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This Saturday the Arizona Football team hopes to snap a four-game losing streak in 2016 and a four-game losing streak to the Stanford Cardinal.
Stanford has dominated the series recently winning nine of last eleven games against the Cats, but if Arizona comes out on top Saturday, it will give the program a .500 all-time record against the Cardinal.
These teams never met before the Cats joined the Pac-10, but since the late 1970’s the Cardinal hold a 15-14 advantage over Arizona.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 wins the Cats have had over Stanford.
Honorable Mention
Oct. 3, 1981
Stanford 13
Arizona 17
Nov. 7, 1982
Arizona 41
Stanford 27
The early 1980’s were not kind to Stanford, but they did have a secret weapon that made Pac-10 schools cringe every time they had to play the Cardinal.
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
The famous quarterback was selected as the No. 1 pick in the 1983 NFL draft, but during his final two years playing for the trees, an Arizona tailback had just as many passing touchdowns against the Cardinal as Elway had against the Wildcats.
During the 1981 and 1982 games, Brian Holland had game-winning touchdown passes against the Cardinal on extremely rare half back pass plays.
Elway would combine for two touchdown passes in both clashes against Arizona.
No. 5: Sep. 14, 1991
Stanford 23
Arizona 28
The Wildcats trailed 17-0 to the Cardinal before Dick Tomey’s boys got rolling.
Arizona scored 28 straight points including an 85-yard touchdown strike to David Lockhart from George Malauulu for the Cats final score.
The Cardinal made it interesting in the final moments, but defensive monster Rob Waldrop ended the game by sacking Stanford quarterback Jason Palumbis.
No. 4: Oct. 17, 2009
Stanford 38
Arizona 43
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Before Jim Harbaugh brought back legitimacy to the football powers of the 49ers and Wolverines, he took a doormat program in Stanford and made them matter.
In 2009 things looked bleak late in the fourth quarter for Arizona against the Cardinal, but instead of attempting a chip shot field goal that could have possibly given Stanford a five-point lead, Harbaugh opted to go for it on fourth down.
The Cats stopped the Cardinal on fourth down and scored a few plays later thanks to a 57-yard touchdown by Nic Grigsby.
With only a few minutes remaining Andrew Luck lead Stanford down to the Arizona 17-yard line, but the Cats defense wouldn’t let him get any closer, giving Mike Stoops a huge win over the khakis king.
Fan favorite Nick Foles finished the game with 415 yards in the air and three touchdowns.
No. 3: Oct. 11, 1997
Stanford (No. 16) 22
Arizona 28
Keith Smith started the 1997 campaign No. 1 on the quarterback depth chart, but an injury against UCLA opened the door for an eye-opening freshman named Ortege Jenkins.
In Jenkins first start a week later against the Cardinal, he threw four touchdown passes.
The next season, Arizona had it’s greatest campaign in history with a 12-1 record, using a two-quarterback system of Smith and Jenkins under center.
No. 2: Oct. 17, 1992
Arizona 21
Stanford (No. 8 ) 6
After a disastrous start to the 1992 season in which Arizona tied lowly Oregon State, something finally started to click, and Arizona’s famous Desert Swarm defense was born.
Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
A one-point loss to No. 1 Miami showed a different team that played the Beavers a week earlier and Arizona went on a five-game stretch that changed the perception of the program nationally.
During that streak, the Cats went to Palo Alto to take on Bill Walsh’s No. 8 Stanford team.
It was a game dominated by the defense. The Swarm only allowed 33 yards rushing and had eight sacks on the afternoon led by Richard Maddox, who added 2.5 sacks to his stat sheet.
During the Cats three-game run against No. 1 Miami, No. 11 UCLA and No. 8 Stanford, the Swarm only allowed a total of five yards rushing to the three highly ranked teams.
No. 1: Oct. 17, 1993
Stanford 24
Arizona (No. 11) 27
When Stanford came to Tucson in 1993, the Cats were a perfect 5-0 and whispers of Rose Bowl could be heard throughout the Old Pueblo.
With the game tied at 24, an unlikely Desert Swarm hero stepped up to give the Cats a chance at a surprising late-game win.
On third down, Akil Jackson smashed quarterback Steve Stenstrom, and the ball came loose.
Arizona would recover the fumble, setting up a winning 27-yard field goal by Steve McLaughlin.
The Cats would miss the Rose Bowl by one game but had a nice consolation prize when it destroyed the Miami Hurricanes 29-0 at the Fiesta Bowl.
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