No one has been able to accurately determine the value of the PGA Tour's long tenure in Tucson. But from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s, when NBC regularly televised the mid-winter Tucson Open with such hosts as Dean Martin and Joe Garagiola, Tucson emerged as a spring sports mecca that many suggested ignited a population growth that helped soar the population of Pima County to 1 million residents.
People across America turned on their TV sets on gloomy winter days and not only saw Tucson's sunshine, but a must-watch golf tournament that produced mega-star Tucson Open champions from Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino to Johnny Miller and Tom Watson. A migration began. Tucson had the "it" factor.
I bring this to your attention because it is the 25th anniversary of the epic 2001 winter sports season in Tucson. It is bittersweet to recall how busy and attractive our sports calendar used to be.
The 2001 Tucson Open featured Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, John Daly, Curtis Strange and Fuzzy Zoeller, among many others. Phil Mickelson had won the Tucson Open three times in the 1990s. In 2001, Jack Nicklaus walked the Tucson National course to watch his son, Gary Nicklaus, attempt to make the cut. (He didn't). The Conquistadores announced that 143,000 attended the ’01 Tucson Open.
Annika Sorenstam won the LPGA Tour's 2001 Tucson Open, played at Randolph North. Sorenstam, the greatest golfer in UA history, shot 23-under par. I remember walking in the gallery, and it was elbow-to-elbow. Tucson was the center of women's golf excellence; the ’01 LPGA event at Randolph included not only Sorenstam but Tucson-based golfers Cindy Rarick, Lorena Ochoa, Leta Lindley and Marisa Baena, all of whom won LPGA Tour championships.
The Arizona Diamondbacks drew 115,000 fans to Tucson Electric Park for 2001 spring training. The soon-to-be World Champions were blessed with such players as the Big Unit, Randy Johnson. On March 24, 2001, a 98-mph Big Unit fastball inconceivably hit a dove flying across the infield at Hi Corbett Field in a game against the Colorado Rockies. The winter/spring of ’01 always seemed to create headlines in Tucson.
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson watches as a bird that was killed when it flew in the path of one of his seventh-inning pitches is removed from the field by San Francisco Giants' Jeff Kent, March 24, 2001, at Tucson Electric Park. The Diamondbacks beat the Giants 10-6 in exhibition play.
The Colorado Rockies, who played at Hi Corbett Field, drew 72,000 fans in the spring of ’01. The Chicago White Sox, who shared the state-of-the-art baseball facilities at TEP, drew 63,000 fans. That's more than 200,000 fans for one spring training session in Tucson.
In 2001, McKale Center took a rare year off from hosting the men's NCAA basketball tournament. McKale was host to the Big Dance in 1974, 1977, 1979, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 2000, a must-see venue with games that included such college basketball icons as Bill Walton, Jerry Tarkanian, Tim Duncan, Rick Majerus and John Wooden.
The winter/spring of ’01 overflowed with big events in Tucson. At Hillenbrand Stadium, Arizona softball sensation Jennie Finch went an unprecedented 30-0, pitching the Wildcats to a 65-4 record and the Women's College World Series championship, its sixth national title in 11 seasons. Every Pac-10 game at Hillenbrand was sold out that season.
Finally, a few weeks after the PGA, LPGA, the Rockies, Diamondbacks and White Sox left Tucson for the year, Lute Olson rallied Arizona to an 11-game winning streak, including victories over No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 Illinois and No. 4 Michigan State to propel the Wildcats to the Final Four for the fourth time in 14 seasons.
In 1973, Barbra Streisand famously sang the No. 1 hit "The Way We Were." It included this lyric "... Memories light the corners of my mind."
That's how I remember the spring of 2001 in Tucson sports.
