May 28, 1985: Pima College plays for NJCAA baseball championship
As the starting quarterback for Tucson High’s 1965 state championship football team, Rich Alday was given a commemorative patch, not a ring.
“I always thought a ring would’ve been nice,” Alday says now. “The patch was good, but most of the other championship teams get a ring.”
After his high school days, Alday became a standout baseball catcher at Kansas’ small-school national power Emporia State. But no ring.
So when Alday became the first baseball coach in Pima College history, building a powerhouse that reached the 1981, 1983 and 1985 NJCAA World Series, he had outgrown the patch from the ’65 Badgers.
At the 1985 World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado, Alday had the team he had waited for; it was the best Aztecs team of his 17 seasons, 1974-1990, and remains the most accomplished in school history.
Future major league pitcher Gil Heredia of Nogales was 13-0 heading to Colorado. Shortstop John Alva of Thatcher, an All-American, had 80 RBIs and the Aztecs hit .371 as a team. Former Sabino High standout Jim Kimbrough hit a state-record .619 for the 1983 Sabercats and became one of the leading players in the NJCAA. Sierra Vista’s Chuck Huffaker was an All-ACCAC first baseman, hitting 14 homers.
Not only that, but Alday surrounded himself with a coaching staff equal to almost any in major-college baseball. In the lead-up to the World Series, Alday met with future Miami Marlins vice president of operations Jim Fleming, a Salpointe grad, and Scott Stanley, Arizona’s 1980 College World Series standout, a Catalina High grad who has been an MLB scout for 23 years.
Once in Colorado, the Aztecs rolled. They clouted Indian Hills JC of Iowa 13-1 in the opener as Heredia improved to 14-0. After losing a second-round game, Pima beat Triton College, Connors State and San Jacinto College by a combined score of 42-10.
A rematch with 54-7 San Jacinto of Texas would be for the championship on a Saturday night at Stocker Stadium, filled with 7,500 fans. Pima would face 16-0 Steve Bowden for the title.
Pima fell 6-5 as Heredia pitched on two day’s rest against the top-seeded Gators.
“As disappointing as it is to lose,” Alday said that night, “I’ll always remember what a terrific group this has been. I told the guys to keep their heads up. They’ve come a long way.”
Alday left Pima in 1990 to become the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos; he would win 513 games in Albuquerque, which, combined with his 496 victories at Pima, gave him 1,009 baseball coaching victories. He returned to Tucson and has since coached Ironwood Ridge’s girls softball team to state championships in 2014 and 2016.
Championship rings?
Alday finally got one when the Lobos won the Mountain West Conference championship in 2004, and now he’s getting his second ring at Ironwood Ridge.
“Actually, the guys we could round up from the ’65 football team at Tucson High got together recently and ordered championship rings,” he said. “I guess it’s never too late.”
Where are they now? Heredia, who pitched UA to the 1986 College World Series title, pitched 10 seasons in the major leagues and is now the pitching coach for the Triple-A Reno Aces, the Diamondbacks’ top affiliate. Kimbrough is the president of P3Solar energy company in Tucson. Alva played seven minor-league seasons in the Braves organization.
Pima’s 1992 encore: Under Alday’s successor, Roger Werbylo, Pima reached the ’92 NJCAA championship game. The ’92 Aztecs, who finished 34-22, got hot late, winning the Region Championship behind ex-Sahuaro High pitcher Marc Barcelo and former Pueblo High third baseman George Arias, who would later play for the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels.
