honoring ASU hero emerges from the mold

A head for details

Davenport is an art teacher at Sandra Day O’Connor High School in Phoenix and earned her master’s degree in elementary education from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at ASU.

Brass ingots are melted to 2,030 degrees and poured into molds. The statue is poured in different sections, which are welded together after they cool. A patina is then applied.

Sulfurated potash, a dark substance, creates definition in the folds of the socks and the veins on the arms of the statue.

A game plan

Davenport worked from several photographs of Tillman during the multistep process. She started last November and worked straight through her winter break to make sure the statue was ready to unveil nine months later — a fast turnaround. “I’ve gotten very fast at sculpting, but I’ve been practicing since I was 6 or 7 years old.”

“I’m an ASU graduate ... I always thought it would be wonderful to do a sculpture of Pat.

It’s a great honor to do this sculpture.”

— Jeff Carol Davenport, artist

Pat Tillman is an ASU icon — and a statue now honors his memory at Sun Devil Stadium. It was created by ASU alumna Jeff Carol Davenport, who wanted to capture the exuberance and commitment of the football player in her sculpture. As she fashioned the life-size bronze statue of Tillman as he’s preparing to run through the stadium tunnel, she designed his hands with only one glove on. “In my mind, he’s so anxious to get onto the field, he didn’t put his glove on.” Tillman played at ASU from 1994 to 1997 and, after graduating, played for the Arizona Cardinals. In 2002, eight months after the Sept. 11 attacks, he left his career to enlist in the Army Rangers. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.

Sun Devil football team members started a new tradition in the first game of the new season. As they rush onto the football field for each game, they will touch the Tillman statue.