The Star's longtime columnist also discusses Brian Jeffries' staying power as Wildcats' voice, Pima College's newest, wide-reaching hall of fame class, Bijan Robinson matching his great-uncle, Paul Robinson, with first 100-yard NFL game, local teens make mark at Pebble Beach and more.
New 'ring' honoree Hill among UA's best all-time QBs
On the 50th anniversary of Bruce Hill’s first season as Arizona's starting quarterback, 1973, he will become the 50th player inducted into the UA's football Ring of Honor.
You ask: what took so long?
Seven Arizona QBs preceded Hill into the Ring of Honor: Ted Bland, Fred W. Enke, Eddie Wilson, Tom Tunnicliffe, Keith Smith, Ortege Jenkins and Nick Foles.
The best of that seven-man group? It's too close to call, although Hill (1973-75) won more games as Arizona's starting QB, 25, than anyone in school history.
Hill said last week he is not miffed that it took so long for his name to be put on display at Arizona Stadium. Why? Because he was inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
You can’t see it in a black-and-white image, but Arizona wore electric blue jerseys during the funky 1970s. Quarterback Bruce Hill led Arizona’s “1-2-3” offense to one of the best seasons in school history. Hill finished the 1975 season with 1,747 passing yards and 18 touchdowns.
Few, if any, of the seven Ring of Honor QBs have a more compelling rise-to-prominence story than Hill, who was seen as a top defensive back recruit in the Class of 1972 at John C. Fremont High School in Los Angeles.
No one recruited him at quarterback during a period the Pac-8 was stacked with big-name QBs such as UCLA's Mark Harmon (yes, the actor) and future NFL QBs such as Stanford Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett, USC's Pat Haden, Washington's Sonny Sixkiller and Oregon's Dan Fouts.
Hill was further obscured because his high-profile teammate at Fremont High, tailback Ricky Bell, would go on to become the No. 1 overall selection in the NFL draft after his USC career.
In 1972, Arizona coach Bob Weber told Hill he would get a chance at QB.
But Weber also recruited the UA's "quarterback of the future,'' Nebraska transfer Jerry Davis, who had been an all-state QB at Phoenix Central High School.
"But then I threw seven touchdown passes in our (1972) freshman game against Arizona State (won 63-14 by Arizona),'' says Hill.
Weber was impressed. He forgot about Hill playing safety, although it also took a persuasive talk with Arizona athletic director Dave Strack to convince Hill not to transfer, return to Los Angeles and play for the national championship USC program.
Davis started the 1973 season opener under new coach Jim Young, but only because Hill had an ankle injury. Davis passed for just 15 yards that day. But the following week, in a 21-7 win at Wyoming, Hill started and threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to star receiver T Bell in the first quarter.
Hill never sat on the bench again.
He completed his UA days as the career leader in passing yards, 5,090, with a school-record 45 touchdown passes — he also ran for 964 yards, a true dual-threat QB — as he guided Young's first three Arizona teams to records of 8-3, 9-2 and 9-2. As a senior in 1975, Hill was selected the All-WAC quarterback, the last Arizona QB to become a first-team all-conference player.
Hill, who will be inducted into the Ring of Honor at Arizona Stadium against UCLA on Nov. 4, played briefly in the Canadian Football League before returning to Fremont High School to teach U.S. History for 20 years and become the head coach at his alma mater.
In his memoirs, Young wrote that Hill quickly adapted to Young's one-of-a-kind offense, one that included both the Veer running offense and an NFL-type drop-back passing attack. "He picked it up and excelled,'' said Young. "He was a winner.''
2 Tucson teens make a mark at Pebble Beach
After affiliating with the PGA Tour for a half-century, the Tucson golf industry achieved one of its hallmark days Friday at famed Pebble Beach Golf Course.
That's when Tucson's James Labukas, a senior at The Gregory School, and Chase Pickering, a junior at Sabino High School, were chosen to play in the ongoing PGA Tour Champions event — the PURE Insurance Championship.
Pickering shot a 3-under 69 Friday as a partner of Champions Tour regular Michael Allen; Labukus shot a 2-under 70 with his partner, Scott McCarron.
Both were chosen from the nationwide pool of First Tee nominees, this one, the First Tee of Tucson program conducted by Judy McDermott, long-time executive director of the Tucson Conquistadores.
"Before going to Pebble Beach, James and Chase were mentored by (two-time PGA Tour champion) Don Pooley,'' said McDermott. "They've got a lot of support.''
Labukus was interviewed by Golf Channel at the 12th tee during Friday's round. He said: "The First Tee isn't all about golf, it's about learning how to be a better person. It has kept me out of trouble. We have a ton of role models from who you can learn how to carry yourself.''
Labukus has a 3.9 GPA at The Gregory School. He's been part of the First Tee program for 10 years and works as a caddie at Tucson Country Club. Pickering has a 3.9 GPA at Sabino and is in his ninth year with the First Tee, whose home office is at the El Rio Golf Course.
In this Nov. 15, 1970, photo Cincinnati Bengals running back Paul Robinson (18) scores the game-winning touchdown from the one-yard-line in a game against the Cleveland Browns in Cincinnati
Rookie RB Robinson cracks 100; his great-uncle did, too
When former Salpointe Catholic running back Bijan Robinson ran for 124 yards in his second NFL game last week, he put himself in the early conversation to become the NFL Rookie of the Year.
Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson (7) is interviewed by Fox reporter Shannon Spake after an a 25-24 Falcons’ win over the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 17 in Atlanta.
Sound familiar?
In 1968, his great-uncle, Paul Robinson, a former Marana High and Arizona athlete, ran for more than 100 yards in four games as a Cincinnati Bengals rookie, which led to his selection as AFL Rookie of the Year.
Paul ran for 100 yards in Game 8, getting 159 yards against the Oakland Raiders, a 12-2 team armed with all-star defensive players Ben Davidson and Willie Brown. Paul Robinson, a third-round pick in the ’68 draft, followed that with rushing games of 156, 115 and 134 yards.
Bijan, the No.8 overall draft pick of the Falcons, opened with a 56-yard game in his NFL debut before a breakout game last week against Green Bay. He is second in the NFL in rushing with 180 yards, trailing San Francisco's Christian McCaffrey, who has 353 yards in three games.
Former Mountain View High School football coach Wayne Jones started up the school’s program, and took the Mountain Lions to the postseason 13 times in his 19 years at the helm.
Short stuff: Mountain View's Jones, Pima's Gershman, others worthy honorees
• My short list of the best high school football teams in Tucson over the last 40 years would without a doubt include coach Wayne Jones' 14-0 Mountain View Mountain Lions of 1993. It was a team that won the state title 63-32 over a stacked Sahuaro High team, a team blessed with generational-type talent such as Kevin and Gabe Schmidtke, Mike O'Haver, Ben Lee and Jason Hines.
The '93 Mountain Lions will be inducted into the MVHS Hall of Fame Friday before a homecoming game against Walden Grove. The ’93 team will be recognized during a pre-game ceremony at midfield.
What stood out about that '93 team was that Jones, a former assistant coach at Arizona, Purdue and Cincinnati, assembled perhaps the top coaching staff in Tucson prep football history, or close. His staff included former Arizona All-American lineman Mike Dawson, a 10-year NFL veteran, former UA defensive back Vince Phason, an 11-year CFL player, and Paul Schmidt, who went on to be the head coach at both Marana and Mountain View high schools. ...
Pima’s Murphy Gershman reaches for a loose ball before diving out of bounds during the game against Glendale Community College at Pima Community College on Jan. 15, 2014.
• Pima College athletic director Jim Monaco said last week that PCC will induct its second-ever Sports Hall of Fame class on Dec. 10.
The first class, inducted a decade ago, included iconic PCC sports figures such as five-time Olympian distance runner Abdi Abdirahman and two-time NJCAA softball championship coach Stacy Iveson.
The 2023 class includes first-team soccer All-American Ming Vu of Rincon High as well as women's basketball All-American Abyee Maracigan of Flowing Wells and men's basketball All-American Ben "Murphy'' Gershman of Tucson High.
Gershman is a compelling story. He didn't enroll at Pima until he was 23 but has made the best of his late start. After averaging 25 points and 12 rebounds for Brian Peabody’s PCC team in 2015, Gershman went on to play at Colorado School of Mines. He earned a degree in engineering at the Colorado school and is now a structural engineer, married with two kids, living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ...
Former Arizona football coach Kevin Sumlin, left, (pictured with his then-ASU counterpart Herm Edwards ahead of the Territorial Cup in 2018) is now Maryland's co-offensive coordinator.
• Kevin Sumlin, who seemed to sleep-walk through his three seasons as Arizona's football coach, 2018-20, is now the co-offensive coordinator at Maryland. At 59, Sumlin received a $7.3 million buyout from Arizona. He also received a $10.4 million buyout after being fired by Texas A&M in 2017.
If there's any positive news about Sumlin's days at Arizona, it's that the UA put a clause in his contract that would mitigate the $7.3 million buyout if he were to coach again. Maryland is paying Sumlin $450,000 this season. That $450,000 should help the UA athletic department pay a few bills, if nothing else. ...
• Forty-three years after Mike Lee won the state tennis singles championship at Sabino High School, he will be inducted into the Sabino Hall of Fame on Friday before the Sabercats-Pusch Ridge football game.
You can make a strong case that Lee comes from the No. 1 tennis family in Tucson history. His sister, Debbie Lee McGovern, led Sahuaro to the 1973 state tennis championship. She also won the state doubles championship in 1974.
Mike Lee went on to become the UA's No. 1 tennis player in the early 1980s before turning pro in 1984. He subsequently played at Wimbledon in 1988, where he beat the world's No. 32 ranked player. Injuries soon forced Lee to retire from competitive tennis.
His three sons followed his lead. His son, Mike Lee, won the state singles title at Catalina Foothills in 2013. Another son, Jackson Lee, won the state doubles title at Foothills in 2011. His youngest son, Mason Lee, won the state doubles championship for Foothills in 2019.
Arizona play-by-play announcer Brian Jeffries, pictured at UA event in 2019, is now the dean of Pac-12 play-by-play broadcasters.
My two cents: Jeffries proved staying power as UA voice
Over the last 38 years, I've probably listened to Brian Jeffries' play-by-play calls of Arizona football and basketball a handful of times. Maybe 10 or fewer. That's because I was usually at those games, or, if not, watching on TV.
It's my loss.
I have heard enough of Jeffries to know that he's an elite talent, among the best of the best in college sports, a class act.
Brian Jeffries, left, shown interviewing former Wildcat basketball player Dusan Ristic before Arizona's trip to Spain in 2017, has called UA football, men's basketball and baseball games for the last 38 years.
This year, Jeffries became the Dean of Pac-12 play-by-play voices. When Cal's Joe Starkey retired after 48 years last fall, Jeffries became the longest-tenured of the active Pac-12 radio voices. Here's the list:
• Brian Jeffries, 38 years (1986-2023)
• Jerry Allen, Oregon, 36 years (1988-2023)
• Pete Arbogast, USC, 35 years (1989-2023)
• Tim Healy, ASU, 26 years (1998-2023)
• Mike Parker, Oregon State, 25 years (1999-2023)
When Jeffries replaced iconic Ray Scott, a long-time NFL announcer, in 1986, it may have seemed like a step down for Tucsonans. Instead, Jeffries has established his own legend.
