Bear Down Marker in Honor of John “Button” Salmon
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Bear Down Marker
Bear Down Marker Beside of Poston Butte's Marker
Bear Down Gymnasium
John "Button" Salmon
Gravestone of Salmon
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
John “Button” Salmon was the quarterback for the University of Arizona in 1926 as well as the student body president. The “Bear Down” marker, on Arizona Route 79, is near the site of where Salmon and his two classmates were involved in a car accident on the night of October 3rd, 1926. They were returning from a trip to Phoenix. Salmon was critically injured in the accident; the injury to his spinal cord caused him to have complete body paralysis. His head coach, J.F. “Pop” McKale, visited Salmon in the hospital on October 17th. McKale asked Salmon if he had a message for the team. The next day, Salmon passed away.
University of Arizona classes were canceled for the day to honor Salmon’ who was also the student body president. Salmon’s football team had a game on October 20th. Before the game, Coach McKale told the team the message Salmon had given to him while in the hospital. The team ended up winning the game against New Mexico A&M with a 7-0 victory. The team fought hard to win that game and ever since “Bear Down” has been the rallying cry for Wildcat teams and University of Arizona students.
The following year, 1927, a junior honorary organization at the University of Arizona held a dance to raise money to be able to paint the slogan “Bear Down” on top of the university’s gymnasium. The gymnasium is now known as “Bear Down Gymnasium."