Rich Alday, who quarterbacked Tucson High's football team to a 12-0 state championship season in 1965 and later coached Pima College’s baseball team to the 1984 NJCAA championship game, died Monday night after complications from cancer treatment. He was 71.
Alday, elected to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1994, also coached Ironwood Ridge High School to state softball championships in 2014 and 2016.
After being chosen to start Pima College’s baseball program in 1973, Alday led the Aztecs to a 517-251 record over two terms; he left PCC to be the head baseball coach at New Mexico from 1990-2008, where he won 515 games. Alday returned to coach Pima’s baseball team in 2017.
He is survived by his wife, Norma, Their son, Ambrose, died of cancer in 1995 when he was 16.
After being selected to the All-Tucson football and baseball teams in the 1965-66 school year, Alday subsequently enrolled at Emporia State College in Kansas, where he later began his coaching career.
