Tucson auto dealer Jim Click has forever been strongly involved in sports, dating to his 1960s days as the starting center on Oklahoma State's football team. His alma mater remembers him with the Jim Click Alumni Hall on campus.
In Tucson, Click took it to another level. In the 1970s, he began donating the use of cars to Wildcat head coaches every year, in every sport. In the 1980s, he became heavily involved in the UA's Adaptive Athletics program and has donated close to $10 million for that program. After Arizona went to the 1988 Final Four, he arranged for Steve Kerr and other UA basketball players to play in a wheelchair basketball game.
Local businessman Jim Click has contributed heavily over the years to both the University of Arizonaβs NCAA sports programs, and also the UAβs adaptive athletics program. Pictured with members of the UAβs wheelchair rugby team in September 2019, Click and his wife, Vicki, committed $6.5 million to the UAβs adaptive athletics program in 2023.
In the 1990s, Click donated about $2 million to the UA for the eponymous Jim Click Hall of Champions. Click didn't just do the high-profile sports. In the fall of 1998, he flew to the NCAA Cross Country championships in Lawrence, Kansas, to support UA All-Americans Amy Skieresz and Abdi Abdirahman. I will always remember Click jogging the course, trying to stay within view of Skieresz and Abdirahman, both of whom finished No. 2 in the nation at that meet.
In the 2000s, Click spearheaded the move to hire Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops to rebuild Arizona's failing football program. Click flew UA athletic director Jim Livengood to Oklahoma to meet Stoops and bring him back to Tucson for a press conference introduction. Click was a notable presence on the sideline of games at Arizona Stadium for the next nine years.
Click has been close friendsΒ β workout partnersΒ β with UA Hall of Fame track coach Dave Murray for 40 years; the UA hosts the Jim Click Shootout every year at Drachman Stadium. Click has also been close with UA NCAA swimming coach Frank Busch; the two still work out together every morning at a local fitness facility. When Busch was hired at Arizona in 1989, Click gave him the use of a van that Busch and his family used for several years. They remain best friends 37 years later.
And that's just a small portion of Click's involvement with Tucson athletics. When he announced last week he has sold his 10 Tucson auto dealerships, it seemed like the end of an era, but even at 81, with or without his auto dealerships, Jim Click's sports legacy stands strong.
