Greg Hansen's picks for Mount Rushmore of University of Arizona coaches

Disclaimer: I did not select Pop McKale, athletic director from 1914-57. His leadership was invaluable, a driving force in the construction of what is now Casino Del Sol Stadium and Bear Down Gymnasium, ahead-of-their-time facilities that separated the Wildcats from their Border Conference rivals New Mexico, ASU, New Mexico State, UTEP and the others.

True, McKale coached UA football from 1914-30, basketball from 1914-21 and baseball from 1914-49, but the Wildcats did not play on a national stage in that period and were not a Top 25 program by any definition. He hired highly successful coaches such as basketball's Fred Enke, baseball's Frank Sancet and football's Tex Oliver, a reflection of his success as an athletic director.

Here are my choices for the Mount Rushmore of UA coaches, in no particular order:

– Jerry Kindall: Hired Dec. 4, 1971, He had served five years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Minnesota. Kindall, 36, had played eight years of major league baseball.

Arizona athletic director Dick Clausen interviewed, among others, MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, Mesa College coach Jim Brock, who would become a Hall of Fame coach at ASU, and offered the job to South Carolina coach Bobby Richardson, a former All-Star second baseman for the New York Yankees. Clausen aimed high. He ultimately settled on Kindall at the suggestion of Richardson.

Interesting note: Kindall was hired in December '71 even though sitting head coach Sancet had a year remaining, the 1972 season, before he reached the UA's then-mandatory retirement age. Kindall spent five months as part of the UA's physical education department before coaching through 1995, winning NCAA championships in 1976, 1980 and 1986. Kindall retired in 1996.

– Frank Busch: Hired April 3, 1989, as the UA swimming coach after his predecessor, Dick Jochums, was fired for using an ineligible swimmer.

The UA spent about two months in the hiring process, so long that Busch, the head coach at Cincinnati for nine years, phoned the athletic department to ask if he was still under consideration. Busch was going to leave his job at Cincinnati and work in the home-building business in Ohio and Kentucky if not hired. He went on to coach Arizona to twin 2008 NCAA championships in men's and women's swimming and finish in the "Final Four" a total of 21 times, making the UA a steady contender for national championships. He coached Olympic gold medalists such as Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling, and women's Olympic medalists such as Crissy Perham, Lacey Nymeyer John and Amanda Beard.

Busch, a repeat Pac-10 Coach of the Year, left the UA in 2011 to become the director of USA Swimming national teams.

– Lute Olson: Hired March 29, 1983, after leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to six NCAA tournaments, prompting the school to build Carver-Hawkeye Arena, also known as "The House that Lute Built."

Arizona infamously finished 4-24 before Olson was hired. But second-year UA athletic director Cedric Dempsey aimed high. He attended the 1983 Sweet 16 game between Iowa and Villanova in Kansas City and planned to talk to the coach who lost that game. To the UA's everlasting good fortune, Villanova won that game 55-54 so Dempsey interviewed Olson instead of 'Nova's Rollie Massimino.

They first talked on a Friday night. Olson accepted the job, for $60,000, on Sunday and flew back to Iowa to inform his team. Talk about aiming high.

In Year 3, Olson won the Pac-10 championship, beating UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. After the game, Lute and his wife, Bobbi, walked the short distance to Alice's Restaurant in Westwood and stood on a fireplace platform to give a celebratory speech to about 40 UA fans. "This won't be our last championship," Olson said.

Two years later the 35-3 Wildcats were ranked No. 1 and reached the Final Four, the first of four. Olson coached his last game at Arizona in the 2007 NCAA Tournament; he was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

– Mike Candrea: Hired Aug. 20, 1985. Candrea had coached Central Arizona College to NJCAA national titles in 1984 and 1985. When UA associate athletic director Mary Roby phoned Central Arizona athletic director George Young, seeking permission to talk to Candrea, Young, an Olympic bronze medal distance runner at Arizona in the 1960s, said "Oh, no, I know where you're going with this."

In Candrea's first season, Arizona played just four home games on the makeshift softball field behind the Gittings PE building on campus. They finished a modest 27-13-1. By 1991, they were national champions.

When Roby died in 2012, Candrea was a pallbearer at her Tucson funeral. By then he had won eight NCAA championships, an Olympic gold medal and was regarded as the Father of American Softball.

Others considered: Golf coach Rick LaRose, who coached Arizona to an NCAA championship in 1992. He coached from 1973-2012. Dave Snyder, UA men's tennis, 1959-1972. He coached the Wildcats to seven Top 10 finishes nationally. Fred Enke, the UA basketball coach, piloted the men's basketball program from 1925-1961, leading them to their first-ever Top 25 ranking and NCAA Tournament. He also coached the UA men's golf team from 1932-70.