TEMPE, Ariz. — For years, one of the biggest mysteries of the Territorial Cup centered on the night it resurfaced. Local media reported that college football’s oldest rivalry trophy, believed missing for decades, had been discovered in the basement or closet of a local church.
Actually, it was in a vault, says Laura Roach. She is sure of this because, 40 years ago, she was there the night her father found the trophy at the First Congregational Church of Tempe.
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In the years since, the Territorial Cup has become synonymous with one of the great sporting events in Arizona, the annual football clash between Arizona State and Arizona. Since 2001, the Cup (and a replica) has gone to the winner, proudly displayed, safely secured, the symbol of state bragging rights. The desert rivals will meet again Saturday.
How it got to this point is a fascinating story, based on the accounts of family members of the man who found the Cup, that includes a series of serendipitous events. It’s a tale that includes unanswered questions, a business professor from the Midwest and parties with legendary Arizona State coach Frank Kush.
It starts in that church.
This part of the Cup’s history has never been told. Former Arizona State archivist Robert Spindler is among the Cup’s foremost authorities. He has written research papers and is a reason a lot of the trophy’s history dating to 1899 is known. But in a September interview, even Spindler admitted that details of the night the Cup was discovered remained a mystery.
“I think that’s the fun of it,” Spindler said. “And it’s also the great thing about archives and history — that most of the time there’s still new information waiting to be uncovered.”
In 1983, Laura Roach was 11 years old, the youngest daughter of Herbert Bohlman, an attorney and Arizona State business law professor everyone called “Mac.” It was a Wednesday night in the fall, as Roach recalls. While Roach and others attended youth-group activities, she says her father and a church leader named Jim Riggins cleaned out the vault.
The First Congregational Church was a community staple, built in 1899 and renovated throughout the years. It was considered an Arizona State church because much of its congregation consisted of university faculty, and also because of its downtown location.
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Like with everything else, Mac Bohlman and his wife, Mary, who went by “Mimi,” were active in the church. Mac was a moderator and served on the finance committee. And he was one of the few people who knew about the vault.
It was located behind the altar, a short path from the church office. Roach remembers the area’s darkness creeping her out. The vault was big enough that a man could crawl into it. It safeguarded items like Christmas decorations, celebratory candles and other valuables from the church’s rich history.
As they cleaned that autumn night, Bohlman and Riggins came across a gray, dirty bag tucked away in the back. They looked inside and were amazed at what they found.
“Voila!” Mimi Bohlman said. “There it was.”
The Territorial Cup.
On the way home, Roach rode in the front seat of the family’s gold Cadillac. The Cup was secured in the back. Roach understood football — her family had been Arizona State season-ticket holders for years — but she didn’t understand the trophy’s significance. But she could tell her dad was excited. To him, the discovery was a big deal.
Roach also sensed something else.
“He told me not to say anything about it,” she said. “I think he may have recalled that he may have been responsible for it missing and so he started getting nervous.”
The Territorial Cup was found in a vault in the First Congregational Church in Tempe, Ariz. How it got there and why is still not entirely known. (Doug Haller / The Athletic)The trophy made local headlines. Everyone tried to put the discovery into context, but it was difficult because not much was known. Ken Falk, the church’s minister, told The Tempe Daily News that the Cup may have been at the church for 50 years. This set an inaccurate timeline.
The silver-plated Cup had deep roots. Spindler wrote that it was given to Arizona Territorial Normal School, which became Arizona State University, for winning the Territorial Foot Ball League championship during the 1899-1900 season. He speculated that the Cup likely resided in the office of the school president, but from there, it’s a mystery.
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The Cup disappeared for decades. Its whereabouts, unknown.
Per news accounts, the trophy was around in the 1970s, but details are scarce. The Arizona State student newspaper, The State Press, reported that the Cup was kept as early as 1970 at the Arizona State Alumni Association offices in Mariposa Hall. The Arizona Republic made references to a similar timeframe.
So the question becomes: How did the trophy end up in the church vault?
Spindler wrote in 2014 that no evidence had emerged explaining this. Laura Roach said she had not thought about the trophy in years, but after receiving an interview request for this story, she talked with her mother. Roach isn’t positive, but she thinks she has a decent idea of how the Cup might have ended up at the church.
And it starts with her father.
Mac Bohlman, who died in 2015 at age 79, was never a jock, nor even a die-hard sports fan. He grew up in Iowa, the only son of educators. In 1964, Mac and Mimi moved to Arizona, where Mac had landed a job teaching business at Arizona State. Mimi wasn’t thrilled with the idea of living among snakes and scorpions, but she soon fell in love with the area and the Bohlmans built a life in the desert. Mac would teach at Arizona State for more than 40 years.
During this time, Mac met Kush, the demanding, successful Arizona State coach, and football became a part of the Bohlmans’ lives. The family attended home games, sitting in the faculty section on the east side of Sun Devil Stadium. It learned the importance of the rivalry with the University of Arizona.
More than the sport itself, Mac enjoyed the social aspect of football. He loved having people around. The Bohlmans’ house — Mac called it “The Big White House” — had a main residence of approximately 2,000 square feet, a two-story office that Mac used to write and practice law as well as a guest/storage area.
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It was perfect for entertaining.
The Bohlmans often hosted football get-togethers. Kush and the Arizona State coaches would come over on special occasions, before the season or after big wins. Roach said Kush once told her that one day she would become an Arizona State cheerleader. She ended up attending the University of Arizona instead.
Although the timing is fuzzy, Patti Haught, the Bohlmans’ oldest daughter, remembers the Cup at these parties. It was her job to dust it along with the rest of the silver, displaying it in the family room close to the bar. She says coaches passed around the trophy like it was the Stanley Cup. There’s no doubt they understood the trophy’s significance — and value.
That’s why Roach and her mother think that maybe one night, after a football party, or maybe the next morning, Mac Bohlman took the Cup to the First Congregational Church because he knew the vault would be the perfect place to keep it.
“We were trying to brainstorm: In the 1970s, who had access to that vault and was really involved in ASU football?” Roach said. “And we keep going back to my dad.”
There would have been no ill intent. Roach said her father was an honest man. He never would have intentionally withheld the Cup. But securing it in the vault and then forgetting about it, thinking that maybe Kush had taken home the trophy instead?
Yes, that was definitely possible.
Or as Mimi Bohlman said, laughing, “That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.”
However the Territorial Cup ended up in that church vault, it’s likely Mac Bohlman — a fixture at the church and within the Arizona State football community — played a big role. (Courtesy of the Bohlman family)Even though the trophy had been discovered, it was years from becoming the centerpiece of the in-state football rivalry.
Jim Riggins, the church leader, delivered the Cup to Arizona State, where it was placed in university archives. The trophy was displayed in the historic President’s Residence as well as Hayden Library.
In 1995, in anticipation of Super Bowl XXX coming to Sun Devil Stadium, the art museum at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport asked the state’s major universities to contribute to a sports exhibit. The airport wanted to showcase historical items so visitors could better understand the state.
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Arizona State sent the Territorial Cup.
This is how the University of Arizona got involved.
Territorial Cup history
| Year(s) | Event |
|---|---|
1899-1900 | Awarded to Territorial Normal School |
1900 | Appeared in photo with football team |
1900s-1970 | Unknown |
1970s | Surfaced at ASU locations/parties |
1983 | Found in Tempe church |
1995 | Displayed at Phoenix airport |
2001 | Named official rivalry trophy |
Jon Alquist isn’t sure of the date. He doesn’t even remember why he was at Sky Harbor airport or where he was headed, but Alquist came across the sports exhibit. At the time, Alquist worked with the University of Arizona alumni association. He was also an unofficial sports historian and had helped designate a few Arizona items for the airport collection.
Alquist examined the Arizona memorabilia and walked over to the Arizona State display. He saw the Cup and later informed close friend Frank Soltys, Jr., that the historic trophy was indeed real.
Soltys had moved to Tucson from Connecticut when he was 8. He knew all about the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry, its history and venom. In 1983, when Soltys had read about the Cup’s discovery in the Tempe church, he immediately understood the significance.
“I was like, ‘This is the Holy Grail!'” he said.
Alquist and Soltys wrote letters to athletic officials, explaining the Cup’s history and how it needed to become the official rivalry trophy. No one was interested. The rivalry had had different trophies over the years. One was in place. Another wasn’t needed.
Alquist and Soltys contacted Michele Schulze, who ran the University of Arizona alumni office in Phoenix, and explained their position. Schulze loved the idea. She called Spindler at Arizona State and presented the idea of sharing the trophy, possibly displaying it at the Jim Click Hall of Champions in Tucson. Spindler said he wasn’t interested and hung up.
“If you ever had anybody hang up on you or had a phone call that didn’t go your way, you look at the receiver as if that’s going to give some kind of answer as to why that happened,” Schulze said. “So I’m looking at the phone in my hand and said, ‘Oh, this is not ending here.'”
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Explained Spindler: “ASU has a history of things kind of disappearing. And for us, as archivists, we had a responsibility to secure and protect the materials entrusted to us.”
Schulze emailed Arizona president Peter Likins and finally got the answer she wanted. Likins told Schulze that he planned to have dinner soon with Arizona State president Lattie Coor and that he would bring up the Cup. About a week later, Likins emailed Schulze with a simple order.
Make it happen.
Former Arizona State head coach Todd Graham holds up a replica Territorial Cup in 2012. The trophy has gone to the winner of the annual ASU-Arizona game every year since 2001. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)A committee was formed with members from both schools. Spindler could not accept the idea of football players holding up a 100-year-old trophy in celebration, so a replica was made to award to the winning school on the field while the actual trophy would be delivered separately.
Spindler also created official protocol stating henceforth the trophy should be referred to as the “Territorial Cup” and that it should always be handled with white gloves and that it should never be cleaned for preservation purposes.
On Nov. 8, 2001, Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull issued a proclamation, recognizing the Territorial Cup’s renewal as the symbol of the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry with the victor taking possession. The NCAA certified the Cup as the nation’s oldest rivalry trophy.
Three weeks later, Arizona and Arizona State clashed at Sun Devil Stadium, the 75th meeting between the rivals. Both teams had losing records, but the Wildcats were inspired. They won, 34-21. On the sideline, Spindler and Schulze waited with the replica Territorial Cup, ready to present it for the first time in decades.
So much had happened to get to this point. Mac Bohlman finding the Cup in the church. Jon Alquist spotting it in the airport. Frank Soltys, Jr., recognizing its significance. Schulze and others pushing to get it recognized.
Once the game went final, officials set up a makeshift stage. The Wildcats jumped on Arizona State’s logo at midfield. The Sun Devils took exception. A melee broke out.
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Holding the Cup, Spindler saw helmets flying. Schulze saw bodies flying. The stadium PA announcer asked Arizona State players to leave the field. In the postgame press conference, coaches apologized.
A new chapter in the state’s biggest rivalry had begun, but some things remained the same.
(Top illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; all photos: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
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