50 Fun Facts About Arizona State University

ASU's Sparky the Sun Devil was drawn by a former studio illustrator and is rumoured to have whose face?

Walt Disney had been the boss of Sparky's designer, Berk Anthony, who is said to have slipped his old employer's features into the mascot's face.

Which visitor's 1987 service for 75,000 at ASU's Sun Devil Stadium had every devil image and nickname covered?

Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in Tempe during a tour of the United States, so every Sun Devil logo and mention in the stadium was removed or hidden for the day.

In 2014, which coffee chain began helping its employees finish a bachelor's degree through ASU Online?

Starbucks named the deal its College Achievement Plan, and it covers full tuition for benefits-eligible staff who enrol in any ASU Online undergraduate degree.

Which architect based ASU's Gammage Auditorium on an opera house he had planned for Baghdad?

Frank Lloyd Wright drew the circular opera house for Iraq's King Faisal II, and after a revolution killed the king the design found a new home in Tempe.

Which Olympic swimmer burst from ASU's Curtain of Distraction in a Speedo during a 2016 basketball game?

Michael Phelps popped out as an Oregon State player shot free throws. ESPN has estimated that the student curtain is worth one to three points a game to ASU.

Which former president spoke from the steps of ASU's Old Main in 1911 while visiting Arizona to dedicate a dam?

Theodore Roosevelt was the first president ever to visit the campus, and the dam he had come to open still carries his name.

Which late-night host spent the 1985–86 year at ASU and became a regular caller to a Phoenix radio show?

Jimmy Kimmel left ASU without graduating, and by 1989 he had his first paid radio job, co-hosting a Seattle morning show with one of those Phoenix hosts.

Which ASU linebacker turned down an NFL contract in 2002 to enlist in the Army after the September 11 attacks?

Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004, and ASU retired the number 42 he had worn as a Sun Devil.

ASU professor Donald Johanson is best known for finding which fossil human ancestor in Ethiopia?

Lucy made Johanson famous long before he reached Tempe: he founded the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley in 1981 and moved it to ASU in 1997.

ASU graduate Amanda Brown wrote the novel behind which 2001 Reese Witherspoon comedy?

Legally Blonde grew out of letters and stories Brown wrote as a Stanford law student after graduating from ASU in 1993. She never finished the law degree.

Which career home run king played at ASU before the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him in 1985?

Barry Bonds only went to college because talks with the Giants broke down over $5,000 when he left high school. He finished at ASU with a criminology degree.

Which slugger, later nicknamed Mr. October, came to ASU on a football scholarship?

Reggie Jackson soon made his name in baseball instead and went second overall in the draft, behind a 17-year-old catcher the Mets preferred.

Which NBA scoring champion had his No. 13 jersey retired by ASU after two seasons in Tempe?

James Harden was the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2009, then went third overall in the NBA draft to Oklahoma City.

Which golfer won three NCAA individual titles at ASU and a PGA Tour event while still an amateur?

Phil Mickelson took the Northern Telecom Open in Tucson as an ASU student, making him one of the few amateurs ever to win on the PGA Tour.

Which Spanish golfer was the first to win the Ben Hogan Award twice, both times while at ASU?

Jon Rahm also spent a then-record 60 weeks as the world's top-ranked amateur before going on to win the Masters in 2023.

Which handbag designer earned an ASU journalism degree in 1985 before working at Mademoiselle magazine?

Kate Spade expected a career in television production, but rose to head of accessories at the magazine before launching bags under her own name.

Which sportscaster, voice of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, studied radio and television at ASU?

Al Michaels minored in journalism in Tempe, and he was also at the microphone when an earthquake interrupted the 1989 World Series.

Which first host of The Tonight Show left the Tempe college that became ASU for a Phoenix radio job?

Steve Allen left as a sophomore for station KOY, and in 1954 he co-created the first nationwide late-night television talk show.

Which autism advocate and livestock expert earned a master's degree in animal science at ASU in 1975?

Temple Grandin later earned a doctorate in the same field at Illinois, and Claire Danes played her in a 2010 HBO film about her life.

Which French swimmer trained at ASU before winning four individual gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Léon Marchand won NCAA titles for the Sun Devils while studying computer science. Only three swimmers before him had won four individual golds at one Games.

What colour do ASU freshmen paint the giant A on Tempe Butte at the start of each school year?

White paint goes on during welcome week in a tradition called Echo from the Buttes, and the letter turns gold again before the first football game.

Which ASU school colour, added alongside gold in 1898, is said to signify sacrifice and bravery?

Maroon arrived two years after gold, the school's oldest colour, which stands for a golden promise to students and for Arizona's sunshine.

What does Sparky the Sun Devil do after every ASU football score, matching the team's point total?

Push-ups even follow the team on the road, where members of the spirit squad support Sparky while he does them.

Which tool gives its name to both ASU's athletics logo and the hand sign fans flash at games?

Pitchfork is the popular name for what Sparky carries, though the artist who created the mascot actually drew him holding a trident.

Which nickname did ASU's teams drop when students voted in 1946 to become the Sun Devils?

Bulldogs lost out by 819 votes to 196 after the student newspaper spent the autumn campaigning for the new name.

Which trophy, first awarded in 1899, goes to the winner of ASU's football game against rival Arizona?

Territorial Cup was made for the 1899 season, before Arizona was a state, and the NCAA has certified it as the oldest rivalry trophy in college football.

The palms planted along ASU's Palm Walk since 2016 yield which fruit, harvested yearly and sold to the public?

Dates grow on the Medjool palms that replaced the walk's original Mexican fan palms, which had reached the end of their lives after about a century.

ASU opened in 1886 as a normal school, a kind of college built to train people for which job?

Teaching was the whole mission when 33 students began classes in a four-room schoolhouse, and the school kept Teachers College in its name until 1945.

By what means did Arizona State College become Arizona State University in 1958?

A statewide vote, carried two to one, settled the name after two alternatives, Tempe University and State University at Tempe, had also been considered.

Which student newspaper campaigned through autumn 1946 for ASU's teams to be renamed the Sun Devils?

The State Press ran frequent appeals for the change that year, and students then backed the new name by more than four to one.

From which city did the NFL's Cardinals move in 1988 to play home games at ASU's Sun Devil Stadium?

St. Louis lost the Cardinals to what was meant to be a short stay in Tempe, but the team remained a tenant of the university for 18 seasons.

Which team beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX, played at ASU's Sun Devil Stadium in 1996?

Dallas Cowboys fans saw a fifth Super Bowl title that day, in the first Super Bowl ever played in the Phoenix area.

Which Irish band filmed the colour concert scenes of Rattle and Hum at ASU's Sun Devil Stadium in 1987?

U2 played two December nights in Tempe for the cameras, in the same city where the band's Joshua Tree Tour had begun.

Which Big Ten champion did ASU beat 22–15 in the 1987 Rose Bowl?

Michigan met a Sun Devil team making its first Rose Bowl appearance, in only its ninth season as a Pac-10 member.

Which coach won 176 games at ASU from 1958 to 1979 and has the stadium's playing field named for him?

Frank Kush had only one losing season in 22 years, yet ASU fired him in 1979 for interfering with an inquiry into claims that he had punched a player.

Which ASU quarterback, nicknamed the Snake, took the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl after the 1996 season?

Jake Plummer ran for a go-ahead touchdown late in that game, but Ohio State answered to win 20–17 and hand ASU its only loss of the season.

Which quarterback played three seasons at ASU before transferring to LSU and winning the 2023 Heisman Trophy?

Jayden Daniels had picked ASU from 25 scholarship offers as the top dual-threat quarterback in his recruiting class.

Which postseason college football game was played at ASU's Sun Devil Stadium from its 1971 debut until 2006?

Fiesta Bowl history began with ASU itself beating Florida State 45–38 in the first game, and the bowl moved to the NFL stadium in Glendale in 2007.

At which university-owned retreat near Payson did ASU football open its preseason every year from 1960 to 2008?

Camp Tontozona covers 36 acres and was built as a place for players to bond. After four years away, the Sun Devils went back in 2012.

Which ASU nose guard won the 1967 NCAA heavyweight wrestling title and later entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Curley Culp, the youngest of 13 children from Yuma, also won the award for scoring the most pins at that NCAA meet.

ASU's law school was renamed in 2006 for which retired Supreme Court justice and Phoenix resident?

Sandra Day O'Connor's namesake college later left Tempe: in 2016 it moved into the Beus Center for Law and Society in downtown Phoenix.

ASU's journalism school has carried the name of which veteran television newsman since it was renamed in 1984?

Walter Cronkite never taught at the school, but he came to campus a few times a year to meet students and present the award that bears his name.

ASU's Lindy Elkins-Tanton leads NASA's Psyche mission, launched in 2023 to study what kind of object?

A metallic asteroid such as Psyche may be the exposed iron core of an early planet, a glimpse of material normally buried deep inside worlds like Earth.

Elinor Ostrom, who held a late-career post at ASU, was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in which field?

Economics had never honoured a woman until 2009, when Ostrom, who trained as a political scientist, won for her analysis of how shared resources are governed.

Doug Ducey, an ASU finance graduate and later Arizona governor, was chief executive of which ice cream chain?

Cold Stone Creamery opened its first shop in Tempe in 1988, and Ducey ran the company from 1995 to 2007.

Which 1896 graduate of ASU's forerunner became Arizona's first congressman and set a record for service in Congress?

Carl Hayden was remembered at a 1972 memorial service in ASU's Gammage Auditorium, where former president Lyndon B. Johnson spoke.

Which ASU president, hired from Columbia University in 2002, proposed the New American University model?

Michael Crow summed up the redesign as one university in many places, with several campuses sharing a single faculty, student body and accreditation.

Which ASU outfielder was the very first player chosen in Major League Baseball's first draft, in 1965?

Rick Monday led the Sun Devils to the College World Series title that same year, and in 1976 he stopped an American flag from being burned at Dodger Stadium.

Which MIT physicist, a 2004 Nobel Prize winner, has also served as a distinguished professor at ASU?

Frank Wilczek shared the 2004 physics prize for asymptotic freedom, a discovery he made in 1973 while still a graduate student at Princeton.

By which nickname is ASU's Sun Devil Marching Band, winner of the 1991 Sudler Trophy, known?

Pride of the Southwest was the first Pac-10 band to receive the Sudler Trophy, and it has also played at a Super Bowl and the Rose Bowl.