Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Will Ken Niumatalolo bring his magic to the Wildcats?

Everybody's waiting

Ken Niumatalolo didn’t get on the field much at Hawaii — he completed just 20 passes in three seasons as a backup quarterback, none for a score — but when he did it was memorable.

In September 1989, Niumatalolo replaced injured Garrett Gabriel in the fourth quarter as the No. 23 Rainbow Warriors rallied to beat San Diego State 31-24.

Niumatalolo scrambled for 17 yards and completed a pass for 26 yards during the winning drive in the final 2:23 . He didn’t have much time to celebrate. Two days later, his wife, Barbara, delivered their first child, Alexcia.

He joked that he didn’t have a name picked out for a daughter; he planned to name a son Magic, after his sports hero, Magic Johnson.

After that, Niumatalolo’s career had a bit of magic to it.

What he’s already done at Navy, winning 64 percent of his games in 10 years, might get him into the College Football Hall of Fame someday.

The question now is whether he’ll attempt to win at a higher level, at Arizona. Everybody’s waiting for an answer.

Niumatalolo was one of Honolulu’s top athletes as a Radford High School senior in 1982-83, a standout basketball player and one of the top quarterbacks in Honolulu history.

He served as the student-council vice president at Radford, and then signed to play football for Dick Tomey at Hawaii. After Niumatalolo’s freshman season in ’83, he left to serve an LDS mission in Ventura, California.

The son of a career Coast Guard officer, Niumatalolo learned to speak Spanish during a two-month mission preparatory camp at BYU. He returned to Hawaii just as Tomey left to become Arizona’s head coach.

So Niumatalolo played three seasons under Bob Wagner, who later became one of Tomey’s assistants at Arizona. Among Niumatalolo’s teammates at Hawaii was Dino Babers, now the head coach at Syracuse and Arizona’s offensive coordinator during its famed 12-1 season in 1998.

He hoped to become a sports broadcaster, but in an exit meeting with Wagner in 1989, was offered a chance to be a graduate assistant coach for the Rainbow Warriors.

Now, almost 30 years later, Niumatalolo could be the next from the Rainbow Warrior family to attempt some football magic in Tucson.

Jerry Carrillo, Brian Peabody join 500-win club

Every seat in the Pima College gymnasium was occupied 30 minutes before national power Cochise College was to play No. 6-ranked Pima College last weekend.

About 40 people stood in the balcony behind the south basket, including the rival coaches, Cochise’s Jerry Carrillo and Pima’s Brian Peabody.

There is no official answer to this, but it’s probably the only time in Tucson history that two coaches with 500 career victories were in the same gym at the same time. OK, maybe Lute Olson and Stanford’s Mike Montgomery, but you never saw Monty and Lute so chummy.

And especially not two men who have been rivals since they were in middle school.

Carrillo, a Salpointe Catholic and UA grad, won his 500th game at Cochise a few days after New Year’s. Peabody, a Sahuaro High and UA grad, got his 500th career victory last season.

“Brian and I grew up playing basketball together, first at the YMCA,” said Carrillo. “We were rivals in high school. He played for Dick McConnell at Sahuaro and I played for Jim Flannery at Salpointe. You can’t go back any further than we do. The best part is that we have remained good friends.”

Pima won an absorbing game that night, 87-84, and they’ll meet in a rematch on Valentine’s Day at Cochise. Through games of Friday, Pima was 14-2, Cochise 12-2. Carrillo believes PCC has a chance to win the NJCAA Division II national title.

Both coaches left Tucson in their early coaching days. Carrillo spent time at Cal State Northridge, among other places; Peabody coached at Western Carolina.

But they thrive in the brutally difficult ACCAC with Southern Arizona players. Carrillo’s sophomore forward Chaz Mack of Catalina Foothills scored 43 points Wednesday against South Mountain College, and is probably the best player in the ACCAC. He is the top scorer, at 20.6 points per game, and is an inside-outside force who has attracted the attention of Montana State coaches, among others.

Pima is stocked with Tucson players, including Cienega’s Keven Biggs and Isaiah Murphy and Cholla’s Abram Carrasco. Biggs is second in the ACCAC in scoring at 18.7 and has the look of a Division I college player. Carrasco is No. 3 in the league, scoring 18.2

Watching Carrillo and Peabody during their intense game was a study in contrasts. Carrillo, demonstrative, almost never sits. Peabody exhibits a calm demeanor, although inside the fire burns.

Carrillo has twice coached the Apaches to the  NJCAA finals in Hutchinson, Kansas, and last year Peabody piloted the Aztecs to a seventh-place finish at nationals.

“You look back at all those days we spent together at the YMCA and you’d have never guessed our paths would go this way,” said Carrillo. “It’s a pretty good story.”

Jerry Kindall's service drew stars, UA alumni back to Tucson

The memorial service for Arizona Hall of Fame baseball coach Jerry Kindall was what you’d expect for a man of such dignity and accomplishment. More than 1,000 people attended. The top names in UA baseball history returned to Tucson: big-leaguers J.T. Snow, Chip Hale, Scott Erickson and Trevor Hoffman. So did those who have been away from Tucson for decades. One of them, starting center fielder Dwight Taylor from Kindall’s 1980 national championship team, could not swing the finances to travel from Alabama to honor his coach. Typical of the bond of Kindall’s Wildcats, a teammate paid Taylor’s travel expenses. Jim Fleming, a part-time player from Salpointe Catholic in the mid-1970s, who went on to become assistant general manager for the Florida Marlins, flew to Tucson from his home in Oklahoma. Kindall, who died of a stroke at 82, left a bigger-than-life legacy in Tucson.

Pima's Alday: "Now comes the hard work"

Pima College baseball coach Rich Alday, who has returned to the school at which he won 496 games from 1973-1989, began official workouts last week. So Alday now begins work on getting his 500th career victory at PCC, although he won 514 games as the New Mexico Lobos baseball coach, and then won two state championships as Ironwood Ridge’s softball coach.

“The numbers are nice,” he said, “but now comes the hard work. This league is so difficult. I don’t think any of those 496 games we won came easy.”

The Aztecs begin conference play in a hurry, Feb. 10 at Scottsdale .

CDO grad Stanford to join Pirates organization as pitching coach

Former Canyon del Oro High and Cleveland Indians pitcher Jason Stanford is back in organized baseball. The lefty who was part of Team USA at the 2001 World Cup will be the pitching coach for the  West Virginia Black Bears of the Class A Short Season New York/Penn League, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate. Stanford has served as a Cleveland Indians pre-game TV analyst and assistant coach at Youngstown State since retiring from baseball.

Former Wildcat Jim Ward dies at 78

Sad to learn of the death of former UA pitcher Jim Ward, who died in Abilene, Texas, last week at 78. Ward was inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Fame in 2014, an occasion that was so emotional he broke down and wept while I was interviewing him. Ward won 30 games for Arizona teams that went to the College World Series twice. He was so enamored of his return to Tucson, to the Hall of Fame weekend, that he had bobblehead dolls of him wearing a UA uniform made for the occasion. One of them sits on my desk at the Star office.

Catalina Foothills coach Kristie Stevens earns national award

Kristie Stevens, who has coached the Catalina Foothills girls tennis team to an astonishing 13 state championships, earned the award of a lifetime last week. The National Federation of High School Coaches Association selected Stevens the 2016-17 girls tennis coach of the year. Each year, the NFHS honors the top 20 coaches (10 each for boys and girls) in all sports nationally. Stevens, who coached the Falcons to eight consecutive titles from 2000-07, is the dean of students at Esperero Canyon Middle School and a former tennis player at Division II Scripps University in Southern California.

Funeral service for Warner Smith set for Jan. 27

A memorial service for Warner Smith will be held Saturday, Jan. 27 at noon at the Casas Church, 10801 N. Cholla Blvd. Smith, 44, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease earlier this month. The San Manuel High School grad, one of the top line recruits in the country in 1990, became a three-year starter for Arizona at guard and was an All-Pac-10 first-team player in 1994. Sadly, one of his teammates from the 1992-93 Wildcats, receiver Troy Dickey died last week after suffering a stroke. He was 46.

Dickey was part of Arizona’s 1992 recruiting class that helped claim a 29-0 Fiesta Bowl victory over Miami, a game in which Dickey caught two touchdown passes. The 6-foot-4-inch receiver from Houston had three children when he arrived on the UA campus in the spring of ’92, but he made it work, catching 55 passes for seven touchdowns after transferring from Coffeyville CC in Kansas. Dickey is one of three from the Class of ’92 who died much too soon: defensive lineman Chuck Osborne and linebacker Akil Jackson also passed away as relatively young men.

Ex-Tucson Toros manager Donnelly loses son in accident

More sad news: Rich Donnelly was the Tucson Toros manager from 1977-79, one of the most gregarious and well-liked men ever to coach baseball in Tucson. In 1993, his 17-year-old daughter Amy, died of a brain tumor. Last week, his 38-year-old son Michael was killed in a car accident in Florida. Donnelly’s Toros teams were not a contender in his three Tucson seasons, but he managed high-profile players like Len Barker and David Clyde, as minor-league baseball began to hit its stride in Tucson. Donnelly, 71, ended his baseball career as the Seattle Mariners third base coach four years ago.

Local golf pros receive high honor

Skyline Country Club pro Chris Dompier and Preston Otte, head pro at the Highlands at Dove Mountain, were selected Players of the Year by the Southern Chapter of the Southwest Section of the PGA last week at the group’s annual awards banquet. Teaching pro Marvol Barnard of the Haven Golf Club in Green Valley will be honored Feb. 23 in Phoenix after the Southwest Section of the PGA selected her as the Player Development pro of the year for Arizona.

My two cents: New Mexico State turned Arizona Bowl into a winner — and vice versa

New Mexico State’s victory in the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl two weeks ago didn’t get much notice nationally, but it has been celebrated in Las Cruces for two weeks.

On Saturday, the Aggies held a parade in downtown Las Cruces and followed it with a block party at the Plaza de Las Cruces. Have you ever heard of a college football team holding a parade after a 7-6 season?

That’s what made NMSU’s week in Tucson so special. The Aggies and about 20,000 NMSU fans made it a week to remember, rushing onto the field in a postgame celebration like few others in Arizona Stadium history.

Tucson has staged 14 bowl games since 1989, and the dramatic finish and happy tears spilled at Arizona Stadium made the bowl season a memorable one.