Former Arizona assistant softball coach dies | Greg Hansen

"Great man," said Iveson, who coached on three NCAA championship teams with Ray, the UA's hitting coach. Along with basketball's Jim Rosborough, baseball's Jim Wing and swimming's Rick DeMont, Ray was surely one of the top three or four assistant coaches in UA sports history. His personality hit it out of the park.

About 20 years ago, I stood on the first tee at Crooked Tee Golf Course waiting to get started. The course's starter drove up in a cart and said he had a "walk-on" to add to our threesome. It was Larry Ray.

Unfamiliar golf partners are often considered trouble. But Ray was engaging and insightful (he also shot a 77 that day) and a joy to walk with for 18 holes. Afterward, we visited the clubhouse for a cold one and listened to Ray's softball stories. I asked him how he ever connected with UA head coach Mike Candrea.

"I was coaching at a high school in Boulder City, Nevada," he said. "My girlfriend's mother lived in Casa Grande and one summer we drove there to visit her. While there, I looked up Candrea's number in the phone book and called. I didn't know him from Adam, but he had just been hired by Arizona so I gave it a shot."

Ray and Candrea clicked. Within a week, Ray was hired as Candrea's first UA assistant coach — at $3,000 a year. He spent mornings working at a U-Haul dealership and evenings as a bartender to make ends meet. By the time Florida hired Ray as its head coach in 1996, Arizona had won three NCAA championships. He returned to Arizona in 2001 and helped the Wildcats win three more titles.

An off-field incident ended Ray's UA career in 2012, but he went on to coach at Nicholls State and Southern Utah before retiring.