The earth moved. The press box shimmied. The doors to football heaven broke open and for the first time in forever, Arizona walked in.
For all those men who came so close, for Jim Young and Larry Smith, for Dick Tomey and Jim LaRue, this one was for you.
Arizona finally won The Big One.
"Here we are, where we want to be," UA coach Rich Rodriguez said after putting his fingerprints all over the Territorial Cup on Friday afternoon. "You don't know how many times in the last year I thought about this game."
A few years ago, when no one was looking, Arizona erected six "championship" banners at Arizona Stadium, including the 1936 Border Conference, when the UA went 3-0-1 and UTEP 2-1-1, and the 1964 WAC, when Arizona, New Mexico and Utah all finished 3-1.