Arizona’s college football Hall of Fame safety Chuck Cecil turned 60 Friday. It doesn’t seem possible, does it?
The two-time consensus All-American arrived at the UA in the fall of 1983, a walk-on who had hoped to attend Stanford but wasn’t offered a scholarship. Talk about a big mistake. Cecil intercepted a Pac-12 record four passes in a 1987 game at Stanford.
UA’s Chuck Cecil (6) races out of the ASU end zone en route to a 106-yard interception for a TD in the fourth quarter on Nov. 22, 1986.
I’ll never forget an August 1984 afternoon at Camp Cochise when I asked UA defensive coordinator Moe Ankney if anyone had made an impression at that day’s practice.
Ankney pointed across the field. “See that guy, No. 6? He’s a heat-seeking missile,’’ said Ankney. A legend was born.
I had never heard of Cecil, an underweight defensive back, maybe 160 pounds, who played with an intensity a level above most players. By the end of his UA career, he had three times wrecked favored ASU teams — 1985 with a late interception, 1986 with his legendary 106-yard interception return, and 1987 by recovering a fumble in the last minute of a game in Tempe, leading to a 24-24 tie at the buzzer.
Now an offensive analyst on Brent Brennan’s UA staff, Cecil is as competitive as ever. I played golf with him recently, a four-man scramble, and it was as if he was on the back nine at the Masters on a Sunday afternoon. The fire still burns.
Chuck Cecil speaks to members of the media during the Arizona Wildcats’ football preseason media day on Aug. 1, 2023.
