Across more than a century of high school sports in Tucson, Jim Flannery was the longest-tenured head coach. A 1966 Salpointe Catholic grad, Flannery was the head coach of Salpointe’s boys basketball team from 1977-93, and was the school’s head boys golf coach from 1981-2020. If my math is correct, that’s 43 years. It exceeds Hall of Fame coaches Dick McConnell (Sahuaro boys basketball, 39 years) and Salpointe boys soccer coach Wolfgang Weber, 41 years and still active. Flannery, who died of melanoma on Aug. 31 at age 77, left much more than longevity as his legacy. He was a standout track and basketball player while at Salpointe, helped the Lancers win state golf championships in 1981 and 2004, and coached the Lancers to 263 basketball victories, after inheriting a team that went 3-19 in 1976. Flannery was widely viewed as “Mr. Lancer†in the high school community. Memorial services are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m. at the Salpointe Catholic gymnasium, 1545 E. Copper Street.
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Ed Nymeyer, left, and Ernie McCray, former Arizona basketball star, in March, 1961 in Tucson.
– Tucson’s Ed Nymeyer led Arizona in scoring in 1956, 1957 and 1958, finished his basketball career as the No. 2 scorer in school history (1,225 points) and was an all-Border Conference selection three years in succession. Now 89, Nymeyer still has a hunger for basketball competition. He usually plays Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon at the Donna R. Liggins Center, 2160 N. Sixth Avenue. There’s one problem: “Most of the guys I’ve been playing with have died or stopped playing basketball; the participation has fallen off like crazy,†Nymeyer says. He invites all basketball players, ages 50 and up, to show up at the Liggins Center for pickup games. “We usually play two-on-two, or whatever we get,†he says. Those interested can call the Liggins Center (520-791-3247) or just show up and play with Nymeyer from about noon to 1:30 p.m.
LSU head baseball coach Jay Johnson smiles during an NCAA regional game against Dallas Baptist on May 31, 2025, in Baton Rouge, La.
– Former Arizona baseball coach Jay Johnson, who has led LSU to a pair of NCAA championships since leaving Arizona five years ago, is now the highest paid college baseball coach. He recently signed a contract that raised his yearly salary from $1.79 million to $3.05 million and has a ceiling of $3.6 million. When Johnson left Arizona, he was being paid $550,000, almost exactly what his successor, Chip Hale is paid now.
– Tim Derksen led Amphitheater’s boys basketball team to back-to-back records of 29-2 and 30-4 in 2011 and 2012, winning the 2011 state championship. In ’12, he was named Arizona’s Gatorade boys basketball player of the year, the last Tucsonan so honored. Derksen, 31, retired this year after a college career with the San Francisco Dons and a decade playing in the EuroLeague. He has moved back to Tucson. On Monday, he will host a webinar called “A Journey to College Athletics,†in which he will partner with Yale basketball coach Brandon Sherrod to discuss how high school athlete recruits can better navigate the recruiting process. The webinar is free and begins at 6 p.m. Monday. You can access it at .
Top 25 Arizona Wildcats sports victories of the quarter-century | Greg Hansen
