There are levels to sports fandom.
Some are casual watchers and followers of their favorite teams. They may have bobbleheads, posters and some autographs, but it’s not their lifestyle.
Then there’s Arizona booster Paul Volpe.
The UA alumnus has converted a fraternity house on University Boulevard into his family home. Walk inside, and you’ll find a UA-themed pool table, poker table and movie theater and a life-sized teddy bear wearing Marcus Williams’ old No. 3 jersey. Arizona State’s pitchfork logo is plastered inside a nearby toilet.
An Arizona State University logo provides an apt target in Paul Volpe’s UA-themed “man cave.”
Volpe’s basement is a “man cave” years in the making. A wall near the staircase features recent UA basketball posters, a pennant from Arizona’s 1980 national championship baseball team and John “Button” Salmon’s famous “Bear Down” quote on the wall. Near the base of the staircase is a wall with Lute Olson and Dick Tomey art, a basketball signed “ASU Sucks” by Olson, a Khalil Tate-autographed helmet from his 327-yard rushing performance against Colorado in 2017 and former Arizona softball star Jennie Finch’s signed No. 27 jersey, along with other autographs and posters.
A wall made up of event tickets and dozens of Arizona hats and posters leads to a “locker room” filled with game-worn jerseys and shoes. Volpe has a signed 2012 national championship baseball jersey and and a printing plate of the Star’s front page from the day after the Arizona men’s basketball team won the national title in 1997. Turn left and you’ll enter the Bear Down Bar, where Volpe has shared beverages with Luke Walton, Jason Terry, Jason Gardner, Sean Miller, Kyle Fogg, Ira Lee, Keanu Pinder, Jedd Fisch — and most recently new UA coach Tommy Lloyd, who enjoys a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon when relaxing at the Volpes. The Bear Down Bar floor’s is made of old McKale Center hardwood. (More on that later.)
Paul Volpe’s Arizona-themed bar has served beer to Wildcats celebrities — including first-year coach Tommy Lloyd.
“I always have PBR stocked for Tommy,” the 42-year-old Volpe said. “Tommy is awesome. He’s a really nice guy and his family is great. We’re happy to have him here at the U of A.”
Nearby, Volpe has framed UA basketball posters shot by photographer Chris Mooney and a framed (and signed) Steve Kerr warmup pullover. Bricks from the original Old Main building and Rita Hillenbrand Stadium sit on the bar counter near a Rob Gronkowski prayer candle. Past the pool table next to the bar, there’s another room with a large projector screen, a leather couch and a poker table, with a “Gronk” Arizona jersey framed near a USS Arizona football jersey that the Wildcats wore once, in 2016.
Like a lot of Tucsonans, Volpe — an Amphi High School and UA grad who is now a senior loan officer at Nova Home Loans — has been a Wildcats fan since birth. He started following the Wildcats’ more intently in 1988, when Kerr and Sean Elliott took the Wildcats to their first Final Four.
“Those were the years,” Volpe said. “Pretty good time to become a fan when you’re 7 or 8 years old.”
Volpe attended games when he could afford to buy the tickets.
While Volpe was a student at the UA, he worked as a lot attendant for auto dealer Jim Click. Volpe’s older brother Jon, who played football at Stanford in the mid-1990s, joined Nova Home Loans in 1995 and soon recruited Paul to work for the company. Paul Volpe switched his major from veterinary science to to finance and went into the mortgage business as a 19-year-old.
Volpe has worked for Nova for 23 years. His success has allowed him to pursue his passion for the Wildcats. Volpe proposed to his wife, Briana, at McKale Center with Wilma T. Wildcat standing beside them. The Volpes’ rehearsal dinner was held at the Jim Click Hall of Champions.
The Volpe family takes a custom UA golf cart — also known as the “Cat Cart” — from their home to nearly every Arizona home sporting event. A gate to their backyard is adorned with the Greek letters for Beta, Theta, Phi and Delta. That’s BTFD — or “Bear the (expletive) Down.”
A sign using fraternity letters Beta, Theta, Phi and Delta — which spells “BTFD” — hangs on a wood gate outside of University of Arizona fan Paul Volpe’s home.
One of Volpe’s favorite pieces of memorabilia has a deeply personal meaning.
Volpe’s late father, James, won a Lute Olson-signed basketball through a charity drawing following Arizona’s national title in 1997. Before the older Volpe died of cancer in 1999, he gifted Paul the basketball, which has become the centerpiece of his collection.
“It’s pretty special, and that’s what started the collection. That’s definitely the main thing,” Volpe said. “If the house is burning, I’m going in to grab that thing and then grab anything else I can.”
Another favorite: Volpe’s so-called “lucky Arizona hat.” Volpe wore it during the births of his three children Jack, Ella and Lute. That’s right: Volpe’s youngest son is named after the legendary coach.
“I’ve had a lot of highs and a lot of lows in that hat,” he said. “I put it to bed when it started to crack and I couldn’t wear it anymore.”
Volpe discovered the old McKale Center floor was being stored in a warehouse in Denver and paid roughly $8,000 for 1,500 square feet of the historic hardwood to be installed in the bar. He put the leftover planks in storage for future use.
A sign with John “Button” Salmon’s “Bear Down” quote is front and center in Paul Volpe’s home.
Not every Arizona fan is at Volpe’s level of collecting, but many have their own cherished pieces of memorabilia. The Star asked fans on social media to share their favorite treasures, and they responded.
Don Ramsower tweeted a photo of a signed Kerr Arizona jersey, while Dan Pate showed off a piece of net from the Wildcats’ win over North Carolina in the ’88 Elite Eight to advance to the program’s first-ever Final Four. Like Volpe, Kristiana Molina first fell in love with Arizona basketball in 1988, when she wrote a letter to Kerr asking him to visit her elementary school.
“Later that year, we go to the Final Four, Kerr visits my school and just like that I’m a Wildcat for life,” Molina tweeted, along with a signed photo of the 1988 team.
Among Paul Volpe’s most treasured items is a colorful autograph — “ASU sucks — Bear Down, Go Cats!” — from Lute Olson.
While some luck their way into acquiring UA basketball memorabilia, it quickly became an obsessive hobby for Volpe.
“I’ve just collected over the years. A lot of late nights on eBay or Etsy,” Volpe said. “I have friends and people who just contact me now.”
Added Briana Volpe: “At this point, people know how much he loves the U of A and the shrine he has. People will find stuff and be like, ‘Hey, Paul, I got you this centerpiece.’ … Shopping for him is easy.”
A sign instructing a bottle of 15-year-old Pappy Van Winkle whiskey not be opened until Arizona makes the Final Four or the Rose Bowl sits in Paul Volpe’s “man cave.”
Even though space for additional collectibles is limited, Volpe is always on the hunt for more. His next addition: Lloyd’s play-calling sheet from his first-career win at Arizona in November.
“It’s stuff like that you can’t find. … It’s cool, because it’s worthless but priceless,” Volpe said of Lloyd’s play card. “He told me, ‘I want to give this to you so you can put it in your bar.’”
A deep postseason run could deliver more goodies to the Bear Down Bar inside Volpe’s home.
For an Arizona diehard like Volpe, the collecting — and the winning — brings back childhood memories.
University of Arizona fan Paul Volpe, second from the left, poses for a portrait with his family, from left to right, son Jack, 6, daughter Ella, 9, wife Bri, son Lute, 4, and their dog JoJo inside their home theater room at their campus-area home.
“It’s really not about the ‘stuff’ when compared to the memories each piece reminds you of,” Volpe said. “Things come and go, but you can never lose those moments in time, whether it was going to see Sean Elliot and Steve Kerr with my dad back in the day to the first game with my then-girlfriend — now wife — to taking our kids to games turning them into a new generation of Wildcat fans.
“The cycle continues and, unfortunately, I still have wall space to fill.”
Paul Volpe proposed to his wife, Briana, at McKale Center with Wilma T. Wildcat standing beside them