Imagine the frustration of 16-year-old Phil Ferranti when he discovered he didnβt make the starting lineup for Tucson Highβs 1958 golf team.
βI shot in the 70s all the time,β he remembers. βI was really upset. But what can you do? I imagine that mightβve been the best high school golf team in Tucson history.β
Ferranti, who would become a golf pro in California, Phoenix and Tucson, and part of the European Senior Tour for eight years β he won the 1993 Switzerland Open and played in the British Open on the sacred golf turf at St. Andrews β wasnβt a late bloomer. It was that Tucson High seniors Dave Leon, Tom Finke, Bob Gaona and Jimmy Gaona mightβve been the four best teenage golfers in Arizona in the 1950s.
They won the 1958 state championship by 42 strokes, a state record that lasted until 1997. They won 56 consecutive matches from 1957-60.
βWhat made that team so appealing in a historic context is that it wasnβt a country club setting,β Finke says now. βThese were young men whose families were on the edge of poverty, living near the El Rio golf course.β
Tucson Highβs administration might not have fully appreciated the greatness of its 1958 golf team. It appointed a history teacher, Don McAlpine, to be the coach. But McAlpine couldnβt break 100.
βMr. McAlpine was basically our bus driver,β says Ferranti, who now operates the El Cisne restaurant in the foothills. βHe got extra money to basically be our chaperone.β
The Badgers of 1958 shot a team average of 73 per round. That was unthinkable then, and now, for a bunch of teenagers. They won every match they played from 1957-60.
βItβs hard to miss when youβve got the golfers like Tucson has,β McAlpine said in a 1958 interview. βWeβve got five boys who can shoot in the 70s. For me to change anything would be like changing Stan Musialβs batting stance.β
Bob Gaona won the 1958 state championship, shooting rounds of 71 and 67 at El Rio, where he had grown up as a caddy β sometimes for 25 cents per round. His brother, Jimmy, also grew up at El Rio, working odd jobs at the course in exchange for a free round of golf in non-prime hours.
Before becoming an accomplished pro golfer, Bob Gaona was a member of arguably the greatest high school golf team in Tucson history β Tucson Highβs 1958 club.
Bob Gaona is probably one of the four or five top Tucson golfers in history. He played on the PGA Tour Champions for five years in the 1990s. He played in the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Had he had access to sponsorship in the 1960s like a dazzling teenage golf pro of the 21st century, he mightβve been a regular on the PGA Tour. He died of cancer in 2017.
Leon was the consensus No. 1 prep golfer in Arizona in those years.
βHe played against Jack Nicklaus in the U.S. Amateur,β says Finke. βHe was second to Nicklaus in the U.S. Junior Amateur. He was the real thing.β
Leon made golf his life. He became a club pro near Seattle for 37 years. He died of ALS in 2011.
Finke became an honorable mention All-American at Arizona in 1961, playing opposite future PGA Tour regular Homer Blancas of Houston, who would go on to become the head pro at the Randolph Golf Complex. But Finke chose to attend law school at Northwestern rather than pursue a golf career. He has been an attorney in Phoenix since 1971.
Not all from the β58 THS championship team turned to golf for a career. Jimmy Gaona opened an auto body shop in Colorado. Dan Hubbard operated a painting company in Tucson.
Phil Ferranti
Itβs not like the β58 Badgers were simply blessed with talent and resources to become elite golfers. They were fortunate to grow up during a period that Tucsonβs junior golf program was headed by Ricki Rarick, who made it possible for junior golfers to play for free in non-prime golf hours at the Tucson city courses.
Their instruction often came β without charge β from Dell Urich, after who the former Randolph South golf course is now named. Urich would set up a practice area on the Randolph driving range and donated his time to the cityβs young golfers of all levels.
After the core of the β58 team graduated from Tucson High, the Badgers havenβt won a state golf championship β or an individual title β for more than 60 years.
βAfter we won it all in 1958, I was the state medalist in 1959,β says Finke. βIt took me until I was a senior to be the No. 1 player on our team. Thatβs how good my teammates were. We just had a bunch of self-taught neighborhood kids. Pretty special, huh?β
