Greg Hansen's 10 biggest heartbreakers in Tucson sports history
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Star sports columnist Greg Hansen counts down the 10 biggest heartbreakers in Tucson sports history.
Editor's note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today's list: The top 10 biggest heartbreakers in Tucson sports history.
The formula for Arizona’s historic Rose Bowl appearance was uncomplicated: if the Wildcats won at Cal on November 13, 1993, and followed by winning the Territorial Cup, they would finish 7-1 in the Pac-10 and ascend to football heaven.
It all became so simple after ASU stunned favored UCLA 9-3 that day. Arizona had to win out and its ticket to Pasadena would be punched.
The Wildcats led Cal 20-0 at halftime. The Bears were no one’s idea of a spoiler. They were coming off consecutive losses of 41-0, 42-14 and 34-7. (Nor did a follow-up engagement against ASU seem daunting; the Sun Devils would finish 6-5.)
And then it all went wrong.
Cal cut Arizona’s lead to 20-17 but Arizona was killing the clock with three minutes remaining. A seemingly harmless out-pattern to receiver Terry Vaughn appeared to get a first down, but a Cal defender knocked the ball from Vaughn’s hands. It bounced directly into the grasp of Cal’s Eric Zomalt, who ran unopposed 29 yards for the deciding score.
“It’s a helpless feeling,’’ said UA All-American defensive end Tedy Bruschi. “I couldn’t catch him.’’
Typical of Arizona’s historic football frustrations, the Wildcats drove for a first down at the Cal 19 with 1:08 remaining. But a referee erred, called a crippling unsportsmanlike penalty on Vaughn, pushing the ball back to the 34. Vaughn simply was trying to hurry back to the huddle, and in doing so inadvertently bumped into the ref.
The Wildcats reached Cal’s 14, but four passes into the end zone were incomplete. Cal won 24-20.
“I’m speechless,’’ UA tailback Chuck Levy said.
Arizona finished 6-2, tied with USC and UCLA atop the Pac-10, but the Bruins went to the Rose Bowl via tie-breaking procedures and Arizona, 10-2, went to the Fiesta Bowl where it beat Miami.
Heartbreaks? Tucson has known far too many in all manner of sports.
Ranked No. 1 entering the Sweet 16 against UNLV – a club that would win the national title a year later – Arizona traded blows with the Rebels for 39 minutes and 57 seconds, securing a 67-65 lead. Elliott, the national player of the year, was superb. He scored 22 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and was at his best.
But with a shade under 3 seconds remaining, UNLV guard Anderson Hunt seemed to give a forearm shove to UA guard Kenny Lofton, knocking Lofton to the floor — or did he flop? — and giving Hunt space to shoot. He drilled a 3-pointer. UNLV won 68-67.
Lofton wept for what seemed like hours. When Elliott left the interview podium, he embraced his mother, and began to sob. Someone asked Lute Olson if he was bitter at the “no call.’’
“Let’s have a show of hands,’’ he said, biting off the words. “Wouldn’t you think it’d be bitter? It ends our season. It’s bitter.’’
A Tucson team hasn’t won a “big schools’’ state title since 1979, but on December 13, 1997 at Sun Devil Stadium, coach Vern Friedli’s Panthers had all but pulled off the upset of the century. The 13-0 Panthers led mighty Mesa Mountain View 24-21 with 3:29 remaining. Mountain View had won 27 straight games; it dwarfed Amphi in enrollment, 3,968 to 1,880, but Friedli always “played up’’ and typically played tough.
With 3:29 remaining, fourth-and-1 at the MMV 39, Friedli chose to run rather than punt. The fourth-down play failed by about five inches. MMV scored in the final moments to win, 28-24, although TV replays later showed that a referee erroneously ruled a game-changing fumble by Mountain View to have been after the whistle.
“My admiration for these kids is immeasurable,’’ said Friedli. A Tucson team has still not won the big-schools football championship since 1979.
Have you ever seen so many tears?
The ’89 Wildcats, periodically ranked No. 1, had it all: 18-game winning pitcher Scott Erickson, Pac-10 Player of the Year Alan Zinter and future big-leaguers J.T. Snow, Trevor Hoffman and Kevin Long.
Arizona’s 23-7 conference record remains the best in its Pac-12 history. It swept ASU in Tempe to win the league title. But it lost to Long Beach State 10-3 at Kindall-Sancet Stadium in the regional finals.
Pitching on two days rest, Erickson, 18-3, had the only bad outing of a remarkable season. He sat in the dugout after and wept. “I’d trade it all for a trip to Omaha,’’ he said.
Dick Tomey would have a closer brush with the Rose Bowl in 1998, but that time it took a UCLA loss rather than a Wildcat collapse.
Brian Peabody’s Lancers, coming off a 29-2 season, were 29-3, favored to beat Winkelman's Carl Hayden High School in the state title game in Phoenix. No Tucson team had won the big schools basketball championship since 1982. Point guard Fern Tonella, who scored 30 points, hit three foul shots with 2 seconds remaining to force overtime, but Hayden won 80-75, the closest a Tucson team has come to a big-school title in 35 years. The Lancers locker room was a puddle of tears.
The stakes were unprecedented in UA football history: ASU, 10-0, and Arizona, 9-1, would play for a Fiesta Bowl berth. The Sun Devils completed a forever-controversial 8-yard touchdown pass to John Jefferson with 30 seconds in the first half. Arizona led 14-3. Jefferson’s catch, which appeared to be out of the back of the end zone, was the margin of victory, 24-21. Arizona, 9-2, put the then-best season in school history in the books, with no bowl game and nothing but regret.
The less said about Arizona blowing a 75-60 lead in the final 4:04, the better. It still stings.
The best track team in UA history scored a career-high 41 points in Buffalo. Javelin thrower Esko Mikkola and decathlete Klaus Ambrosch won national titles. Abdi Abdirahman scored 13 points with two terrific distances runs. Chima Ugwu finished second in the shot put. But the UA’s expected 15 to 20 points in the pole vault and other events netted zero. Arkansas won with 58 points. The UA was forever left with “what ifs?’’
In the 1974 NCAA baseball playoffs, No. 2 Arizona was sent to Greeley, Colorado, to play a supposed walk-over, Northern Colorado. But the 29-11 Bears swept Arizona in a best-of-3 series and Jerry Kindall’s second UA team finished 58-6.
Editor's note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today's list: The top 10 biggest heartbreakers in Tucson sports history.
The formula for Arizona’s historic Rose Bowl appearance was uncomplicated: if the Wildcats won at Cal on November 13, 1993, and followed by winning the Territorial Cup, they would finish 7-1 in the Pac-10 and ascend to football heaven.
It all became so simple after ASU stunned favored UCLA 9-3 that day. Arizona had to win out and its ticket to Pasadena would be punched.
The Wildcats led Cal 20-0 at halftime. The Bears were no one’s idea of a spoiler. They were coming off consecutive losses of 41-0, 42-14 and 34-7. (Nor did a follow-up engagement against ASU seem daunting; the Sun Devils would finish 6-5.)
And then it all went wrong.
Cal cut Arizona’s lead to 20-17 but Arizona was killing the clock with three minutes remaining. A seemingly harmless out-pattern to receiver Terry Vaughn appeared to get a first down, but a Cal defender knocked the ball from Vaughn’s hands. It bounced directly into the grasp of Cal’s Eric Zomalt, who ran unopposed 29 yards for the deciding score.
“It’s a helpless feeling,’’ said UA All-American defensive end Tedy Bruschi. “I couldn’t catch him.’’
Typical of Arizona’s historic football frustrations, the Wildcats drove for a first down at the Cal 19 with 1:08 remaining. But a referee erred, called a crippling unsportsmanlike penalty on Vaughn, pushing the ball back to the 34. Vaughn simply was trying to hurry back to the huddle, and in doing so inadvertently bumped into the ref.
The Wildcats reached Cal’s 14, but four passes into the end zone were incomplete. Cal won 24-20.
“I’m speechless,’’ UA tailback Chuck Levy said.
Arizona finished 6-2, tied with USC and UCLA atop the Pac-10, but the Bruins went to the Rose Bowl via tie-breaking procedures and Arizona, 10-2, went to the Fiesta Bowl where it beat Miami.
Heartbreaks? Tucson has known far too many in all manner of sports.
Ranked No. 1 entering the Sweet 16 against UNLV – a club that would win the national title a year later – Arizona traded blows with the Rebels for 39 minutes and 57 seconds, securing a 67-65 lead. Elliott, the national player of the year, was superb. He scored 22 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and was at his best.
But with a shade under 3 seconds remaining, UNLV guard Anderson Hunt seemed to give a forearm shove to UA guard Kenny Lofton, knocking Lofton to the floor — or did he flop? — and giving Hunt space to shoot. He drilled a 3-pointer. UNLV won 68-67.
Lofton wept for what seemed like hours. When Elliott left the interview podium, he embraced his mother, and began to sob. Someone asked Lute Olson if he was bitter at the “no call.’’
“Let’s have a show of hands,’’ he said, biting off the words. “Wouldn’t you think it’d be bitter? It ends our season. It’s bitter.’’
A Tucson team hasn’t won a “big schools’’ state title since 1979, but on December 13, 1997 at Sun Devil Stadium, coach Vern Friedli’s Panthers had all but pulled off the upset of the century. The 13-0 Panthers led mighty Mesa Mountain View 24-21 with 3:29 remaining. Mountain View had won 27 straight games; it dwarfed Amphi in enrollment, 3,968 to 1,880, but Friedli always “played up’’ and typically played tough.
With 3:29 remaining, fourth-and-1 at the MMV 39, Friedli chose to run rather than punt. The fourth-down play failed by about five inches. MMV scored in the final moments to win, 28-24, although TV replays later showed that a referee erroneously ruled a game-changing fumble by Mountain View to have been after the whistle.
“My admiration for these kids is immeasurable,’’ said Friedli. A Tucson team has still not won the big-schools football championship since 1979.
Have you ever seen so many tears?
The ’89 Wildcats, periodically ranked No. 1, had it all: 18-game winning pitcher Scott Erickson, Pac-10 Player of the Year Alan Zinter and future big-leaguers J.T. Snow, Trevor Hoffman and Kevin Long.
Arizona’s 23-7 conference record remains the best in its Pac-12 history. It swept ASU in Tempe to win the league title. But it lost to Long Beach State 10-3 at Kindall-Sancet Stadium in the regional finals.
Pitching on two days rest, Erickson, 18-3, had the only bad outing of a remarkable season. He sat in the dugout after and wept. “I’d trade it all for a trip to Omaha,’’ he said.
Dick Tomey would have a closer brush with the Rose Bowl in 1998, but that time it took a UCLA loss rather than a Wildcat collapse.
Brian Peabody’s Lancers, coming off a 29-2 season, were 29-3, favored to beat Winkelman's Carl Hayden High School in the state title game in Phoenix. No Tucson team had won the big schools basketball championship since 1982. Point guard Fern Tonella, who scored 30 points, hit three foul shots with 2 seconds remaining to force overtime, but Hayden won 80-75, the closest a Tucson team has come to a big-school title in 35 years. The Lancers locker room was a puddle of tears.
The stakes were unprecedented in UA football history: ASU, 10-0, and Arizona, 9-1, would play for a Fiesta Bowl berth. The Sun Devils completed a forever-controversial 8-yard touchdown pass to John Jefferson with 30 seconds in the first half. Arizona led 14-3. Jefferson’s catch, which appeared to be out of the back of the end zone, was the margin of victory, 24-21. Arizona, 9-2, put the then-best season in school history in the books, with no bowl game and nothing but regret.
The less said about Arizona blowing a 75-60 lead in the final 4:04, the better. It still stings.
The best track team in UA history scored a career-high 41 points in Buffalo. Javelin thrower Esko Mikkola and decathlete Klaus Ambrosch won national titles. Abdi Abdirahman scored 13 points with two terrific distances runs. Chima Ugwu finished second in the shot put. But the UA’s expected 15 to 20 points in the pole vault and other events netted zero. Arkansas won with 58 points. The UA was forever left with “what ifs?’’
In the 1974 NCAA baseball playoffs, No. 2 Arizona was sent to Greeley, Colorado, to play a supposed walk-over, Northern Colorado. But the 29-11 Bears swept Arizona in a best-of-3 series and Jerry Kindall’s second UA team finished 58-6.
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