Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Snowden's Hall of Honor selection well deserved

A few days before former University of Arizona AD Dave Strack‘s 90th birthday, I visited him at an assisted living facility in Oro Valley and the talk soon turned to the signature hire of his career: Fred Snowden.

“Freddie’s career was incomplete,” said Strack, who was bold enough in the winter of 1972 to hire a black coach, the first in any major NCAA conference. “But it wasn’t about his wins and losses as much as it was about him breaking racial barriers.”

The UA last week announced that Snowden will be inducted into the Pac-12’s Hall of Honor in Las Vegas during March’s conference tournament.

It is a good thing to do; Arizona’s first 13 selections to the Hall of Honor were from the Lute Olson years. But it was Snowden’s first five Arizona teams, 1973-1977, who made the transition from 3,000-seat Bear Down Gym to 14,500-seat McKale Center a success.

Snowden was forced to retire after the 1981-82 season in which the Wildcats went 9-18 and finished eighth in the Pac-10. It was sobering to see how far, and how fast, he had fallen competitively.

He was only 46, which should’ve been his coaching prime.

What happened? Snowden’s fear of flying became so acute that he virtually stopped recruiting. He would drive to Southern California when necessary, but he could no longer compete with young, aggressive recruiters who were flying coast-to-coast.

I remember meeting Olson for the first time at the 1980 Oregon high school state championship game. He was in Portland to recruit Charlie Sitton, then the top prospect on the West Coast (who would go to Oregon State).

Because of his diligence, Olson, then at Iowa, was one of three finalists in the chase for Charlie Sitton. Arizona had no chance to recruit a player like Sitton, or others like him, because Snowden wouldn’t travel.

Nevertheless, what Snowden achieved in his first five UA seasons was remarkable: 102 victories, two NCAA appearances and a 63-3 record at McKale.

The qualifications to get into the Pac-12’s basketball Hall of Honor aren’t always demanding. Former Stanford coach Howie Dallmar got in with a 256-264 career record. USC’s Tex Winter got in for his reputation in the NBA, not for his ’SC days: he was a mediocre player in just one USC season.

Snowden will be honored for the right reasons: he earned it in five of the most historic seasons in Tucson and college basketball.

My first prediction of 2015: the Tucson Conquistadors Classic, a $1.6  million Champions Tour event March 20-22 at Tucson National, will have larger galleries than the old WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships.

The Conquistadores are aggressively in pursuit of an elite field and already have two of the Champions Tour’s “Big Four”: Bernard Langer and Colin Montgomerie. Both have booked rooms at the Omni Tucson National.

The next two targets are Fred Couples and Tom Watson. I suspect the Conquistadores will launch marketing of their event with the announcement of Couples’ commitment in several weeks.

It is encouraging that this week’s Champions Tour season debut, in Hawaii, includes Watson, Rocco Mediate, Davis Love III, Ben Crenshaw, Craig Stadler, Peter Jacobsen and Hale Irwin.

There should be no “I’m-too-busy” or Phil Mickelson’s famous “I’m-on-vacation” excuses for not playing in Tucson. There is a five-week gap in the Champions Tour schedule, from the Feb. 15 finish of the ACE Group Classic in Naples, Florida, to the Conquistadores Classic on March 20.

In the fall of 1982, Brett Hundley of Denver and Kenny Zuckerman of Los Angeles were freshmen on the Arizona football team, facing long odds of starting. (They didn’t.) So they became more than that after their five UA seasons. Zuckerman turned into one of the nation’s top agents, president of Priority Sports’ athlete representation branch. Hundley became the father of standout UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley Jr. Now Zuckerman is the agent for young Brett Hundley, who is leaving the Bruins for this year’s NFL Draft. 

Zuckerman is also the agent for UA and Sabino High grad Brooks Reed, who is a free agent after four seasons as a starting linebacker/pass rusher for the Houston Texans. Reed, limited by a groin injury much of the 2014 season, still made 13 starts and had 41 tackles. Of late, Zuckerman has continued his ties to Arizona; he is now the representative for ex-UA tackle Mickey Baucus as well as Ka’Deem Carey. 

Former Canyon del Oro High and UA pitcher/outfielder Brian Anderson turns 33 in March but he is giving baseball one more crack. He signed a minor-league deal with the Chicago White Sox last week; Anderson last played in the majors with Boston in 2009. He has since been released by the Royals, Yankees, Dodgers and Rockies after switching from outfield to pitching. 

There are currently 23 managers in the baseball Hall of Fame; 12 have been elected since 1990. As Tucsonan Terry Francona departs for spring training next month, his third year as Cleveland’s manager, he has 1,206 managerial victories and two World Series championships. He is 55. He is now in the conversation as a Hall of Fame manager; San Francisco’s Bruce Bochy, with three World Series titles, has won 1,618 games. The only other managers with more victories than Francona are the Angels’ Mike Scioscia, 1,331; and the Orioles’ Buck Showalter, 1,259. 

You could make a strong case that in the spring of 2013, Alyssa Thompson of Salpointe Catholic High School produced the greatest performance for an female athlete in Tucson prep history, any sport. She won state championships in the long jump, triple jump, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. She had earlier signed with Wake Forest, where as a freshman she set a school record in the pentathlon (seven indoor decathlon-type events). Over the summer, Thompson transferred to Arizona and on Friday she had quite a debut. In an indoor meet in Flagstaff, Thompson long-jumped 19 feet 11¾ inches, a personal best; threw the shot put a personal best 35 feet one-half inch; and tied her personal bests in the 60 hurdles and high jump. She is now working with UA jumps coach Sheldon Blockburger, who has coached NCAA champions Brigetta Barrett and decathlete Jake Arnold, among others. If you convert Thompson’s Friday times/distances and add her average 800 meters time, she would’ve scored 3,941 points. How good is that? Last year 3,927 points won the MPSF heptathlon women’s championship, which includes all Pac-12, Mountain West Conference and West Coast Conference schools. 

Emily Parker, a senior soccer player at Catalina Foothills High, long ago committed to play for Oklahoma. She has scored 14 goals this year, tops in the big schools divisions in Tucson, including two Friday against Vista Grande for the 8-1-2 Falcons, who are seeking their ninth state championship. More soccer: in Division III, Walden Grove sophomore Isabella Solorza has scored, incredibly, 32 goals already for the 19-1 Red Wolves. Walden Grove has been so impressive that it is ranked No. 11 of all Arizona girls prep soccer teams by Maxpreps. I have put Walden Grove on my must-watch list for the next few weeks. 

Bill Walton spoke to a group of about 200 people at the Rialto Theatre in a fund-raising appearance Friday night. No topic was off limits. Even from $60-100 a seat, it was good entertainment. After speaking, Walton played stand-up percussion with a Grateful Dead cover band. He also sang a bit. Walton is a lightning rod like none in college basketball since the early days of Dick Vitale. Unless he gets tired of traveling, I suspect ESPN and the Pac-12 will compete for his services for the next few years. 

Arizona’s impressive list of baseball instructors/coaches from the Jerry Kindall tree grew last week when Casey Candaele, starting third baseman on Arizona’s 1980 NCAA championship team, became the Texas Rangers’ minor league field coordinator. Small world: When Candaele left Arizona after the 1982 season, he was replaced at third base by Jack Howell, who is now the minor league field coordinator for the Seattle Mariners. 

UA football coach Rich Rodriguez was back in Phoenix on Thursday, attending a luncheon for the state’s top 25 football players as chosen by the Arizona Football Coaches’ Association. He was able to spend time with the UA’s top Phoenix recruit, four-star tackle Keenan Walker of Scottsdale Chaparral and strengthened relationships with the top Phoenix football coaches. 

I suspect RichRod’s three leading priorities between now and the September opener against UTSA are (1) to engage in a thorough evaluation of redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Dawkins; (2) to rebuild an offensive line around junior transfer Freddie Tagaloa, a 6-foot-8-inch, 315-pound former starter at Cal, who is likely the UA’s top NFL prospect; (3) attempt to develop sophomore Cameron Denson into a franchise-type cornerback, which would include Denson’s total buy-in as a defensive player and not someone who will someday be converted back as a receiver/returner, as in his glory days at Salpointe. 

Ronnie Palmer, a three-year UA starting linebacker during the Mike Stoops days, lost his position as a graduate coach/intern during the coaching change at Colorado State recently. The Rams, however, did keep special teams coach Jeff Hammerschmidt, an All-Pac-10 safety at Arizona in 1988. Palmer is married to Lauren Schutzler, a four-year starting outfielder on Arizona’s softball team. She is an assistant coach at Colorado State. 

Since leaving Arizona’s Elite Eight basketball team of 2011, MoMo Jones has played at Iona and professionally in Qatar and Japan. Now he’s playing for Al Ittihad in the Saudia Arabian pro league. What can you do in Saudia Arabia for fun? Well, Jones could make a 10-hour drive to Dubai for the ongoing Abu Dhabi HSBC European Golf Championships and watch Rory McIlroy today.

Thursday’s Cienega at Sahuaro boys basketball game, featuring two state title contenders, shapes up as the Game of the Year in Tucson, or close.

If you’re going to attend one high school basketball game all year, this would be a good choice, and it goes beyond Sahuaro being 18-2 and Cienega 14-2.

The mother of Sahuaro sophomore guards Devan and Brendan Gary is struggling against cancer, and Sahuaro coach Jim Henry has helped to arrange a Coaches vs. Cancer benefit at the game.

Half of the revenue from tickets and concessions and all of the proceeds from T-shirt sales will go to the American Cancer Society and to the Gary family for medical expenses.

A silent auction will also be held during the contest.

It is a good way to ensure that there will be two winners at the game.

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