No. 6 • Arizona wins school's first College World Series in 1976

June 18, 1976: Arizona stuns ASU and goes on to win College World Series 

If there is a surviving video or old black and white tape of Arizona’s Game of the Century, no one has declared its existence.

“All we’ve got are old newspaper stories and photographs,” said UA outfielder Pete Van Horne, who hit .520, then a College World Series record, in 1976. “It’s the only downer of the whole experience.”

The UA’s Game of the Century was played at old Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, on a steamy Friday afternoon in 1976. A crowd of 11,025 paid to watch.

The setup was irresistible.

No. 1 ASU, 64-9, was to play No. 2 Arizona, 54-17, in the College World Series semifinals. The loser would go home. You could feel the tension for 1,269 miles, all the way from Omaha to Tucson.

Incredibly, the Sun Devils were 7-0 against the Wildcats in 1976, including a theatrical 7-6 victory in the opening game in Omaha, one in which ASU overcame a 5-2 deficit in the ninth inning.

Never before, or since, in any sport, had ASU and Arizona met with so much at stake.

“I was rooming with (All-American catcher) Ron Hassey, and when it got down to us and ASU again, he would roll his eyes and say, ‘We’ve gotta play those guys AGAIN?’ “ Wildcat pitcher and Tucson businessman Steve Powers told me in 1999. “But it was that kind of humor that I think defined how we felt. There was no sense of awe. I never considered that we would lose to them again.”

Sun Devil coach Jim Brock hoped to avoid an eighth game against Arizona. He knew the baseball gods — the baseball odds — weren’t altogether favorable.

“The odds of beating a club eight straight times are astronomical,” he said the day before the game. “But not if you’ve already beaten them seven times. Unfortunately, I hate to admit this, they have really improved.”

More drama: the Wildcats would be facing unbeaten (15-0) pitcher Don Hanna, a Rincon High grad. The Sun Devil roster overflowed with talent, perhaps the best team in ASU history; 13 Sun Devils would ultimately reach the major leagues.

The six games in the regular season were typical of the intense rivalry. Games played in Tucson attracted capacity crowds close to 10,000 at Hi Corbett Field. The Sun Devils won three tight games, 2-1, 6-5 and 11-9. The only lopsided game in the series was a 9-4 ASU win at Hi Corbett.

Brock’s lineup was imposing. Ken Landreaux, who set an NCAA record with 93 RBIs, batted third. He was batting .413. The first six men in the ASU batting order — Bob Pate, Rick Peters, Landreaux, Clay Westlake, Ken Phelps and Mike Colbern — all batted .346 or higher.

But it’s not like Arizona was out of its element.

The three-year stretch under Jerry Kindall, 1974-76, was and remains the best period in school baseball history. The Wildcats won 157 games. No other three-year period produced more than 132.

Arizona’s ’74 team went 58-6, rolled through the WAC at 16-2, and became the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. But inconceivably, the Wildcats were knocked out of the postseason in a shocking doubleheader loss at Northern Colorado.

A year later, Arizona was at it again, 43-13, eliminated from the NCAA tournament in a painful 1-0 loss to eventual national champion USC.

If anyone was due, it was Arizona. The Wildcats had lost in the championship game in Omaha in 1956, 1959 and 1963.

The stoic Kindall became uncharacteristically demonstrative after the opening-game loss to ASU. The team retreated to a locker room at Rosenblatt Stadium and Kindall walked in, removed his hat and threw it across the room.

He never did that.

“It was as emotional as I ever saw him,” Van Horne told me. “We didn’t have time to be dejected. It was all business.”

Kindall didn’t throw his hat in anger, but frustration.

“In the terrible aftermath of that game, our team was just furious,” he said. “Not at the umpires or anyone in particular, but furious at the thought of once again having lost a close game (to ASU). I was just heartsick for them. I raised my voice a bit and reminded them that we still had a chance, a very good chance, to win the national championship. They weren’t losers. I told them that.”

Arizona faced an unlikely trail in the loser’s bracket, one that required five consecutive victories. There was no margin for error.

The Wildcats beat Oklahoma, Clemson and Eastern Michigan to set up a rematch with ASU. (The Sun Devils had lost to EMU’s All-American pitcher Bob Welch two days earlier).

In 1999, UA right fielder Ken Bolek told me: “People said then, and I would think it holds true now, that ASU might’ve been the best team in the history of college baseball that year. You’d look for a weak link on the team, someone batting seventh or eighth, and you’d see (1978 NL Rookie of the Year) Bob Horner.”

Arizona took a commanding 5-0 lead behind pitcher/hitter Steve Powers and won 5-1. Powers, Hassey, Van Horne, pitcher Bob Chaulk — who pitched a complete-game 7-1 victory over EMU in the finals the next day — and All-American outfielder Dave Stegman were selected to the All-World Series team.

Kindall immediately knew the implications of overcoming the Sun Devils baseball dynasty.

“Beating them was a watershed game for us,” Kindall told me in 1991. “For the fans in Tucson, who had suffered longer than I (Kindall was hired in 1972) from the dominance, first under Bobby Winkles, and then Jim Brock, it was such a cleansing victory.

“I had become aware of how much our fans had endured; so many great players and coaches (at the UA) had come so close so many times. It was just beginning to crystallize how important to the university and to the community it was to win the championship. Baseball was our signature sport in 1976.”

The reaction from the Sun Devils was numbing.

“It’s like a death in the family,” Brock said.

Where are they now: Van Horne, 61, who played one year in the Chicago Cubs system, is an account executive for CT Corporation in San Francisco, a licensing and liability firm. Kindall, 81, is retired and living in Tucson. He coached the UA to national championships in 1976, 1980 and 1986 and retired in 1996.

How they did it: When the UA returned to Tucson, more than 6,000 fans crowded the terminal to greet the national champs. Said Kindall: “I feel like a mountain climber who has reached the summit.”

Photo: The Arizona Wildcats celebrate after UA's first national championship title at the 1976 College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Photo by Lou Pavlovich, Jr. / Tucson Citizen