Lute Olson's title run with the 1997 Wildcats was a top moment of Arizona's first 40 years in the Pac-10/12.
Forty years ago this month, Arizona and Arizona State were admitted to the Pac-10. How’d it go?
Basketball
Arizona has gone 492-222 in Pac-10/12 basketball with 15 conference championships and 32 NCAA Tournament appearances. ASU has gone 315-401 with eight NCAA appearances.
Football
Arizona has won 253 games and no outright conference championships. ASU has won 261 games and two conference titles.
Baseball
Arizona has won three NCAA championships. ASU has won one.
Golf
The most distinguished athletes from each school are golfers: Arizona’s Annika Sorenstam and ASU’s Phil Mickelson.
Barry Bonds, in 2005 with the Giants, is one of the most notable ASU alumni.
Heavyweights
The three most well-known sports figures from that 40-year period at each school: At Arizona,ÌýSteve Kerr,ÌýRob Gronkowski and horse trainer Bob Baffert. From ASU, it’s James Harden,ÌýBarry Bonds and the late Pat Tillman.
Showtime
The best move made by Arizona’s athletic department in 40 years: hiring Lute Olson in 1983, changing the image of the school from low-key WAC refugee to that of a big-time winner. It triggered the UA’s growth into a top-10 athletics department from about 1990-2005.
The best move made by ASU’s athletic department, 1978-2018: It took decades. It might be the hiring of athletic director Ray Anderson away from the NFL. After 35 years of one clunker AD after another, the Sun Devils got it right by hiring Anderson to steward the department. He has rebuilt Sun Devil Stadium, hired Bobby Hurley to change the image of Sun Devil basketball, made himself available to the greater Phoenix media and put a face to a long-faceless athletic department lost in a sea of NBA, NFL and MLB news.
Try again
Worst move made by UA in 40 years: Hiring John Mackovic to succeed Dick Tomey as football coach in 2001. In the 20 years before Mackovic, Arizona won 143 games. In the 17 years since it has won 94.
Worst move made by ASU in 40 years: although it had to be done, football coach Frank Kush was dismissed in ASU’s second year in the Pac-10. He had been accused of mental and physical harassment of a punter. Kush was only 50, in the prime of his coaching career. The Sun Devils were a football school ranking above all but USC in the Pac-10. After Kush was forced to resign, the Sun Devils have been ordinary, at best, still searching for a flagship sport.
X's and O's
Best three coaches at Arizona in 40 years: Olson, softball coach Mike Candrea, with eight NCAA championships, and baseball coach Jerry Kindall, with three NCAA titles.
Best three coaches at ASU: women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne, with 462 victories in 22 seasons; baseball coach Jim Brock, who died in 1994 when he was 57. Brock was the national coach of the year in 1981, 1984 and 1988. And baseball coach Pat Murphy, 1995-2009, who won four Pac-10 titles and played in four College World Series.
Highlight reel
Best moment in Arizona’s 40 years in the league: winning the 1997 NCAA basketball championship against Kentucky. Best moment in ASU’s 40 years: winning the 1987 Rose Bowl against Michigan.
Worst moments
Worst moment in UA’s 40 years: The death of women’s basketball player Shawntinice Polk in September 2005. Possibly the best player in school history, Polk died of a pulmonary embolism. In the previous decade, Arizona played in seven NCAA tournaments. Since: none, with no winning conference records.
Worst moment in ASU’s 40 years: basketball player Steven Smith was convicted of point shaving, leading to the firing of basketball coach Bill Frieder, who coached the Sun Devils to the 1995 Sweet 16, a threshold ASU has since been unable to match.
Present day
How do the UA and ASU athletic departments stand today? ASU finished No. 31 overall in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, which measures the total sports performance of each NCAA school. Arizona finished 51st.
Both have become middle-of-the-pack sports institutions, about what you might have predicted 40 years ago.
