The University of Arizona was approved by the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1885. Ironically, the city of Tucson had
hoped to receive the appropriation for the state's mental hospital, which carried a sum of money slightly larger than the $25,000
allotted to the state's only university (Arizona State University was founded at the same time, but it was created as the state's
normal school). The citizens of Tucson prepared to return the money to
the territory until two gamblers and a saloon keeper decided to donate the land necessary to build the school.