Wildcats' 'most obscure’ foe: The military giants of Camp Harry Jones

There was a popular social media post this week, touting “The most obscure team each Big 12 school has ever played.”

The post declared that the Arizona Wildcats’ most obscure football foe was Camp Harry Jones during the 1917 season.

Well, this is a question without a definitive answer, and I’m not particularly interested in trying to quantify what counts as obscure, and what’s the value of this clickbait premise anyway, and, man, do I have more important things to think about.

But, uh, yeah, sure … dang it. Now, all of sudden, I really, really want to know more about this game that took place 107 years ago between the Wildcats and this Camp Harry Jones.

The Arizona media guide — incorrectly listing the matchup fourth in a five-game schedule that doesn’t have any dates of the games — states that the “Camp Harry Jones Officers” won in Tucson, 3-0. Thrilling in its own way, I suppose.

But what exactly was Camp Harry Jones?

And who was Harry J. Jones?

And how did this team beat the Wildcats of coach J.F. “Pop” McKale?

🏈 The Most Obscure Team Every Big 12 Team Has Ever Played pic.twitter.com/dFVA6nmWFU

— Texas Football Life (@txfblife) September 29, 2024

Camp Harry Jones

The U.S. Army established Camp Jones in 1910 near Douglas, Ariz., to provide border security during the Mexican Revolution. The camp became a key post during the Mexican Expedition, a U.S. military operation against the forces of Pancho Villa, especially following his attack on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916. That was Villa’s retaliation for the Americans’ opposition months earlier in the Battle of Agua Prieta in November 1915.

Villa had unsuccessfully tried to capture the border town of Agua Prieta, clashing with the troops of revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza, whom the United States recognized as the head of the Mexican government, allowing his troops to move through U.S. territory. Although the U.S. did not actively take part in the fighting, Harry Jones was killed by a bullet while on guard duty along the border, the only American to lose his life in the battle. Camp Douglas, as it was originally known, was renamed in his honor.

Meanwhile, Germany’s sinking of the British steamship Lusitania in May 1915, killing 128 Americans, and its subsequent submarine warfare kept pulling the United States closer into World War I. And then it happened. The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

This was what was happening in the world when the Arizona Wildcats played a football game against Camp Harry Jones.

Wildcats open the 1917 season

According to stories of the day, the Wildcats were up against the men from the 11th Field Artillery, which had been constituted on July 1, 1916, and activated on June 1, 1917, at Camp Jones. The regiment consisted of 63 officers and nearly 1,500 enlisted men.

The football game was scheduled for Tucson on Oct. 13, and Coach McKale was worried. The Wildcats had lost captain-elect and school president Harry Turvey and seven of his teammates to the call of the service after school started, according to the university yearbook. And McKale knew his team was going up against a tough group of men to begin the season.

According to the Tucson Citizen:

“From all reports, this promises to be one of the hardest games of the season for this team is composed almost exclusively of men who starred in football at various large colleges before joining the Army. … This will make it a very hard aggregation to beat especially as they are a very heavy team in comparison to that of the University and also because they have been training together a full month longer than the Wildcats.”

The team from the 11th Field Artillery featured ex-college players from Oklahoma, Kansas, Yale, Cal, Army, Wisconsin and other major programs.

It’s worth noting that the player from the Sooner varsity team was a man named William Edward “Ed” Corkill. Several months after playing in the game, he would be sent to France, later earning a Silver Star during the Allies’ victory in the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918.

Staying in the Army and rising to Colonel, Corkill served in World War II, assigned to the Bataan Peninsula, which was surrendered to the Japanese in April 1942. Corkill was one of about 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war forced on the 65-mile Bataan Death March. Corkill survived the brutal march and three years in captivity, liberated in August 1945, a veteran of two World Wars.

How’s that for tough?

And consider this: The 11th Field Artillery is distinguished by being given the honor to officially fire the final shot of World War I. At 10:59:59 on Nov. 11, 1918, Battery E of the 11th Field Artillery fired that final shot from a 155mm Schneider, serial number 3125, nicknamed “Calamity Jane.”

So, who knows? Someone who played for Camp Harry David against Arizona in this obscure game on Oct. 13 — or in a subsequent 1917 game — might have been for the final shot of World War I.

‘A team of giants’

Details about the game are scarce about what happened on Oct. 13 in front of what the newspapers reported was a crowd of about 800. No photos. No stats. No first names in many cases.

“Rather simple football was used throughout by both teams with end runs and line bucks the chief method of attack,” the story read in the Arizona Daily Star. “The soldiers worked a few good shift formations and at the passing game they were easily the superior of the Wildcats.”

But both the Star and the Tucson Citizen described a valiant effort by McKale’s men. Right tackle and captain Bill McGowan was a “tower of strength” for the Wildcats, according to the Star report, “managing to keep the soldiers from making their yards several times during the game.”

One can imagine a rough, tough slog between two determined teams. Newspaper stories don’t mention a scoring threat until the fourth quarter.

The Citizen wrote:

“It was expected that the soldiers would have a big team, but it came as a distinct surprise when they appeared with a team of giants. …

“However, if the artillery had a good team, then comparatively as to size, the U. A. varsity was a wonderful team for never was their goal seriously in danger and light as they were they held the soldiers until the score in the last quarter, when, being tired out, they allowed the soldiers to advance to the 40-yard line.”

It was from the 40-yard line that a young man from the 11th Field Artillery with the last name of Kelly, a former Army player reportedly, converted a 40-yard dropkick for the only points of the game.

In retrospect, “Team of giants” is relative, of course. The Citizen reported that the heaviest player on the Camp Harry Jones team was a strapping 198 pounds and that its starters averaged 175. The Wildcats’ starting 11 averaged a mere 145 pounds.

The rest of the story

The Wildcats, featuring Louis Slonaker at quarterback — he would also later captain the basketball team, play baseball, serve in Arizona athletics for 25 years and be the school’s Dean of Men for 16 more — lost the next week at mighty Southern California.

But they would win their final three games, including a Nov. 17 matchup against another team from Camp Harry Jones, this time vs. the enlisted men of the 11th Field Artillery, although those men lacked their officers’ size, skill and experience. The Wildcats easiily won 41-0. (The UA lists this game as being played against the U.S. Field Artillery, with no mention of Camp Harry Jones.)

The Wildcats finished their abbreviated season with a 45-0 win at Whittier on Thanksgiving Day.

Soon after, McGowan and others from the 1917 team would be fighting for Uncle Sam. The Wildcats did not play football in 1918.

The 11th Field Artillery Regiment, after further training in Oklahoma, arrived in France on August 2, 1918.

As for Camp Harry Jones? It was abandoned in 1933.

Perhaps that rates as obscure in today’s social media world … but it’s not totally forgotten.

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Top photo: The Arizona Wildcats football team photo from 1917 (photo from the University of Arizona yearbook)