Bear Down Brotherhood: Tre Spivey, Kingston Spivey finally teammates at Arizona

Six football players at Arizona are literally living the brotherly lifestyle this season: quarterback Noah Fifita and linebacker Dash Fifita, wide receiver Tre Spivey and cornerback Kingston Spivey, and offensive linemen Jake Griffin and Jaxon Griffin.

“I think it’s special when you take the field every day or a workout or a run or a practice and you get to do it with your brother,” said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan. “I think that’s pretty special. I don’t know how many people get the opportunity to do that. That’s magical.”

Brennan wasn’t teammates with his younger brother, Brad Brennan, but they were often together in 2000, when Brent Brennan was an assistant coach under former Arizona head coach Dick Tomey and Brad Brennan was a senior wide receiver for the Wildcats. The Brennan bros also coached together at Oregon State.

“It was awesome, and I was a little bit older, so I never got to play with him, but I got to coach him for one year and it was so much fun going on the field every day and being out there with him,” Brent Brennan said. “When we were at Oregon State, we coached the receivers together and it was awesome. Sometimes we’d fight like brothers and we got into these crazy disagreements. But at the same time, it’s fun because you know you trust him and you’re sharing this unique experience very few people get to have.”

Several brothers have been teammates at Arizona over the years. Most recently, offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea and defensive tackle Julian Savaiinaea were teammates for the 2024 season. Defensive ends Jalen Harris and Jason Harris were teammates under former head coach Jedd Fisch.

Arguably the most well-known set of brothers to play at Arizona were tight end Rob Gronkowski and fullback Chris Gronkowski — before Rob Gronkowski went by “Gronk.”

But three sets of brothers on one team? That’s a rarity for the Wildcats — and maybe a first. The Star is doing a three-part series on Arizona’s trio of brothers. Last up: the Spiveys.

‘It’s a brotherly love’

Tre Spivey’s lease on his one-bedroom apartment is expiring this summer, so for the time being, Kingston Spivey is sharing a bed with his older brother until they find a two-bedroom apartment.

“I’ve got a really big bed, so we’ve been sharing,” Tre Spivey said.

Kingston Spivey, who’s entering his first year at the UA, doesn’t mind splitting a bed with his older brother, even though they had separate rooms growing up. He’s just happy to be an Arizona Wildcat and to spend the beginning stages of his college football journey with his older brother and best friend, who’s going into his fourth season of playing college football — second at Arizona after two seasons at Kansas State.

“I wouldn’t want any other roommate,” said Kingston Spivey, who’s named after Kingston, Jamaica. “This is my best friend and I love living with my brother. We always take care of each other when it comes to dishes and cleaning. We’ve had that locked in since Day 1. Our parents raised us right.”

Their father, Junior Spivey, was a second baseman for the World Series-winning Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 and was a National League All-Star. Spivey played minor-league baseball for the Tucson Toros, which was rebranded to the Tucson Sidewinders, a Triple-A affiliate of the Diamondbacks.

Tucson Electric Park (now Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium) held “Junior Spivey Bobblehead Night” for a game in 2003, before he was part of a multi-player trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.

So, it was natural for the younger Spiveys to pursue the family business and play baseball. Tre Spivey is the third Ernest Spivey of the family tree, with his father being the second one, which is why he prefers to go by Junior.

Junior Spivey “didn’t care what we did, he just wanted us to give all of our effort into it,” Tre Spivey said.

“Whether it’s football, basketball, baseball or track, just put 100% effort into it and he was going to be proud of us regardless,” he added.

But Junior Spivey “never took it easy on us,” Tre Spivey said.

“Whatever we get, we have to earn it,” Spivey said. “He instilled those qualities with both of us. He taught us the right way to go about things. He taught us lessons even when we didn’t realize we were being taught lessons. That has allowed us to propel us throughout high school and college and have success.”

Tre Spivey was a multi-sport athlete growing up in Chandler. He played football, baseball, basketball and track. When Spivey was in high school at Chandler Hamilton, baseball came to a halt for two reasons. The first reason: baseball tryouts overlapped with football recruiting.

“So I would be at baseball tryouts and then leave to go work out and train in front of the coaches who were visiting,” Spivey said. “There was a little bit of controversy with me playing baseball and football.”

Additionally, Spivey — who was a pitcher — suffered a UCL injury and needed surgery that would’ve sidelined him from other sports for several months.

“I didn’t want to go through that long recovery, and I just started getting recruited heavily for football,” Spivey said. “That’s when I stuck with football. I still do some baseball training on the side. I still throw, go to the batting cages. I still got it in me, so if I wanted to try out, I think I could ball.”

When Spivey was recruited to play wide receiver, “it was a goal of mine” to be a walk-on baseball player in addition to playing football on a full-ride scholarship. Regardless, football was his top priority — and the sport paying for his college education.

“I always loved being around football,” Spivey said. “I fell in love with the game, whether it was training for it or 7-on-7. I grew to love the process of playing football. I also had great players around me who kept me motivated.”

Some of those players who pushed Spivey included former Arizona safety Genesis Smith, who’s a rookie with the Los Angeles Chargers this season. Smith and Spivey both wore No. 12 as their jersey number in their lone season as teammates at Arizona in 2025.

“We were constantly going back-and-forth growing up in middle school and high school,” Spivey said of Smith.

Smith has four younger brothers who are also football players. Tee Smith is one of the top in-state quarterbacks at Casteel High School in Queen Creek.

“We’re dang near brothers,” Kingston Spivey said of the Smith family. “We’re all one big family.”

Spivey’s battles with Smith and others are “where Kingston gets his competitive nature from, because he was always around me and my friends,” Tre Spivey said.

“We were always older and he could compete with them,” Spivey said of his younger brother. “He wouldn’t let nobody bully him. If anything, he was the bully. He was always competitive and had a chip on his shoulder. Props to our father, because he raised us so well and allowed us to be kids and fall in love with sports.”

Kingston Spivey wasn’t enamored with playing baseball as much as his father and older brother.

“Baseball was just kind of boring for me and kind of slow, so I switched to football and loved it,” Kingston Spivey said. “I love the physicality of it. I didn’t get enjoyment watching baseball and pitching, when I could be hitting, competing in one-on-ones and throwing the football around. The physicality and competition is what I loved. I love doing the hitting and catching picks.”

While baseball wasn’t Kingston Spivey’s sport of choice, some of his fondest childhood memories involved playing baseball with his older brother and father, who often competed against each other in batting cages. Those trips to the batting cages ended with a pitstop at Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream.

“I always got cotton candy ice cream with the gummy bears,” Kingston Spivey said.

Baseball brought the Spivey family back together this summer, when Tre Spivey threw out first pitch before the Diamondbacks home game against the St. Louis Cardinals for “U of A Night” at Chase Field on July 17. Spivey, wearing his dad’s No. 37 Diamondbacks jersey, threw the pitch to Junior Spivey, who wore Tre’s No. 12 Arizona football jersey.

“I think it’s just an honor that I got the opportunity to even come out here and throw a first pitch to not only represent my football team, but my family, as well,” Tre Spivey told Arizona Athletics.

Besides competing in sports, the Spivey brothers’ favorite activity growing up was costume fights in the basement of their family home in Chandler.

“We would put a costume on and just wrestle,” Tre Spivey said. “We would get into Halloween costumes and reenact Power Rangers, Spider-Man. We would do Oklahoma drills. We did everything. It was always competitive.”

The Spivey brothers also bonded over competing against each other in video games and ping pong.

“I used to get this dude to walk away from the game and be mad,” Tre Spivey joked.

Kingston Spivey interrupted his older brother and said, “Bro, I would whoop you in ping pong.”

The competitiveness has carried over to the football field this summer. The older Spivey was matched up with his younger brother, who’s a cornerback for the Wildcats, during a player-run practice. Tre Spivey, who’s expected to be one of the Wildcats’ top offensive playmakers this season after leading Arizona in receiving touchdowns last year, had the advantage over Kingston Spivey.

“I scored on him,” Tre Spivey said with a cackle.

Added Kingston Spivey: “He’s got one on me, but I’m going to get him back. … It’s been good going up against him. There’s definitely some competition. Me and him are always competing and it’s a blessing that we get to be teammates with each other. Whether it’s runs or lifts, there’s always a competition between me and him. It’s a brotherly love.”

Tre Spivey “never thought in a million years that I would get a chance to share the football field with my brother,” he said. When Tre Spivey was a senior at Hamilton, Kingston Spivey played for the Huskies’ freshman team. When Tre Spivey played at Kansas State, “it was hard for me to not watch my brother play in high school as much as I wanted to.”

It was difficult for their parents — Junior and Tabitha Spivey — to manage watching both Spivey brothers, but it was easier in 2025 with Tre Spivey in Tucson and Kingston Spivey finishing his high school career at Hamilton.

“Now that he’s here, our parents can come to one game and see us both,” Tre Spivey said. “They’re both super happy about that. I rarely got to see him play in person, so being able to be in the college experience has been awesome and enjoyable.

“Never in a million years did I think we’d be going to college together, playing together and going through this experience together.