASU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. Kiefer was a team captain in 1959 and was joined by Vucichivech in the starting lineup that season on ASU’s Border Conference champion squad. Between his All-America career as an offensive lineman at Michigan State and his coaching career at Arizona State that eventually earned him a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame, Sun Devil legend Frank Kush served in the United States Army in the 1950s. During his service, Kush rose to the rank of first lieutenant and also first tried his hand at coaching football as he mentored the team at Fort Benning. John Goodman, ASU’s starting quarterback and leading passer in 1965 and ’66, graduated in 1967 and began his illustrious military career with the United States Army as a member of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol Team in the Republic of Vietnam. He earned a Bronze Star with Combat "V" and the Soldier's Medal while in Vietnam. After a brief stint with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, Goodman entered the United States Marine Corps in 1971. Over a military career that lasted nearly 40 more years, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general while earning additional awards such as the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal (twice), the Legion of Merit (twice), the Soldier’s Medal and the Purple Heart. Prior to his retirement from the military in 2008, Lt. Gen. Goodman’s Marine Corps résumé included service as a Naval Aviator; Forward Air Controller; Operations Officer; Director of Safety, Standardization, and Tactics; Assistant Division Air Officer; Executive Officer; Assistant Group Operations Officer for Marine Combat Crew Readiness; Group Operations Officer; Director of the School of Advanced Warfighting; Brigadier General; Director, Strategy, Policy and Plans of United States Southern Command; Commander, Marine Forces Korea and Assistant Chief of Staff, among other prestigious leadership roles. Jim Kane earned First-Team All-Western Athletic Conference recognition at left guard in 1968, while Edward Gallardo, Jr. was ASU’s kicker for the program’s first WAC champion team in 1969. Edward Smith, Jack Schram and Michael Skala were members of the Sun Devil football program in the 1970s and ‘80s, with Smith playing for the 1970 WAC title and Peach Bowl champion team while Skala was a member of ASU’s historic Pacific- 10 Conference and Rose Bowl champion squad in 1986. In the 1990s, a trio of student-athletes that helped guide the Sun Devils to the 1996 Pacific-10 Conference Championship and a berth in the 1997 Rose Bowl earned First-Team All-America honors on the football field and also served in the military. One of the most honored and respected student-athletes in the history of college athletics, Pat Tillman was the definitive Sun Devil during his career in Tempe and beyond.