UA HOF inductees winners at games, life
Dave Baldwin was 12-0 when he pitched Tucson High to the 1956 state championship and 10-2 when he pitched Arizona to the championship game of the 1959 College World Series.
It took him more than 50 years to be selected and inducted into the UA’s Sports Hall of Fame. It was a productive period in which he got his masters and doctorate degrees from the UA, pitched six seasons in the major leagues, learned how to play the violin, became an accomplished artist (one of his paintings was put on display at the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York) and wrote a book, “Snake Jazz,” on his life.
When Baldwin was inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday night at the Westin La Paloma, 11 of his UA teammates were in the audience. Talk about having a legacy.
It didn’t take four-time NCAA swimming champ Jean Basson quite as long for induction. The 2008 and 2012 Olympic swimmer, now a financial analyst in Phoenix, returned for the ceremony where his former coach, Frank Busch, greeted him. Busch, now director of USA Swimming’s National Teams, had flown in from Colorado.
The Class of 2015 was typically impressive. Basson earned a finance degree from the UA’s Eller College of Business. Adam Ritter, a former NCAA swimming champion who also returned to Tucson, is now the treasurer of Florida-based RCP Shelters, a firm that designs and builds roofs and shelters for municipalities and cities nationwide. Susan Slaughter, who won the 1990 NCAA golf championship, is the mother of three, married to a man in the Washington D.C. area who owns more than 25 McDonald’s franchises. She also returned to Tucson, this time with her family.
In the end, it’s not about the games and championships they won at Arizona. It’s how well they’ve played the game of life.
