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 Copyrighted 1965 - 2012 |
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A Collection Of Bizarre Solved & Unsolved Mysteries
Associated With The University Of Arizona
Located In Tucson, Arizona U.S.A. From 1885 To The Present Day
(Not a website of the UofA)
Bear Down Gym's Secrets
The University of Arizona Wildcat's
battle cry of Bear Down
and fight song
(hear it) comes from
the Thursday October 18, 1926 final dying words of a 22 year old wildly popular charismatic student
leader, and multi talented
athlete who often trained in what was then the newly built
Men's Gymnasium
as the Bear Down Gym was originally named.
In 1925
John
'Button' Byrd Salmon was
the President of the Student Body, the
varsity football teams
starting quarterback and
team captain, and a
three-year star catcher for the baseball team
with obvious major league potential.
Nicknamed 'Button' by his family for his small frame (5'8", 145 pounds) and unbelievably impish good
looks, he was extremely popular with his teammates, coach, fellow students,
the
people of Tucson,
all the schools girls, and many of the young girls around town.
1925 John 'Button' Byrd
Salmon
John's father,
Frank Salmon was born in 1875 and
raised in Texas. Frank, was an educated smart tough no nonsense but always very
supportive family man who
worked hard in
management for the Phelps Dodge Copper Corporation in
Bisbee during the Deportation of 1917, his mother
Kathryn E. (Simpson) Salmon was a gentle yet tough fine lady and very loving mother born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1878. Eventually,
both parents were buried in Tucson
near the son they loved so much.
Their son,
John 'Button' Byrd Salmon was born in Christoval Texas on October 22, 1903 and grew up with his parents in the tough
early 1900's copper mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. 'Button's'
older brother Riney
B. Salmon was also very athletic, and mentored-supported his young brother John
'Button' Byrd Salmon in both baseball and football at
Bisbee's Warren Ballpark
where the Young 'Button' Salmon regularly played baseball with the likes of
numerous members of the Chicago White Socks, and many other pro ball players of
the time who spent time there in the off season. 'Button's" brother
Riney B. Salmon later became the President of the
Arizona-Texas Baseball League from 1948 to 1950.
However,
young John 'Button' Byrd Salmon was not so lucky and suffered
a severed spinal cord injury leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Dr.
Victor Melsor, a well respected and extremely talented Tucson surgeon, performed
the 8 hour surgery on 'Button' at the Southern Methodist Hospital in Tucson, but the spinal injury was just too severe. John
'Button' Byrd Salmon died 14 days later on
October 18, 1926, at Southern Methodist Hospital in Tucson.
Southern Methodist Hospital Tucson, Arizona 1925
On the day of October 18, 1926 'Button'
gave a final message to his coach and ultimately to his football and baseball
teammates. John 'Button' Salmon's coach 'Pop' Mc Kale, who had been visiting 'Button' Salmon
every single day for 13 days at the hospital, was talking to 'Button' when the injured young man
whispered 'Pop' come closer....."Tell them...Tell The Team To Bear Down. The
Nurse in attendance then noted that John ' Button' Salmon breathed in one last breath and
died peacefully at 10:32 am.
Funeral Procession October 1926
Late the night of October 18, 1926 after 'Pop' had returned from the hospital he
was working at his office desk in Bear Down Gym around 10pm that night. It was revealed
only later that the ghost of John 'Button' Byrd Salmon wearing his football
jersey appeared to him at the doorway to the office and began walking toward the
exhausted coach. The apparition uttered only two words, "Bear Down." Other employees, janitor's, and students in the gym both during
the day and especially late at night have reported over the years since 1926 their encountering
the apparition of a short young man in a well used 1920's era football jersey moving
throughout various areas of the gym.
Constructed in 1926 to replace Herring Hall, and named after
Originally, the main level provided
basketball courts and room for gymnastics, while the lower level contained
locker rooms, offices, and space for the Department of Military Science and
Tactics. The building at one time seated about 6,000 spectators and was used for
sports, school dances, and the annual student registration activities.
USS Arizona - December 7th, 1941 7:48am Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Quickly after
December 7, 1941 with the outbreak of World War II, Bear
Down Gym (and many other facilities at the U of A) were taken over by the
U.S. War Department as a barracks for 500 young
students at a time as they went through their "Expedited" Naval Indoctrination
School, just prior to being shipped off to war. Many of the 'green' sailors and
officers who lived and trained there together 24/7 gave their lives in the war
effort and never returned. It's said that their ghosts still frequent Bear Down
Gym looking to start where they left off back when they were young students.
Bear Down Gym - January 16, 1942
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In
1925, the year just before his untimely death,
John 'Button' Byrd Salmon
completely amazed a stadium crowd of over 30,000 University of Southern
California (USC) Trojan fans as well as his
University of Arizona
supporters up in the stands at the
game against USC in
1925
Los Angeles with his almost superhuman powerful punts,
literally flying over the
top of opponents, and totally fearless
defensive plays. This was one very talented athlete without fear who was a 'hard as a rock kid' with
his wild curly
reddish hair and freckles who inspired his teammates to bestow the nickname on him of
'The Leaping Tuna.'
John 'Button' Salmon was also an
exceptionally talented baseball catcher
with clearly major league talents. In the spring of 1925 his clutch two base hit drove in the winning run against USC in a very heated baseball game.
When John 'Button' Byrd Salmon was elected the Student
Body President just
four days later he referred to that 'hit' as 'my 200 vote double.'
The very day after the
1926 season's big opening
football game, John 'Button' Byrd Salmon was driving at a very high rate of
speed coming back from
Phoenix in his
Ford Model T (see
article) (see video) with a football-fraternity buddy and a young girl
when he missed a treacherous curve and hit the dirt berm along the side of the
road near Picacho Peak, Arizona. His car overturned numerous times , and
crashed down into a deep
ravine pinning him underneath the wreckage for hours until any help arrived. The other two passengers
were both ejected from the car
miraculously sustaining only a few
deep lacerations, cuts and bruises, but they were not seriously injured. 
