Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Strong season will help "Hill Mary" be remembered

Sixty years ago, the most exciting game in UA football history to that point was easily Arizona’s 42-40 victory over Wyoming. It was the first time in UA history both teams had scored in the 40s.

Every time the UA scored on that November evening, 1954, the U.S.S. Arizona bell would toll from the Student Union, one ring for each point. Ears were ringing in Tucson for weeks.

But that game didn’t sustain much mystique because it was won not by a fabulous UA finish, but by Wyoming’s missed field goal attempt on the game’s final play.

Nor did the UA’s previous “Hail Mary” plays create any lasting intrigue. At the end of the first half in the 1988 Territorial Cup against ASU, Ronald Veal threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Derek Hill. Arizona won routinely 28-18.

In a tie game in 1999 at Washington State, Keith Smith threw a 42-yard Hail Mary touchdown to Bobby Wade, winning 30-24. But Wade trapped the ball against the turf; today’s replay system would’ve negated the score. Not even Wade celebrated with much gusto on a play the nearby Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune headlined as the “Hail No!” A day later, Pac-10 supervisor of officials Verle Sorgen said the pass should not have been ruled complete.

In my opinion, the two most scintillating finishes in UA history were as follows:

1. Arizona 16, Notre Dame 13, 1982 at South Bend, Indiana: Tied at 13 with 4:16 remaining, UA coach Larry Smith purposely milked the clock, running power play after power play from his own 20. When the UA reached undefeated Notre Dame’s 32-yard line, Smith let 30 seconds run off the clock. He called time out. Enter freshman Max Zendejas. The hallowed stadium fell silent. The audacity of 1-2-1 Arizona playing so purposely, putting it all on a freshman’s 48-yard kick, added to the drama. The game ended as Zendejas’ kick split the uprights. Smith wept.

2. Arizona 22, Oregon 17, 1990, in Tucson: The No. 23 Ducks reached Arizona’s 3-yard line with 1:39 remaining. Three runs got the ball to within inches of the goal. On fourth-and-goal, with the clock hitting 0:00, Oregon QB Bill Musgrave ran an option right, appearing to have a winning touchdown in his sights. But Arizona All-American cornerback Darryll Lewis broke off from pass coverage, sprinted for the goal line and hit Musgrave in a mighty collision about 10 inches from the flag. Musgrave collapsed. Thousands from the crowd of 53,283 stormed the field.

Arizona was on the verge of its Comeback For The Ages at Oregon’s Autzen Stadium in 2008. Trailing 48-17 in the third quarter, Arizona rallied, cutting UO’s lead to 48-45, driving for a win. Alas, Keola Antolin dropped a fourth-down pass with 5:25 remaining. The Ducks won 55-45.

Anu Solomon‘s “Hill Mary” will grow in legend if it leads to a successful season.

Arizona’s 1982 win at Notre Dame led to the nation’s No. 3 preseason ranking a year later. The UA’s 1990 victory led to a 7-5 season and a trip to the Aloha Bowl.

Sean Miller begins his sixth season at Arizona this week — media day is Friday — with the most preseason attention at McKale Center since the Wildcats opened No. 1 in 2003.

Here are three reasons to buy the buzz:

1. Freshman Stanley Johnson is not just a skinny freshman growing into his body and career. I saw him Thursday at Bear Down Kitchen in a non-basketball setting. He was with another student, not a basketball player. Johnson is about 235 or 240 pounds. He’s a man. And he’s not shy. I lost track of the times this summer Johnson tweeted that he was on his way to the Rec Center for a late-day workout, asking for volunteers to join his pickup games. He’s not a pizza-and-TV guy. He’s a man at work.
2. Since Miller arrived at Arizona, he has started a new point guard every year: Nic Wise, MoMo Jones, Josiah Turner, Mark Lyons and T.J. McConnell. Now Miller gets a second season with McConnell, who plays the most important position on the floor. Big advantage.
3. When you’ve been No. 1 nationally for eight weeks, when you’ve been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the crush of outsiders and assorted gawkers should not be a distraction or a deterrent to the flow of a productive season. There’s no more “aw shucks.” The goal is to get to the Final Four. Back-slapping doesn’t help you beat Wisconsin.

After Colleen Lanne left Salpointe Catholic in 1999, accepting a swimming scholarship from the Texas Longhorns, she went on to join Lacey Nymeyer John and Caitlin Leverenz as one of the three greatest female swimmers in Tucson history. Now married and the mother of two young sons living in Austin, Texas, Colleen Lanne Cox, became a 22-time All-American for the Longhorns and at the 2004 Athens Olympics won a silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Cox, the daughter of ex-UA defensive back Justin Lanne also won four NCAA championships. It was announced last week that she will be inducted into the Longhorn Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 7 and honored during halftime of the Texas-West Virginia football game.

The 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year, Lacey Nymeyer John, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 4x100 free relay, has returned to the UA athletic department. The Mountain View grad is assistant director for community relations and special events.

Tucson distance-running stars Lawi Lalang and Bernard Lagat had their first real showdown as pros last week in Philadelphia. Lalang, 23, an eight-time NCAA champion from the UA, won the Philly Rock ’n’ Roll 5K in 13:30 over Lagat, 39, who was second in 13:31. Lagat still holds the American 5,000-meter road record in 13:18 after he broke the mark of 13:24 set in 1996 by ex-Arizona Olympian Marc Davis. It was Lalang’s fourth pro race; he ran in Italy, Belgium and Switzerland over the summer.

Sabino grad Matt Bushman, who has accepted a scholarship to play tight end at BYU, left the LDS Church Mission Training Center last week and flew to Chile, where he began a two-year Mormon mission. He expects to play for BYU in 2016, when the Cougars and Arizona are scheduled to play at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

When golfer Kirk Triplett won the final Chrysler Classic of Tucson in 2006, he was pictured placing the winner’s Conquistador helmet on a young fan, Chris Meyers, then 9 years old. Now a senior at Canyon del Oro, Meyers is playing in his first PGA Tour event, the ongoing Nature Valley First Tee Open this weekend at Pebble Beach. The Champions Tour invited 81 members of the First Tee program to play the three-day event, and Meyers is paired with two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen. On Friday, playing at Pebble Beach, Meyers had the round of his young golfing life, helping Janzen shoot a nine-under 63 in a best-ball format, tops in the field. Meyers, who has accepted a scholarship to Stanford, heads into the final round today at 14-under, one stroke behind the leader. Five other teenage members of Tucson’s First Tee program are in Pebble Beach, California, guests of the PGA Tour. Meyers and Janzen were both interviewed by Golf Channel after Friday’s round. Today’s telecast is from 1-4 p.m.

Salpointe Catholic grad Sara Brown had an off season on the LGPA’s Symetra Tour – she was No. 62 overall on the money list – but she gets a welcome second chance this week. Brown is one of 40 golfers invited to the Big Break Invitational and its $300,000 purse, televised by Golf Channel from Tuesday through Friday. Former UA golfer Derek Gillespie is also in the field.

Salpointe grad Krystal Quihuis begins her college golf career today at the Annika Intercollegiate in Orlando, Florida. Quihuis faced long odds when she began practicing with fourth-ranked Arizona last month. Just cracking the UA’s lineup — with all five players returning from its seventh-place finish in the NCAA Championships — seemed remote. But in qualifying rounds, Quihuis became Arizona’s No. 3 player for the season-opening event that runs through Tuesday.

Jason Johnson, Arizona’s starting quarterback in 2001 and 2002, continues his post-QB success. His video production company, Jason Ryan Creative, collaborated with ESPN on last week’s “The Better Half: SEC Wives.” It was a feature on the wives of SEC football coaches, capped off by Auburn coach Gus Malzahn and his wife Kristi, eating at a Waffle House after a Tigers’ victory. Good stuff.

When John Mackovic became Arizona’s football coach in 2001, one of the first things he did was to heartlessly fire secretary Lisa Bravo, who had been Dick Tomey’s secretary for a decade. Lisa was reassigned within the athletic department until her retirement two years ago. But the Amphitheater High School grad didn’t let Mackovic’s treatment stop her. She is at the Ryder Cup this weekend in her capacity with Sky Sports (Europe’s version of ESPN) as a unit manager and production assistant. Bravo has worked dozens of PGA Tour events, the U.S. Tennis Open and this week is responsible, for among other things, the schedules and appearances of TV personalities Jack Nicklaus, Butch Harmon and Colin Montgomerie. Bravo got her start at the Tucson Open 10 years ago, delivering coffee and sending out laundry for TV personnel.

How coveted is the public address announcer’s job for men’s basketball at McKale Center? About 90 people applied for the job Jonathan Norris has held for 18 years. Five were brought in for auditions last week. Among them was Lee Patterson, a radio host/sportscaster from Safford/Thatcher.

Murphy Gershman, a Tucson High grad who became a second-team All-ACCAC basketball forward at Pima College last year, accepted a scholarship offer to Division II Colorado School of Mines last week, one of the nation’s leading engineering schools. Well done.

Palo Verde High grad Bryce Cotton begins his NBA career Monday when the San Antonio Spurs open practice for 2014-15. Cotton, an All-Big East standout at Providence, is one of 19 players on the Spurs’ roster; 15 will make it to opening day. Fifteen players have fully guaranteed contracts; Cotton does not. He is likely to open his pro career with the NBA D-League’s Austin Toros.

In hours spent searching the Star’s archives through the years, the most captivating photograph I ever saw was Hall of Famers Tris Speaker and Rogers Hornsby standing at home plate, Hi Corbett Field, a few days before the Cleveland Indians began their first spring training game in Tucson, 1947. Speaker was then baseball’s No. 2 all-time hits leader, 3,514. Hornsby finished with 2,930 hits. The name just below Speaker on the all-time hits list is Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, who is at 3,463. Speaker and Hornsby together in Tucson? Can you imagine Jeter posing for a photo here in, say, 2035, with Cal Ripken Jr., who has 3,184 hits? Amazing.

Shortly after Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez got a recruiting commitment from Tucson High defensive back Demetrius Flannigan this summer, two men connected with the THS program told me Flannigan was planning to play his senior season for Mountain View High School.

That’s playing with fire.

Both men said: Flannigan will never play another down of high school football.

If you mess with the Arizona Interscholastic Association, you can expect to get burned.

When Flannigan indeed showed up at Mountain View, it had the same effect as hiring a blimp to hover over the AIA offices in Phoenix with an attached banner reading “MOUNTAIN VIEW IS TRYING TO PULL A QUICK ONE ON YOU GUYS.” There was no chance.

The loser is Flannigan, ineligible, sitting out his senior season, done in by the advice of adults who should’ve done better homework and put Flannigan’s welfare first.

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