Freddy Foster walked to the Lute Olson statue outside the north entrance of McKale Center Friday morning. She wore checkerboard Arizona Wildcats pants, UA-themed tennis shoes and a navy blue T-shirt with โThanksโ inscribed below Olsonโs face plastered in the center.
In Fosterโs hands was an exact copy of the shirt she was wearing. The Tucsonan dipped and placed it at the statueโs feet.
Holding back tears, Foster thought about the three decadesโ worth of memories and moments that gave Tucson something to be proud of.
Olson, who died Thursday night at age 85, didnโt just represent Arizona Wildcats basketball or the UA itself; to many, he was Tucson. Foster and hundreds of others paid their respects Thursday night and all day Friday at the Olson statue, delivering basketballs, bouquets and notes in honor of Arizonaโs Hall of Fame coach.
UA freshman point guard Kerr Kriisa โ an Estonian named after Wildcats great Steve Kerr โ was among the first to pay their respects Thursday night.
Tucsonโs loss struck Foster in a deeper way. On Feb. 2, Fosterโs husband, Jamie, died.
Jamie was a forward for the Wildcats under then-head coach Bruce Larson in the early 1960s, where he was teammates with stars such as Albert Johnson and Warren Rustand. He was what would be later called a โgumbyโ โ a player known for being supportive on the sideline.
Freddy and Jamie met at a downtown Tucson Marriott in 1978, and were married the following year. The T-shirt left at Olsonโs feet on Friday belonged to Jamie. Freddy Foster attached pins from the Wildcatsโ 1994, 1997 and 2001 Final Fours onto it, along with a note: โLove Jamie and Freddy Foster. Always in our hearts, Lute and Bobbi!โ
โWhat more can 2020 do to me?,โ she wondered. โNot just me, but all of Tucson, because we all loved Coach.โ
The Fostersโ marriage revolved around the Wildcats and college basketball. Between 1989 and 2018, Freddy and Jamie attended every Final Four, including the UAโs heartbreakers in โ94 and โ01. They were in the stands when the Wildcats won the national championship in โ97.
Foster said Thursday that Olson was โvery influential to us and what we did with our lives.โ
โWith the Cats going (to the Final Four) in 1988, and the few years leading up to that with (Steve) Kerr and (Sean) Elliott, we got so excited that from โ88, we never missed (a Final Four).โ
Fosterโs favorite Olson memory came at the 1997 Final Four, when more than 500 fans packed the team hotelโs lobby prior to the Wildcatsโ game against Kentucky.
โWeโre all held back by security and they were coming down the elevator,โ Freddy said. โI was standing next to the security guard and I heard his radio say, โTheyโre on their way.โ My heart was pounding. I said, โJimmy, theyโre coming!โโ
Olsonโs strutted through the lobby on his way to the team bus, flanked by Bobbi Olson and a visiting Elliott.
โIt wasnโt just Lute and Bobbi, it was also Sean coming through the crowd high-fiving everyone,โ Foster said. โThat moment sent chills down my spine. It was so amazing and it wouldnโt have mattered if we won or not, it really didnโt matter. It was the most exciting time Iโve ever had. โฆ At that moment, I was bawling when I saw this man getting ready to coach in this huge game.โ
The Fosters were easy to pick out of a crowd. For 25 years, they wore matching clothes, almost always UA or Final Four apparel.
โEveryone always recognizes us, because heโs 6-7 and Iโm 5-2, but we have the same exact clothes on,โ Foster said.
The Fostersโ Final Four streak ended two years ago, but their dedication to cheering for the Wildcats never paused.
The night Jamie died, he watched Arizona pick up a road win over Washington State.
โHe planned the whole thing,โ she joked. โThe U of A has come full circle for us.โ
Olson โreally drove the city,โ Foster said.
โWe would be more known for Davis-Monthan and the University Medical Center as opposed to sports,โ she said. โTucson has changed so much and I think he had a huge hand in that. If we didnโt have a winning program, Tucson wouldnโt be in the position that itโs in.โ
Her final message to Olson was emblazoned on her shirt: Thanks.
โWithout him, I wouldnโt have had those 30 years at the Final Four where we met friends from almost every state,โ she said. โMy husband and Iโs life wouldโve been totally different. Yes, we wouldโve had a wonderful life without U of A basketball, but I donโt think it wouldโve had the color that it had without it.โ