Arizona Bowl kickoff luncheon: UA baseball icon Terry Francona honored, CFP head Rich Clark guest speaker

The annual Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl kickoff luncheon honored Arizona baseball legend Terry Francona and featured the newly appointed College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark as a guest speaker.

Francona, a legendary figure in Arizona baseball history, couldn’t attend the luncheon at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa Thursday due to duties tied to his new job as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Francona was the recipient of this year’s "Dick Tomey Arizona Strong Award."

Although he wasn’t at La Paloma in person, Francona recorded a video message for the crowd of 1,000 apologizing for his absence and expressing his gratitude for the award.

“My memories with Dick (Tomey) are so wonderful, so to receive an award with his name on it, I’m so honored. Thank you so very much,” he said in the video.

Previous winners of the Dick Tomey Arizona Strong Award include former Arizona football stars Rob Gronkowski and Tedy Bruschi.

The luncheon’s keynote speaker was Rich Clark, the College Football Playoff’s new executive director, who started his role with the CFP this past summer.

In a 20-minute discussion with Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl executive director Kym Adair, Clark discussed the ever-changing landscape of college football.

“What we do at the College Football Playoff is just one small part of college football. It’s a big part because it’s the end of the season, but our bowl games and what you guys do here is so much a part of the big tradition,” Clark said. “I played 40 years ago and bowl games were important then and they’re important now.”

Clark is a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force and a former football player for the Air Force Academy. During his last year at the academy in 1985, the Falcons finished the season with a 12-1 record and defeated the Texas Longhorns at the Bluebonnet Bowl.

“I think the biggest surprise is how fast things change in the college world,” Clark said. “It seems like overnight we can see conferences come back and go away and then another conference gain several teams and that landscape changes really fast.

"But the thing that I think is most impressive is how excited people are about college football. And our commissioners and university presidents have put that into place and have great foresight and it not’s just going to be great for the College Football Playoff, it’s going to be great for all colleges.”

The kickoff luncheon for the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop is an annual event honoring individuals in the sports community and supporters of Tucson's local college football postseason event.

“I just love it when our community comes together to celebrate, whatever the occasion is,” Adair said on Wednesday. “I happen to be hosting this one, but whatever the occasion is, we just have so many amazing people doing great things, whether community-wise, in business, as individuals, in charities, we have just an incredible community and coming together to celebrate, high fiving each other, seeing faces you haven't seen in a while and then all to really join in in support of the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl. And it's just a great time of year for us, leading up to the game and telling our story.”

The 2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice kicks off on Saturday, Dec. 28 at Arizona Stadium. The teams will be bowl-eligible programs from the Mountain West and Mid-American conferences.

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The game is about 20,000 tickets away from selling out, co-founder Ali Farhang announced at the luncheon.

Adair confirmed at the luncheon that Snoop Dogg will be in attendance at the game on Dec. 28. Plus, Snoop and crew are bringing the national Snoop Youth Football League to Tucson that week.

The Arizona Bowl signed a multi-year contract with Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop, a canned gin-based cocktail created by Snoop Dogg and rapper and producer Dr. Dre, earlier this year. The event was previously sponsored by Barstool Sports.

Although Snoop Dogg has remained a star in the music industry for over 30 years, the rapper’s popularity skyrocketed once again this past summer as he helped cover the 2024 Olympics in Paris as a commentator for NBC, and overall fan of Team USA.

“We have Snoop (Dogg) coming off such a successful Olympic run as an ambassador for the U.S., really, for the Olympics, and going into these stadiums that are full of people or sold out,” Adair said. “We want him to come to Tucson, walk into our stadium and have that same experience and for him to feel like he made the right decision by joining forces with us. So, in order for us to do that, we need to sell tickets. We need people to come out and support us.”

Adair describes having Snoop Dogg involved with the Arizona Bowl as an incredible experience.

“Everyone wants a part of Snoop (Dogg) and for our community to know that he could have been a part of any college football bowl game or really any sporting event out there, but he chose ours and he chose what we're doing here in Southern Arizona because he found a lot of synergy with it,” she said. “He really appreciated what we were doing and saw that this would be a great place to add his impact is really a compliment to our community and what we are and who we are.”

Since 2015, the Arizona Bowl has distributed “close to $5 million” in charitable grants, according to Adair. The Arizona Bowl is the “only bowl game in the country that gives 100% of net proceeds to non-profit organizations,” according to its website.

“By next summer, we will be awarding grants based on the net proceeds of the game,” Adair said. “So, the more people that come and buy a seat and invite their friends to the stadium to watch Snoop and these two great teams, ultimately, the more charitable distribution we will have. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

This by the community, for the community event was founded in 2015 by Tucsonans Ali Farhang, Mark Irvin and Fletcher McCusker. 

Now that the event is two months away, Adair says the folks working behind the scenes are in “full sprint mode” and getting ready to execute everything they have worked on all year in December.

“We are really working on the game script and all of the fun surprises that we have in store for our fans who are going to come out and see Snoop (Dogg) and these two great teams that will be competing on our field,” she said. “And with Snoop comes a lot of joy and fun, and we can expect that people will see demonstrations of that during our game.”

Photos: Wyoming comes back to edge Toledo 16-15, Arizona Bowl