The UA outscored opponents 418-30 in the 1921 season before losing 38-0 to Centre College (Ky.) in a muddy Christmas Classic in San Diego.

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Any time a college football team scores 70 points — any game, at any place, against any team — perceptions change.

In the brief time since Arizona's 70-0 victory against Idaho, a game so lopsided that Vandals coach Robb Akey told Idaho reporters the only positive news was "that the plane didn't crash on the way home," the UA has a new football identity.

Until they prove otherwise, the long-suffering Wildcats are back on the Respected List. Beating Idaho 70-0 gets more reputation points than, say, beating BYU at any time.

The notion now exists that the Wildcats can be really good.

This has happened in Tucson before, and it undeniably changed the way the school approached football. Here is how it went down:

In the wee hours of Saturday, Oct. 29, 1921, maybe 3 a.m., a train from El Paso arrived at the Tucson railyard. Out climbed the Texas School of Mines football team.

If they saw that morning's newspaper before getting a few hours of sleep, it was a quick, six-line read:

FIRST BIG GAME

ON HOME FIELD

Arizona Varsity

Is Confident

Admission $1

Kickoff at 3:30 p.m.

After routing the travel-weary Miners 74-0, UA coach Pop McKale sensed his 1921 team was something special.

He sent a cable to the University of Colorado and asked if the school would be willing to play in what essentially would be a bowl game in Tucson.

CU officials asked for $3,000. McKale declined. He wrote to the University of Oklahoma with the same request. OU officials were not interested.

McKale persisted. He ultimately arranged a Dec. 2 game with Whittier College, a SoCal powerhouse perceived to be that year's ranking football school west of the Mississippi.

Before the undefeated Whittier club came to Tucson, McKale's prolific "varsity'' played a Thanksgiving Day game against a junior college, New Mexico Military Institute, in a game billed as "championship of the Southwest."

University officials made a plea for community support. The school said it cost more than $1,000 to play host to the New Mexico team, which had spent two days training in Benson.

Extra bleachers were installed at Varsity Field. A capacity crowd of about 2,000 attended.

Arizona was so confident that the headline in the Thanksgiving newspaper said "McKale to Use Second String Men if Opposition Weak.''

Weak? Arizona rolled 110-0. Bring on Whittier.

From the Dec. 2, 1921, Star: "Football fans of Tucson will have the opportunity of their lives to see the greatest game ever played in the southwest when Arizona and Whittier meet this afternoon.''

Arizona won 7-0 and in doing so received unprecedented national attention.

Local businessmen guaranteed the UA's travel costs for a Dec. 26 "Christmas Classic'' in San Diego — a bowl game! — where, tentatively, it was to meet the Centre College (Ky.) "Praying Colonels,'' an undefeated juggernaut coming off victories over mighty Harvard and Yale.

Do you think Arizona would have been so bold had it beat Texas School of Mines 17-0 rather than 70-0. All of those points turned heads in 1921 the way they do in 2008.

Alas, at the last minute, officials in San Diego pushed McKale and Arizona aside and announced Notre Dame would play in the Christmas Classic.

But just as the UA football squad dispersed for the winter, Notre Dame reconsidered the long trip to San Diego and announced it would not be able to properly fund the trip.

Arizona got a second chance to play in San Diego but did not immediately agree because McKale insisted his team needed new uniforms and shoes. He had considerable leverage, but UA bookkeepers argued that the football season created a $3,000 deficit and that no money was available to outfit the team in new uniforms.

Within a few days, Tucson boosters donated $500 to cover the cost of bowl game uniforms and shoes. Southern Pacific offered a reduced rate, $38, for UA fans to travel to the game. All seats on the train were sold within five days.

Big-time football arrived at the UA.

It could all be traced to the points parade of '21, and the residual interest in college football, all of it leading to the construction of 7,000-seat Arizona Stadium seven years later.

True, the Wildcats were humbled in the '21 Christmas Classic, losing to Centre 38-0, but thereafter McKale and Tucson viewed themselves as a football town.

McKale scheduled USC in 1922, brought UCLA to Tucson in 1927 and when he retired from football coaching in 1930 had produced a remarkable 63-23-6 record over his final 12 years.

Did it really all start with that 74-0 victory over the El Paso Miners in '21? Well, it is the best story going and, besides, is there anyone from 1921 to say otherwise?

Now, almost a century later, Arizona has again scored 70 points in a football game and has a chance to restore its reputation.

As in 1921, the Arizona varsity is confident again.