An Arizona fan holds up a caopy of a special edition of the Indianapolis Star following Arizona's 84-79 overtime win over Kentucky.

 Ed Reinke, Associated Press 1997

Editor’s note: The following story first appeared in the April 1, 1997 edition of the Arizona Daily Star.

INDIANAPOLIS — Plant a saguaro cactus smack in the middle of the basketball court.

Scatter some rattlesnakes underneath the hoops.

Crank the temperature up to a desert-like 105 degrees.

Arizona OWNS this place.

“It’s unbelievable, baby! I’m telling you, it’s unbelievable!” howled Ronald Lehman, a Tucson lawyer and University of Arizona Wildcat fan, seconds after the Cats dismantled the University of Kentucky 84-79 last night to win their first national championship.

“The fans from Tucson love it, baby!” Lehman went on as the enormous RCA Dome game site was washed with wave after wave of thunderous cheers.

“Dreams can come true!”

Chants of “U-of-A! U-of-A!” fairly rattled the Dome’s rafters as Wildcat fans tasted, for the first and best time, the sweet elixir of finishing second to nobody.

“The third time really was a charm, said Arizona fan Shannon Travis, of Tucson, referring to the team’s three trips to the Final Four phase of the NCAA tournament.

“After they won Saturday night (over North Carolina), I found a lucky penny in my shoe. Really. A penny I didn’t know was there. Do you think that had anything to do with it?”

Maybe. Who knows?

But most fans seemed to think the victories had a whole lot to do with superlative play by an exceptional team and superlative mentoring by Wildcat coach Lute Olson

That Olson angle had special significance for one member of the crowd — the coach’s brother, Marvin Olson.

“He deserves every bit of this,” Olson said of his brother. “He worked hard for it, and he deserves it.

“And it was a great game, too!”

That was an opinion that nearly everyone, even Kentucky fans, endorsed.

The outcome, which came in overtime play after the teams were deadlocked 74-74 at the end of regulation play, left Kentucky fan Steve Wagenlander disappointed but philosophical.

“You have to say this, it was an awesome game,” Wagenlander said. “People got their money’s worth tonight.”

John Simzisko, an usher at the RCA Dome, confided to a reporter that he was “pleased as punch” to see Arizona — even though he might be expected to root for regional favorite Kentucky.

“I’m definitely an Arizona fan,” Simzisko said as the game clock ticked down to 6 seconds and Kentucky prepared for a taste of second place. “It was a helluva game. But the loser here has no need for shame. Both teams played their hearts out.”

At least one fan felt the victory might have been the Lord’s work.

UA student Jordy Ensio turned out in the stands wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a gigantic letter “O.” Three of his fellow students joined him with the letters “Z,” “N” and “A” on their shirts. Together they spelled out a giant “ZONA.”

Before the game began, Ensio presented this prediction: “We’re gonna win, dude. It’s destiny. It’s God’s will.”

Well, like that thing about the lucky penny — who knows?

Before the pandemonium of victory, there were plenty of hushes and lulls when the fate of the underdog Wildcats seem to hang in the balance.

At halftime, when the UA led by a near-nothing margin of 33-32, fans were already chalking it up as one of the great contests of the decade.

“I’ve got to tell you something,” an unidentified man bellowed into a telephone in the concourse of the Dome during halftime.

“Watching this effing game is the greatest effing experience of my whole effing life,” he informed a listener at the other end of the line.

Others were equally ebullient, if somewhat more genteel of tongue, by game’s end.

“How about this?” asked Doug Carr, publisher of Cat Tracks magazine in Tucson. “It does not get any better than this.”

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