β Part of the collateral damage of Oklahoma Stateβs football demise included the firing of offensive line coach Charlie Dickey, one of the top names in UA football history. Dickey was a UA starting lineman, 1983-85, then coached the Wildcat offensive line for Dick Tomey from 1993-2000. Dickey also coached 10 years at Kansas State, three at Utah and another at Washington. He has landed on his feet and is the senior offensive analyst at No. 1 Ohio State.
Arizona forward Mark Tollefsen during a game against Stanford, March 5, 2016, in Tucson.
β Mark Tollefsen, a transfer from San Francisco who played on Sean Millerβs 2015-16 Arizona basketball teams, is in the NBA. Tollefsen was hired by Steve Kerr to be Golden Stateβs video coordinator and player development director. Tollefsen last year worked for Nick Kerr, Steveβs son, as an assistant for the G League Santa Cruz Warriors. Tollefsen played five years in the EuroLeague, in Israel, after leaving Arizona.
β Flowing Wells High School inducted Chris Ayer into its sports Hall of Fame last week. Ayer is one of the top big men β heβs 7 feet tall β in Tucson prep basketball history. He went on to play four seasons at LMU, starting 70 games. At Flowing Wells from 2000-02, he blocked 350 shots, including 17 in a game. Ayer is now an EMT/firefighter in Corona de Tucson.
β Tim Kish was one of the leading defensive coaches in recent Arizona football history, 2004-2011, completing his UA days as the interim head coach in 2011, which included an upset win over ASU. Kish then coached at Oklahoma for 10 years before retiring and returning to Tucson. Now, the president of the Southern Arizona chapter of the National Football Hall of Fame, Kish last week was one of five chapter presidents (there are 120 chapters) voted to be honored at the College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony Dec. 9 in Las Vegas. Kish has re-energized the Tucson chapter of the Hall of Fame back to the 1990 days, when Mike Lude and Burt Kinerk created the local Hall of Fame organization and got Chuck Cecil, Tedy Bruschi and Rob Waldrop elected.
β Tucsonan Nick Gonzales, a Cienega High School alumnus, completed his third full season in MLB last week, hitting .260 as the Pittsburgh Piratesβ starting second baseman. A first-round draft pick in 2020, Gonzales was limited to 96 games because of injury. He earned $775,000 this year and is due for contract arbitration next year.
β Remember UA freshman baseball star Jacob Berry on coach Jay Johnsonβs 2020 UA team? He hit .352 with 17 homers and 70 RBIs, one of the top freshman seasons in UA history. Berry transferred to LSU when Johnson accepted the Tigersβ head coaching job in 2021 and had two strong seasons before becoming a first-round draft pick in 2022. Last week, Berry, playing for the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, hit a walk-off home run to win the minor league baseball championship game against Las Vegas. Berry hit .261 with eight homers as Jacksonvilleβs third baseman.
β I recently listed eight Tucsonans who went on to be Division I football assistant coaches. I overlooked former Sabino High and Miami Hurricanes quarterback Jeff Popovich, who is now the assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Western Michigan. Popovich has also coached at Georgia Tech and Boise State.
