Does your college town suck? Arizona State University

Arizona Trash Bags…

New to the line up this season: we will be examining the various college towns of Wisconsin’s opponents. We’ll be answering all of the important questions – Is it a state capital? What is the population? Does it have a Culver’s?

Facts:

City: Tempe, Arizona

Size: 40.15 square miles

Location: 33°24′46″N 111°56′35″W

Population: 180,587 (2020)

State Capital? No

Time zone: Mountain Time / Pacific Time

Landmarks: Mill Avenue District, Arizona State University, Desert Botanical Gardens, Hole in the Rock.

About:

Tempe, Arizona was named after the Vale of Tempe, which is located in Greece. The Vale of Tempe is a gorge, located between Olympus and Ossa. Lord Darrel Duppa, an Englishman who helped establish Phoenix is credited with suggesting the name, as the site of the butte and the wide river, and the expanse of green fields, reminded him of the Vale of Tempe.

Following the establishment of Fort McDowell on the Eastern edge of central Arizona’s Salt River Valley in 1865, farmers moved into the area and dug out irrigation canals left by the prehistoric Hohokam people and built new ones to carry Salt River water to their fields.

The farms located in the area soon supplied food for Arizona’s military posts and mining towns.

The first settlers in the area were Hispanic families from southern Arizona. In 1872 some of these settlers founded San Pablo, which is east of the Tempe Butte. Hayden’s Ferry, which was another settlement that was developed west of the Tempe Butte. Both San Pablo and Hayden’s Ferry grew quickly and became Tempe is 1879.

In 1885, the Arizona legislature selected Tempe as the site for the Territorial Normal School, which trained teachers for Arizona’s schools. The addition of the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad helped Tempe grow even more, as it was linked to the nation’s growing transportation system, thus allowing it to become an important business and shipping center.

In 1911, the completion of the Roosevelt Dam brought the water needed for the area’s growing agricultural system. Arizona then became the 48th member of the United States in 1912.

Now all this historical stuff is fun and well, but we cannot forget that Arizona is awful.

Arizona is one of the larger importers of old racist conservatives in the country, with Florida being another. And if we learned anything from The Good Place, we learned of the phrase, ‘Arizona Trash Bag,’ which describes natives of the 48th state well.

This is further shown when looking at crime data from Tempe.

Woof.

Tempe received a grade of F from crimegrade.org. Tempe is in the fifth percentile, meaning that 95 percent of cities are safer than Tempe and only five percent are more dangerous…basically if you go to Tempe, you will die.

Tempe is also a neighboring city to Phoenix, who is home of the Phoenix Suns and we all remember how the NBA Finals went…

BUCKS IN SIX!

Bars:

Arizona State used to be regarded as the top party school in the country, but has recently lost that title and has even fallen off of the lists of top schools, such as the list produced by Newsweek in August, 2021. For those wondering, while ASU didn’t even crack the top-25, Wisconsin came in strong at No. 3, behind Tulane (No. 1) and Florida State (No. 2).

Even though ASU has lost it’s hold over the collegiate party scene, Tempe still has its fair share of college bars. According to Lyft, CASA Tempe is the most-visited bar in Tempe. CASA Tempe is an open air bar and indoor night club, that serves a variety of food and drinks.

Four Peaks Brewing Company is the second-most visited. Four Peaks is located near the ASU campus and serves craft and locally made beers.

Randomly, perhaps due to all of the Midwesterners who retire there, Arizona is a popular state for Culver’s restaurants as there are 36 in the The Copper State, with one being located in Tempe.

Stadium:

Sun Devil Stadium is the home to the Arizona State Sun Devils football team. The stadium’s capacity is 53,599 and the largest recorded crowd was 74,963, during the 1996 season.

It was constructed between two mountain buttes. Some even say that it was literally carved from the desert, as it occupies the space between the Tempe buttes, which are small mountains that have ideally accommodated the growth of the structure.

Sun Devil Stadium has been the home of ASU since 1958 and the field itself was named Frank Kush Field on Sept. 21, 1996 when ASU defeated top-ranked Nebraska, 19-0. Kush was the ASU head coach from 1958-1979, compiling a record of 176-54-1.

It hosted the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl for 35 years and the Arizona Cardinals for 18. In 2006, Sun Devil Stadium took over as the home of the Insight Bowl.

Does your college town suck?

Yes. Do you not remember what I said before about 95 percent of cities being safer and the whole thing about Arizona Trash Bags?