Hansen's Notebook: UA sports money man John Perrin 'Hall' worthy, Sam Thomas' hoops future, more

The Star's longtime columnist also discusses the historical void the Pac-12's demise will leave, ex-Cat Matt Brase joins NBA's 76ers, Jim Mielke's Pima CC legacy, ASU hoops' bland non-conference home schedule and more.

Money man Perrin a UA Hall of Fame no-brainer

Since joining the then-Pac-10 in 1978, the Mount Rushmore of Arizona’s athletic administration — including the school’s glory days of the 1985-2005 period — is an obvious call: athletic directors Cedric Dempsey and Jim Livengood, associate AD Rocky LaRose and financial guru John Perrin.

Last week, in an overdue motion, the school announced that Perrin will be inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Fame in November.

“I was very, very surprised and very, very happy,’’ said Perrin, whose work for the athletic department from 1980-2014 culminated with him as its chief financial officer.

Perrin arrived on campus in the spring of 1980 when Arizona’s athletic budget was $4.7 million, with a bare 48 employees. It was a time of crisis. The UA eliminated wrestling and men’s gymnastics. It didn’t have two sticks to rub together.

Perrin was basically a one-man business office. Today. Arizona has nine full-time employees in its business office.

It was a time Arizona paid head football coach Larry Smith $58,000 a year. (Today, Jedd Fisch’s five-year contract is worth $16.3 million.)

Things changed. By the time Perrin retired in 2014, the Wildcats had a $70 million budget with about 250 employees. I asked Chris del Conte, currently the AD at Texas who worked with Perrin at Arizona from 1999-2006, to describe Perrin’s value.

“He was the ‘it’ factor. His word was the gold standard,’’ del Conte said. “He was the backbone of the department.’’

Bingo.

“One year we dipped into the red, 1983 or 1984, but other than that, we always ended up with a positive fund balance,’’ Perrin says now.

Given that foundation of financial responsibility, Arizona has been able to stay competitive in a college sports market that has all but become insane. In the fiscal year 2021-22, Arizona’s athletic budget was $119 million. Over the last five years, the Wildcats have had athletic revenues of $505 million, which, to put it in perspective, is a distant No. 41 in college sports.

Schools like Michigan State have awarded a football coach a contract of $92 million. Lower-level football programs like Oregon State have recently spent $161 million to refurbish its football stadium.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you what my reaction is,’’ says Perrin, who grew up in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and worked as an accountant for NBC in Los Angeles before arriving in Tucson 42 years ago..

“But the train has left the station. I don’t know how you put the brakes on it now. (College sports) is so driven by the dollar. A lot of schools are experiencing big deficits.’’

How do athletic departments contend with budget deficits that, in many cases, require debt-service payments — mortgage-type payments — in excess of $10 million per year?

“You just have to make sure donors give enough every year to cover the mortgage,’’ says Perrin. “The tough thing now is that coaches salaries and travel expenses and facility additions have grown so much that it puts a lot of pressure on the donors and a lot of other people to pay the bills.’’

Winning and promotion works. After hiring Deion Sanders at Colorado, the Buff Club raised $28 million from donors, up from $20 million a year ago. CU's merchandise revenue is up 505% over last year.

“When I was at Arizona, we would not start a (building) project unless we were very, very confident in the ability to pay the annual debt service,'' says Perrin. "And this was all before the NIL days, which adds even more pressure.’’

Is it sustainable?

“In the short term, as long as the TV money is there, it might be,’’ says Perrin. “But in the long run? I don’t know.’’

Perrin then laughed, adding: “I think I got out at the right time.’’

Move to Big 12 will leave a historical void

When Arizona becomes a Big 12 school next year, the Wildcats will forfeit more than rivalries with UCLA and Oregon and the comfortable travel arrangements to play in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The UA’s records in all sports — a historical perspective that goes 45 years — will be put in storage. The records set by Sean Elliott and Lute Olson, the championships won by Jerry Kindall and Mike Candrea, will be set aside and gather dust.

It’ll be much more difficult for any Wildcat athlete to become an all-conference player in the Big 12. With 16 teams, it’ll require a near All-American performance to become an All-Big 12 player in any sport.

Arizona has won 66 Pac-12 championships in men’s and women’s sports, including 16 in men’s basketball. In a conference with Kansas, it might take Arizona a century to win 16 titles in Big 12 men’s basketball.

Arizona has produced just five first-team All-Pac-12 football players since 2017. It might take 20 years to match that number in the Big 12.

Moreover, the Pac-12 failed to create a Hall of Honor for its athletic directors. It’s too late now. Over the last 50 years, Washington’s Mike Lude, Arizona’s Cedric Dempsey and Jim Livengood, Stanford’s Ted Leland, Oregon’s Bill Moos and UCLA’s Dan Guerrero — the best of the best — weren’t properly honored.

It's a big miss.

Mielke left a legacy at Pima CC

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Jim Mielke, a 1955 graduate of Tucson High School, delivered a generational quote in the fall of 1980 when he coached the Pima Community College men’s cross country team to the NJCAA national championship.

“Toward the end of the race,’’ he said, “I looked up at the hill near the finish line, and all I could see were a bunch of pumpkins.’’

The 1980 Aztecs wore orange uniforms to the national finals that day in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Pumpkins. It was PCC’s first national title in any sport. Mielke had coached the Aztecs to a No. 2 NJCAA finish in 1977.

Mielke, inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, died in Tucson last week. He was 86. His legacy runs deep. Mielke also coached Sunnyside High School to the 1975 state championship in cross country, guided the Blue Devils to a 50-0 dual meet record at one time, and became a force in the sport, bringing the 1977 national finals to the Haven Golf Course in Green Valley and becoming president of the NJCAA track and cross country coaches association.

His legacy is secure.

Short stuff: Ex-Cat Matt Brase joins 76ers staff; UA men's golf shows out; Sam Thomas — future coach?

• After he played as a walk-on for his grandfather, Lute Olson, on Arizona’s 2003-05 basketball teams, Matt Brase proved that he was far more than just a walk-on. 

Last week, the 41-year-old Brase was hired to be an assistant coach for the NBA Philadelphia 76ers. He earlier served as an assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, after serving time as a graduate assistant at Arizona and Grand Canyon.

Brase, who graduated from Catalina Foothills High School, spent last year as the head coach of the Pallacanestro Varese franchise in the Italian Euroleague, finishing 17-15 in Italy’s top league, Serie A. His sister, Julie Brase Hairgrove, was a WNBA assistant coach for 17 years and is now a Realtor in Tucson. ...

• Coach Jim Anderson’s Arizona men’s golf team, ranked No. 19 in the first poll of the season, picked to finish No. 3 in the Pac-12, opened the season last week as No. 5 in the nationally-televised Folds of Honor Invitational hosted by Jack Nicklaus. Now Anderson’s team really gets busy.

The Wildcats play this week in the Sahalee Players’ Championship near Seattle, in which the individual champion will be given a spot in this weekend’s PGA Tour event — the Fortinet Championship. It doesn’t stop there. Next week Arizona plays in the Fighting Illini Invitational in Illinois. The well-traveled Wildcats should be able to tell USC and UCLA what it’ll be like traveling to play Big Ten opponents next year.

Anderson’s top freshman, Tony Xiong, who was a multiple global amateur champion while representing his home country of China, has made the UA’s starting lineup. I think he is one of the five leading freshmen (not counting men’s basketball) on the UA campus this season, joining women’s basketball point guard Jada Williams, women’s golfer Charlotte Back of Germany, UA softball pitcher Ryan Maddox and baseball outfielder Eason Breyfogle, who was named Minnesota’s Mr. Baseball last season.

The Fortinet Championship marks the return of Salpointe Catholic and UA grad Trevor Werbylo to the PGA Tour. Werbylo has won $275,155 in 15 PGA Tour events this year. He has been idle the last month as the PGA Tour playoffs were staged. ... 

• Sam Thomas made the All-Pac-12 team once in her Arizona women’s basketball career, which doesn’t seem commensurate with her value to Adia Barnes’ successful rebuilding job. By comparison, teammate Cate Reese was a four-time All-Pac-12 first-team selection.

Thomas announced her decision to retire from basketball — from the WNBA — last week.

That doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of her.

If my instincts are accurate, Thomas will be in demand as a coach. She’d have to start at the bottom, as a grad assistant, but if she’s not a full-time assistant coach by this time three or four years from now, and a head coach somewhere down the line, it’d be a surprise. She has the knowledge, the personality and the résumé to run her own program if she so chooses.

My two cents: Neutral-site games pilfer potential home hoops matchups for ASU, UA 

This will be Bobby Hurley’s ninth season as ASU’s basketball coach, long enough for him to produce for Sun Devil fans and give them a nonconference home schedule worth the price of admission.

But when ASU announced its 2023-24 nonconference home schedule last week it was another bust, as follows:

• Nov. 11 — Texas Southern

• Nov. 16 — UMass, Lowell

• Nov. 29 — Sam Houston State

• Dec. 3 — San Francisco

• Dec. 6 — SMU

The Sun Devils have fallen victim to scheduling neutral-site games — against Mississippi State, BYU, TCU and Northwestern this season — which always comes at the cost of giving your home fans a reason to buy a ticket.

Arizona is also guilty of excessive neutral-site games. The Wildcats play Alabama, Michigan State and Purdue in neutral-site games this year, but Tommy Lloyd was savvy enough to schedule a December home game against arch-nemesis Wisconsin. That’s in addition to a road game at Duke.

A year from now, Duke will play at McKale Center. That should keep Wildcat fans happy.