This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R two SA at iHeartRadio Station. Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to Eye
on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's
jigensaus that our guys sit in today for the whole two hours, fifteen minutes.
Now, I think we're gonna have I think we're gonna I'm looking forward
to the show, looking forward to I've never really spoken to her. Stacey.
Uh the Snowden, Yes, the Staate Snowden. Did you go to
the to the I did not go to that. That was fantastic. The
presentation I did in the kind of the films and the stuff, it was
fantastic. I didn't know a lot of the stuff because I wasn't here.
You'll probably go through some memory lane type of stuff. I feel like I
need to give her a little grief about the warm up she designed one year,
which for well nutty Okay, so we'll talk about that. She will
say, I gotta go do that at the end exactly you'll hang up.
Yeah, looking forward to that. And then at four fifteen we have Bob
Kemp from Phoenix, uh the radio station up there. We'll see what's going
on in the Great Phoenixes. We're ended up there. There's a little little
event going on up there. Yeah, in the next couple like other places
that have been to a few of them. And we talked about this with
Jay Jay uh with her name Jay the organizing committee. Yes, that it's
difficult and you've been too, Hay J. Perry, Yeah, exactly where
you have events in different locations, so you don't get the true feel of
the Final Four, right because a lot of things are being downtown and the
games are in Glendale at the arena. I know it's gonna be fun down
at the arena area. Yeah, but a lot of the fun is downtown
too, So we'll talk about that. Yeah, that's just only great.
But you know in you wonder you know what the city is big as Phoenix.
If people notice that the event is there, No, then that's where
I wanted to go with the because in New York I had it in nineteen
ninety five UCLA one. I think they're New York. Here's don't give a
craft. Yeah, you didn't know. We got got a bus. We
drove to New Jersey, came back and it was like, okay, it's
Tuesday. Yeah you know, yeah, no, I hear you. It's
it's yeah. Is it? Uh? Is it? Uh? You know,
does Joe Schmoe, Phoenix resident who lives over you know, Peoria whatever,
know that the Final four is there? And does he care or care
right that that that's an event that you know, hundreds of millions of people
are going to be paying attention to. Is is is there? You know?
The super Bowl? Right? Right? So we'll talk about that.
I will know more. You know. The one thing is you're leaving tonight
to get there, right, and I'm leaving in the morning, and I
already dread the traffic. You live where you live where I live in Gilbert,
So I take that same route though. Yeah it's just a pain and
trucks and yeah, yeah, it's just a mess, especially we go downtown.
Yeah. Us, we've got to you know, we're staying We're staying
out by the airport. Uh. And we're gonna have you know, we're
gonna gonna have a commute. We're gonna have to be to the arena or
to the stadium, but I think nine o'clock in the morning, so it's
that right, gonna be fun traffic getting out to getting out there. That's
how I was gonna leave, Like at seven, I say, is why
would I do that? Could you get there right? And how we follow
you? Yeah? No, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait. Yeah,
but you know what, what if you're coming from Tucson, you you
take that that the cutoff or the cutoff and go around. You know we're
gonna cut right through Phoenix. Yeah, come down and go to the cutoff.
Out of the final fourth that you guys have covered. Where do where
do you think this one will will rank as far as the team's in it
and the kind of the energy around it, that's hard to say. I
think that's going to depend on whether Purdue and yukon't get into the championship game.
If that's not the championship game, and not to say that the other
teams if they get there, don't deserve it or whatever, But if it's
Yukon against North Carolina State or Purdue against Alabama, I think that's take a
lot of the juice out of this I think people are waiting to see a
Yukon produce. And it's very rare that the one and two teams at the
beginning of the year get there. And we were there. Did you go
to Minnesota? No, so Minnesota. Arizona was in one of those Arizona
versus Duke. It was like the top two teams throughout the year, and
you knew they were the best teams. They got there and it was a
good game until it wasn't. You know, it all depends. It could
be. You know, let's say we have two compelling games on Saturday,
and you know, and Howeverard winds up. So it's hard to know in
terms of the teams that are there, you know, I mean, you
might have wanted to see North Carolina there or Arizona. You might have wanted
to see Houston there. You know, the teams that have been were really
great throughout the season, but they're not. But still the one and two
seeds are there, and so we'll say, but I'm looking forward to it.
You know, I've gone past the you know, the the what the
five or seven stages of grief on Arizona, you know, because I mean,
you know, when when Arizona was out. It was like, not
only did they lose, but crap, they're not at the final four.
And this is the second time this happened to us, Like, you know,
I was I worked the final four last time and they got beat in
the sweet sixteen that year unexpectedly. So that's kind of a drag, but
but we're gonna have fun. I'm looking forward to it. You bring that
up, and I know it's a wee could go now, we could go
today. Now. They were losing at this time. Uh do you remember
that one? And that was the one in San Jose. I think they
lost to Xavier, right that Xavier at San Do you remember I stayed?
You stayed because you were The disappointment was the same as this or more.
I think it was more, Yeah, because that was a pretty good team.
Yeah, that was a really good tream And and it was Xavier,
Yeah, and his old place, his old place, and people were like,
you know, it's Xavier, you should be able to beat these guys.
You know, I think I think they people had less, Uh,
they thought less of Xavier than they thought of Clemson this time around, you
know, and then people are mistakenly thinking that if Arizona, you know,
beat Gonzaga, that they were going to handle Gonzaga, which I again don't
think that would happened. Uh So, I don't know. I don't know.
And it's kind of the way they lost it too, right when,
yeah, they had the lead, they had the lead, they didn't you
know, and then all of a sudden, you know, Larry Market and
top kating the ball and they lost. You can't you can't say he didn't
score. He never got the ball. He didn't get the ball, So
you know, it was it was that kind of a thing. So I
don't know, I think they're pretty pretty close to equal because they I I
mean, do we think that people that people thought Arizona could win the national
championship in twenty seventeen, Oh h yeah, yeah, because it was another
perfect It was a perfect road. Although although the next game would have been
Gonzaga, right, and you're thinking, no, I'm not too sure.
But you had to see them first, Yes, you had to see them.
That was when I saw them. They walked on the court and I'm
like, there is a bunch of old guys, hes, a bunch of
men, men playing against a bunch of boys. Yeah, so you've noticed
too. I'm sure after all the stories to this point that you know,
everyone has their transfers, everybody has their blah blah blah. But the teams
that succeed are the ones that are older. Yeah, older, older,
yeah, yeaheah. Yeah, and Arizona had some old guys and some young
guys. But still I think that's what wins games. Yeah, older veteran
know how to get here type of things. Yeah, and and and the
and the Calipari Sean Miller. Things don't work anymore or maybe they never did.
Yeah, well, you know that's that's what you're finding out, is
that you know, you know, I mean, what is Zach thirty two
years old? You know? Probably the ages I think are the grade of
the most of the average of the starters of the teams that made the lead
day, I believe was mostly seniors and and mostly chancewers as well. So
I think that's why I was a little more disappointed as well when Arizona loss
last week. Yeah, because while the young guys may be incredibly talented anything
for young guys are really really damn good when it comes to, you know,
time to do this. You know, the guys who've been around and
who aren't rattled as easily and stuff like that are the ones that win these
tournaments. Right. Well, and let me give you some grief because because
I gave you group before the game on the Sweet sixteen, the experience that
that Caleb and they had the experience that played it. You know what I
meant, not a damn thing, j No, But here's what it meant.
It meant it would have been worse if they didn't have that experience.
Well, it kept it kept him in the game. You know, you
spint it as you are spit it, But it didn't it didn't matter that
everybody but Bradley played well, yeah, you know, and kJ played well
too, they did, you know. And there's a and there's still a
lot to look forward to with this with this team, but they're losing four
guys that were key to this team. But you know, the way things
are now, you know, you can go where rebuild this really fast,
right, go get some more And that's the way. That's the way it's
gonna be, Steve. I mean, yes, you're gonna continue to recruit
the high schools and try and develop those guys, but you know what,
how many of these three guys that are coming in with Tommy this year,
I think they're one and dones. Yeah, majority of them, at least
two. I think you're you're assuming at least two of them, right,
Yeah, so you know, you're kind of like content between a rock and
a hard place. I gotta go get some guys that can help me.
Now. I do want to develop these guys, but I don't know how
long they're gonna be here. And then that's a God, that's just gotta
be such a hard way to have to coach and manage your Yeah, you
you didn't start coaching with this in mind, right, you just kind of
like, you know, get them, teach them, coach them, and
move one. Yeah so I I you know, but let me take something.
They make a lot of money, a lot of money they you,
and and that's it. If you're if you're if you're bitching about it,
if you're a coach and you're making three four five million dollars and you're complaining
about it, stop, okay, stop, nobody's going to listen to your
complaining. Just deal with it, do the job as best you can,
and if you get fired because you're not doing it well, enough. Well,
I hope you saved your money, right right, Yeah, I don't
feel sorry for rich people. Yeah, so no, I think you know,
I I want to see what these teams look like on the floor,
right. I can't say that, but you get you get enough. But
I don't feel like you get enough of when you see him on TV.
You don't really get a sense of, yah, who they are. I
get a sense that once you see Connecticut, you goetna say, I get
it. I remember these guys from last year. I mean, just the
way in which they're winning these games. It doesn't seem like it's right.
It's just they're on a different planet right now, no question. The funny
thing, if they don't do it, you'll say, how did this team
exactly right? And that's a possible. Yeah, because Alabama goes off and
they made they make their threes. You say, oh, that's the kryptonite,
and it's everybody's krypt Nite, right, Hey, yeah, kryptonite for
everybody. If a team shoots fifty eight percent from three pointers, right,
that beats anyone. And Krypto Knite self imposed is when you shoot eighty percent
exactly. Okay, cool, you keep bringing that crap up. I'm just
pointing it out. I don't want to talk to you the rest of the
day. I'll see what Phoenix to work. Don't talk to me there.
But I'm like, you know, here's what I like. You know,
I've been listening to stuff all week, you know, podcasts, you know,
uh, you know, radio shows, TV shows, and so like
everybody's talking about the Final four. Are also talking a lot about the women's
Final Four. But to go up there and be in the middle of all
that, I'm really looking forward to that. It's gonna be fun. You
know. It's funny that I was. I was joking with my with my
wife because I was telling you, I I'll send it one three. I
realized I had to get to the studio and I hadn't even packed yet.
I'm like, I've been planning to go to this Final four for three years
and here it is. I'm in a hurry, and I hope I got
everything. I don't know. We'll see, but it's Phoenix, right.
If I need something to can buy it somewhere a little pricey, though,
take a little more cash. There is civilization of our stores. If I'm
short on something I don't want to see you in five thousand dollars boots.
I think I got enough underwear, so I'm good. That's what really matters.
And then sque sequina shirt. Yeah, we're getting We're getting some gear
up there. But now I'm looking forward to Stacy Snowden. You know,
I mean I remember when you know, she was growing up here, uh
with the rest of us, you know, uh and and uh she was.
She was kind of visible with the team back then. You know,
I said, I think she I think she designed you know, the sweats
for the warm ups for one of the teams. I can't remember what year,
but you know, that kind of stuff. It was cool that she
had that relationship with him, for her to be able to do stuff like
that and be a part of the program, which is very cool. So
I'm looking forward to talking to her about it. About her dad, you
know, he was he was a big deal for US man well he was
and a very iconic. He wasn't a tall guy, right, no,
but but even if you didn't know that, he stood tall, and it
was like this powerful, powerful guy he was. He was in it.
To me, the first really big celebrity sports figure that I can remember,
right, I mean, we had the pro golf tournaments come through and stuff
like that. But in terms of somebody who was here who was really famous
in not just in the Tucson sports world, but the overall sports world,
he was like the first one that I can that comes to mind for me.
That makes sense, right, you know, because Arizona football was in
the whack. You know, there were some guy you know, the coaches
weren't particularly uh well known, but he got here and he brought a not
a circus but a sort of a it was a show, right, He
brought a show to Tucson with with the basketball team, and they became they
were celebrities in town. You know, he was doing TV commercials. Yeah,
well look at them now. So that makes sense. That's that's a
good observation because uh who was before who? It was a Larsen, right,
yeah, Bruce Larson. And he was just just a simple guy who
just wanted like a high right, and he was not not kind of tumbleway.
I mean I didn't go the first you have a basketball game I ever
went to was a friends to see a Fred's Snowden team. I never went
to a game that Bruce Larson coached. Okay, well, let's go.
All right, let's start. Take a break. We're gonna come back with
Stacy Snowden, the daughter of the former coach, late coach Fred Snowden,
whose birthday was yesterday, which is why we decided to give Stacy a call.
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the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagin's sound Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now
to the podcast on the iHeartRadio while just surgery I on the Ball. Hey,
welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.
I'm Steve. He's Jay. Now on the phone, we have Stacy Snowden,
Fritz Doden's daughter. Great to talk to you. Stacy. Hello,
great to be here. Thanks for having me today. How long this is
a dumb question. Sorry, I'll just say how long has basketball been in
your life? But it's been forever. And I asked that question because you're
headed to the Final four like some of us. I sure am, she
headed to the final four. When I get off the phone with you,
that's no matter of fact. Well, so, yesterday was your dad's birthday,
which is why we thought, you know, we'd give you try and
give you a call. You know, he was such a part of so
many people's lives here in Tucson. You know, as you sit here today,
what do you think about his legacy not only in college basketball, but
in Tucson, Arizona. You know, my father came there and just really
took on quite a task, you know, in Toufon. You know,
as you know, Tufon was not a basketball town. It was a tall
order, you know, without having any kind of fan base. Bear down
gym that what did it? See? A thousand people and you know you've
merely got a thousand people in there. And I just remember my father working
so hard in the community to build some excitement, to build a fan base.
He was everywhere throughout town. He'd go to school, he went to
laundry maps, he'd go to the seven eleven, he went just everywhere in
town to build enthusiasm and excitement. You know, that a hard task.
I mean, Arizona I think was six and twenty the year before he got
there, so he was a busy guy really trying to build some excitement for
the community there, and he certainly did that. And then have that you
know, first season as a winning season, I think the regular they were
sixteen and ten, so that that really helped things off there. So tell
her about your your celebrity thing. Well, here here's and it's interesting that
you brought that up about how much he was around town. When did when
did when did your dad get seventy three three? I think right nineteen seventy
three, seventy two. Okay, I was thirteen years old when he got
here, and and to you know, I was born here, native here.
I was thirteen year old when he got here. And to me growing
up here, he to me, he was like the first sports celebrity in
Tucson, a guy who thought, you thought, he's not only the basketball
coach, he's kind of famous. Everybody knows who he is, right,
you know, because football and basketball and other u of a sports, you
know, weren't here. The Tucson Toros were here, but those players would
come and go. So he was to me, he was like the first
guy that, you know, the first some first person who lived in Tucson
whose autograph you wanted to get. I guess it's sort of the way to
put that. And and he established that, and because of that, you
know, the basketball program became what it became. You know, it became
a big thing for this town. And I've always thought that about him because
he was, like he said, he was on TV everywhere, he was
going to places, and you just saw him and you thought this is this
guy's really famous, and not just famous in Tucson, but famous all over
the place. That's how I thought about it. Well, and that's true
because you know, he brought a lot of national attention to Tinson and to
University of Arizona and their basketball program, you know, et cetera. Yes,
he was on TV and stuff every day or every other day there in
Tucson. But he was in the national media a lot too, you know,
the national magazines and so on and so forth. So yeah, I
guess he was pretty famous. It really was. You were a young girl
at that time. How was it sharing him because obviously when you're at that
position, you kind of have to live their life, so you know,
you had to share them with everybody did. But you know, it was
something that I was used to because you know, I grew up with that,
you know, when he was a coach in Michigan, had to share
him, So it was it became a little more difficult bear in Tucson because
the demands were so heavy on him and his time, but you know,
he he did the best he could to give his time to everyone, including
me. So yeah, well let me ask you, because you know,
Luke left Iowa. And one of the reasons was he couldn't go to dinner
without people pestering him, you know. And let me say, and this
is kind of how he said it. He'd be at dinner with Bobby and
maybe the family. Excuse me, Doe, I hate to bother you,
but I'm going to bother you. Did that happen a lot here in Tucson,
Oh, all the time? And you know, you'd be sitting at
dinner and people would rush up and they'd want autographs and so forth, and
it's like, you know, I kind of have a fork in my mouth
right now, right yeah, Just so you know, I never did.
I never did get close enough to him to get an autograph. I wasn't
one of the one who bothered you. But let me ask you, when,
Okay, you're in Michigan and your dad says we're going to Tucson,
Arizona, what's the family thinking, Well, you know, we almost didn't
go. Dave Strack had talked my dad into this. My dad accepted the
job, and then he sat down with my mom and the night before he
was applied to Tucson to do the press conference and the official accepting of the
job and so forth. He changed his mind. Wow, and he thought,
this is really a lot to take the family from everything we know,
you know, all of our family, all of our roots here, and
go all the way across country to this unknown place. You know, we
don't really know what we're getting into there. And my mother actually he told
my mom, I'm not I think I'm gonna tell you if I changed my
mind, I'm not going to do it. They sat up all night long
and talked about it. My mother talked him into doing it. Wow.
He's like, you've worked hard for this, you deserve this. You know,
this is for opportunity. We will be fine, don't worry about us.
You need to do this for yourself. And that's how he ended up
going. But he almost did me. I think it's fine. Would have
changed the world because, as we've said, and we know some of the
others like Bob Elliott have said, if there's no Fred Snowden in Tucson,
there's no Ludelson in Tucson. And I truly believe that. And we talked
about how this community has changed because of what basketball has done for it,
starting with you know what your dad did, and then you know what what
Luke, you know, kept kept going. So I man, I if
it was that close, I'm a little I'm a little upset about finding out
about this. You know, forty years they'll make a book. That'll make
a book done the world, no question if it hasn't. It was such
a thing to go from some bear now when you know, when I was
a kid, I remember our first season there and bear Down and excitement started
to build and people wanted to see you know, this this team, and
they were winning games, and I can remember there were people lined up and
down the street because they couldn't get into bear Down. It was full,
right, and they'd actually line up all around bear Down and down the street
and listened for you know, the cheers and they knew something good was going
on, you know, and this is what the Kale was being constructed.
So my dad then had to come in and find fifteen thousand of you to
come and enjoy the games, which he did, I mean, you know,
sold out. Do you know that my father still holds the all time
attendance record in the Kale? Yeah, I remember two all time attendance record.
You're probably be right because at that time there were the capacity was over
a thousand more than it is now. It was fifteen and change and now
it's fourteen and chained, So that wouldn't surprise me. That does not surprise
me at all. When you think, if you kind of you know,
you kind of know. Okay, so what did what did you think of
Tucson when you got here and maybe maybe after you'd been here a while and
kind of got the lay of the land, what what were your impressions and
what did you think about it? Oh? Boy, that's a good question.
I did not like it, Okay, that not fair enough. Hated
it, But it was because of the unique an awful experience that we were
going through, you know, as a family. I had never experienced that
kind of racism. Yeah, yeah, and it was frightening. You know.
We thought death threats all the time. That's said to hear now even
now it still really is and I'm really yeah, I mean it was really
awful. We had to I had to evacuate my house so many times.
There were always death threats, bomb threats, fire threats. I can remember
going to school and having police officers on the playground. At one point,
the FBI had to get involved because the death threats were so prevalent. Wow.
Wow, So it was you know, it was that was really hard.
And then I was moved around to a lot of schools when we first
got there because of the racism, because of the death threats, kidnapped threats,
all of these type of things. And I finally got put into a
private school, private Lutheran school where you know, I could be a little
more protected. Well, and we talk about today's social media stuff, and
how do you get through that, right right? Yeah, yeah, it's
something you definitely don't have to deal with. They shouldn't have to deal with.
Yeah, no question. And it's amazing because nowadays, okay, anybody
can sit behind a computer that can type them really fast and you know,
send out a death threat and so forth. It just always stunned me back
in those days. You know, people would write these letters. It's like
what you're sitting down, You're writing a letter saying all these awful, horrible
things. You know, you're going to slip my father's throat, You're going
to do all of these things inward, inward, inward, And then you
actually took the time to address that, put a stamp on it, and
go put it in the mailbox at some point it didn't stop and think,
okay, wait, maybe I'm going a little far with us. So it
was scary, no question. So he would have been eighty eight, is
that correct? Correct? Correct? And I think I remember the day he
passed. I don't remember how long ago, but we were in Los Angeles.
I was with the team and George Colil, the late great George Collier
got the news and he was distraught and he flew right back and he never
missed his games. So you knew it was a big deal. And I'm
not from here, but I was covering the team for a long time,
and that's kind of when I kind of realized, you know, this is
a big deal, a big deal, you know. Also it was it
was January seventeenth, ninety four, and that was the day of the big
north Ridge earthquake, oh wow, in California. And my father happened to
be in Washington, d C. On that day and he was getting He
was there to see the president the vice president, and they were giving him
an award for all of the community work that he had done here in Los
Angeles. At that time, he was with Food for Less and he ran
their foundation and the LA Unified School District sports programs were really in financial ruins
at that time, and so father got the company to put together like a
million dollars or something grant, which was a lot of money then to help
stade the LA Unified well District sports program. So that's why he was actually
there in d C and the earthquake hit on that day. He was in
d C there there, it was Yeah, it was right right. So
what you know, what do we not know about your dad that you would
want this community or this town to know about him, you know, in
terms of, you know, I don't know what kind of a daddy was,
what kind of a coach he was, how he how he lived here,
what he liked about the place, what he didn't like about What would
you want us to know about him? You know? I think how people
throughout the years, wherever I travel, I go back to Detroit, I'd
be at the airport, you know, checking in for a flight, and
someone recognizes my name and they'll say, are you Fred's daughter? And they
have stories to tell me about you know, they remember him when he was
coaching Northwestern High School in Degreat and followed his journey to Michigan followed his journey
to Arizona, and so many of these people have just different stories that they
tell me of how the interaction with my father really changed the victory of their
lives. And to just have that kind of influence and impact on people and
young people and youth and take them throughout your career from Arizona to California is
just incredible. That that's incredible legacy. It's funny. I to the coaching
and all of that. It's the kind of person that he was. He
would and talk to anybody, anybody that problem, that had an issue.
My dad was listen and to help. Wow. Yeah, well, I
was telling Jay before you came on. I wasn't around at that time.
I said, he he was a smaller, smaller man. He said,
yes, but he had this presence about him that made him bigger. Oh
yeah, he did, he did. He doesn't was an athlete as well,
and he was a basketball player. He was a star basketball player and
baseball player. And because he was smaller, you know, he had to
find ways to stand out, right, you know, we are on the
baseball field. You know, baseball was his real love. He was actually
drafted by the Tigers. Wow, what position? What position he did?
He didn't have any interest in, you know, going through the farm system
and all that kind of stuff, especially back then. What position did you
play? He was? He played short, short second. Yeah, so
the benefit you had here, I don't know. Two three years ago.
It was fantastic with all the guys coming back, and it was I was
at that it was like, hold the crap, this is a this is
a cool deal. Oh wasn't that fun? Yeah? That was so neat
to get all those guys together. Yeah, we had a couple of them
after the Harris. I think it was getting we've had money on. We
had Herman Harris. Yeah, Bob on all the time, Bob Alliot on
all the time. Yeah. Okay, before you go, because we're about
out of time. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta ask you about
those the warm ups that you designed that one year, right, didn't Did
you do that every year? Just the one year I did that one year?
Gosh, I can't remember the year it was, but yeah, I
got to do that because you know, my dad there with Nike and just
had an opportunity to do it, and so I said sure. It actually
came out of I had previously done a design of T shirts for football.
It's when we knocked off USC when they were ranked number one in the country,
and my girlfriend and I said, I was my gosh, we should
do something for this. And I asked my dad. I said, yeah,
do you think you know Nike would help with this? He goes,
All you can do is ask, And so I did that. We designed
these shirts and all that I gave into the football players on campus and stuff,
and then you know, came around the time to design uniforms. I
said, okay, sure, I love them. Some people hate it.
It just I just remembered that they were let's just say interesting. Well,
you know, we needed a little flare. They had flair. I remember
they had flair. Well, I have to go back and see what those
looks. I have to see what that was great. It was great.
And I just remember this, well, yeah, your friend's started design.
Doesn't that cool? You know we have a chance to do that. Were
you the l s U coach Molky before Molchy with mol Oh? God,
no, we want to take Well, thank you very much. This has
been fun, Stacy. This was fun. It's great to talk to you.
So we'll see you at the Final four. Maybe we'll be there.
We'll look for you. Great, we will thank you. Take care by
Stacy Still. That was fun. I know we could. We could go
off for everyone. That's fine, all right, we're gonna take our break.
We'd love to hear hear from you. Five TUESDAYO four one six seventy
four to forty. Reminder, this is our last show of the week,
Steve, the last show until Tuesday. Steve and I will be gone tomorrow
and Monday at Final four. So if you want to get them some time
on the show, give us a call. Five t zero four and sixty
when we're right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know
it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the
Loudolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a
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online today at a teamsecurity dot net. Steve Rivera and Jacob Salis. They
have their eye on the ball on Tucson's Sports Stage. Chef Fox Sports fourteen
to fifteen. Hey, welcome back to win the ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jay got sid with us today thirteen minutes.
If you guys want to give us a quick call. Do you have
any memories of or lasting memories of the Snowden era? Do you like to
tell us? That'd be great? Yea, it was a cool time,
you know, as mentioned, you know he I was thirteen, fourteen years
old. The first game I went to was that Michale. They were playing
by Ull. It was seventy two, like you should, but seventy two
seventy three read the end. It was after the first thing into seventy three.
That's when Michael opened. And it was it wasn't it was, you
know, it was brand new, and I remember just being in awe of
the place where you know, how you if you go up on the concourse
and you look in and the whole arena is below ground. And to me,
I was fascinated by that because I you know, I thought, okay,
you see the building from the outside and I thought, well, how
big can it be? And then you walk in and it was massive,
and it was like god, and it was like nothing I'd obviously ever seen
it before. I think I think bear Down held twenty five hundred or a
twenty five hundred. And then you also you go to a fifteen thousand seat
arena and it was crazy. And we remember my brother Ed he said,
you know, let's go to a game, and we didn't have tickets and
he had to go buy tickets from a from a scalp right then he paid
that he had to take above market and it was like ten bucks per ticket,
you know. And and we went in and we sat in the you
know, we were in the in the in the in the upper level,
and but I was in awe of the building. Yeah, no, it
really was in awe of the building. And you know what, they made
some nice renovations. It's nice. In fact, in our book that Anthony
and I wrote, we wrote about Mikail so many so much history. And
it's funny because I think the Tempe building the arena was built about the same
time, if not a little laughter and that's a dumb yeah, yeah,
I mean, I'm not trying to be. Yeah, it was really taking
care of the building. Yeah, you know, and it was it's funny
too because you walk in and it was to me it was like, Okay,
why are some seats yellow? I understand why some seats are red,
right, and why some seats are blue, But why are the bunch of
yellow? You get that answer, But what's what the lower the low the
lowest bowl. So it was yellow. And then there was a level of
red seats, and then a level of blue seats. Well, there were
still there's no longer any yellow, right, no, but there used to
be yellow seats at the top well, the and then the the sideline seats
at the very top were also yellow. Those are still chair backs. Then
the rest of the seats in the upper level were bleacher seats, and and
but it was you know, again just the I was just you know,
awestruck by the by the building. And then you know, then became a
thing where you know, would would ride the the number eight bus down Broadway
to Campbell and walk up and go to games and would just go and we
had a great time on a great campus back then, you know, back
in the seventies. It was kind of the start of where you thought Arizona
sports were starting to get There was no long Dusty too. Football was still
in the whack. But you know, as U was doing some things that
was bringing attention to the whack because they were really good. And so that
was when you really started, Okay, we might be growing up and it
was cool, cool, And then again the the just the show that Fred
Snowden's teams put on. Yeah, and they could they could rival a lot
of Arizona's teams in recent years because they ran and they ran and did a
lot of things. Right. I mean again, if you if you want
to rank shooters in the history of Arizona, there's three Cornel Corneil, Steve
Kerr, and Selim Stodder. Where did where did Herman Harris fell below that
because he didn't make as many, but he shot as many, but he
didn't make as many, but his range, I guess his range was incredible,
but he wasn't as good as shooter in terms of how many he made
shot from everywhere. You know, I've never really watched the video of I'm
sure they have it somewhere, maybe even just kind of video of games games,
but you know, it was it had this weird floor. It was
like a rubber. It was called Tartan. That's funny you say that.
You how do you remember this because you can't remember your name. That was
part of the book. I did some research for it. There was rubber
and they had to tear it to tear it out, and then they brought
in they bought a wood court that had been at the convention Center and and
that was the court for a long time until they actually put a wood floor
down many years later. I remember the some of those things, Steve,
but again, it was the thing that to me, the arena was a
point of pride, you know, for for it was probably the epicenter of
the of the sports world. Was the point of pride for the community because
one it was way better than when a su had right and then to the
basketball team was just good. And I could be wrong. You have to
have the media gut here, but I think it going to cost eight million
at the time, well, which is a lot of money then, but
now it's I mean it was cool to me too, because you know,
Son Construction built it, and my dad worked for Son. Now he didn't
work on the on the building, he worked on the freeway for them.
But to me, it was like cool because hey, my dad worked for
the company they built McKay and that was another thing that was you know,
that was really cool. Yeah, but it was just it was just a
big It was a big deal, and all of a sudden you felt big
time. And then, you know, then seventy six, I think they
go to the Elite eight, right, and they play U C l A.
Yeah, you know, it's like, this is a big deal after
beating in Vegas. Yeah, in a great game. Also, this was
a big basketball was a big deal in this town, right, you know,
and then and then got you know, got even bigger when they got
into the back twelve and then they beat you CLS. I mean, it
was just that It's sort of you felt like Tucson grew up a whole bunch
because of that. And maybe I'm making more of it because I love sports
and you know, it's been big, but I don't think, you know,
I think the average person who've lived here through those times would say that
Tucson got bigger because because of Michaale, because what was going on with basketball.
They were on TV, Yeah, all that stuff and all that because
Fretz Norton came here and did such a great job. I drove through here
as a kid in seventy five. My parents took us to Disneyland, you
know, from New Mexicoo came through I ten, and i remember pass seeing
through Tucson and I'm thinking, God, it's hot here, and you could
see this, you know, the city from the freeway. Obviously, I
think this is a hot here, but it's kind of cool because the city's
right there, right there. You know. I'm a small town guy and
I'm thinking, know, who knows? And then years later, like to
me, being able to see the stadium when they built the upper deck on
the stadium okay, which was I think in seventy five or seventy six,
maybe the west east, the east side, when they built the east side
of the east side, Yeah, right, and you could see the stadium
from different parts of town. As a kid, to me, that was
really good. I was like, God, we're getting you know, we're
really big. And as a kid, you you think of things. You
know, you go into your high school gym, it's big. Big.
As you get older, you go in and it's not as big as you
think it was, you know, But as a kid, everything is coverything
is big. Wow. Yeah, yeah, everything was big and so it
was it was it was just again, it was just the time that you
felt like Arizona Tucson was was really you know, maturing, really growing up
and and as you know, me being a teenager during that time, it
had a huge impact on huge impact of it was very cool. I loved
it. It was. It was fun again. If you want to call,
we have five minutes five to two oh four one six seventy four forty
we'd like to hear from you. We have Bob Kemp in about half hour,
about half hour to talk about what's going on in Phoenix. We'll have
sid with some breaking news. A lot of things going on right basketball wise
too. Yeah, nothing local. I think I got a message from about
Boswell the news, any news. I haven't heard any news, so yeah,
no, you know, what do you mean? Not? Yeah,
I mean, but you know he's got time to look. If you're kind
of Boswell, you're looking around, oh yeah, to see what's out there
for you. If you're not. If you're not, then you know you're
you're you're doing an injustice to yourself because you know there are opportunities out there
and like anybody else, it's become a job. Yeah, especially when you
compare it to football last year. You know, there's a bunch of guys
that probably reached out even if they stayed they you know, they was there.
Yeah, they took a look, you know. And so I wouldn't
blame him at all if he if he was doing that, and he in
fact he should be doing it. Oh, let's call from Tommy Lloyd.
I'm suggesting that you know, you're you're you're doing yourself a disservice if you're
not checking things out. And and it's as simple as that. And I
think it goes both ways, right for the Coaches Bowl for you to reach
out to other players, right, just in case, right, And that's
that's kind of what we're talking about, is that you know coaches now,
yeah, they might hate the fact that they got to re recruit their players
and stuff like that. But on the other hand, let's say they've got
a bunch of guys that they have no chance of winning with, or that
they're that aren't very good, or that they missed, you know, the
evaluations in recruiting, and they want to make some changes or go get some
more guys because of the atmosphere, they get to do that. So did
you you get the look we got to call Hi, You're on the air
and one on the ball. Hey, Jay's Greg. How are you today?
Good? Good? What's on your mind? I missed the interview with
Freddie Fox's daughter, but uh, I have a lot of good stories of
about Freddy the Fox though, had all his wonderful actually put on there,
go ahead, hit us with a couple. Well, Freddie the Fox is
always one of those guys that was a fancy thresher. He's always energy and
he would he would have his vibe play all over wherever he would go.
He was just a magnificent personality. And he ran a really good basketball program
with Jimmy Rappis, Cornell, Norman, Herman, Harris. I'm missing a
couple of them. Bob, there's Bob. They're all good. What did
you think of him as a personality in this town? He energized the room.
He's a good guy. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
He did you know you just anywhere he was you thought there's more.
There's some more juice in this room now because of him. So so Greg,
I know who Greg is. I won't say who is, but Greg,
did you go to the games back in the day, and how were
those games? I was a season ticket holder for thirty eight years, and
I started with Freddie the Fox, and I got to know Freddy because you
know what I do for a living, and Freddy was always always around the
place. And actually I put a lot of his players to work in summer
school when I couldn't go home, like Kenny Loston, a few of them.
Yeah, okay, Kenny was Kenny? Yeah, long time. Was
that one of those jobs where they had to turn on the automatic automatic sprinklers?
No? No, no, they actually they actually worked for me and
I actually played. I played, uh and Herman Harris is on my softball
teap. Oh wow, was a good ball player her but Hermard was always
swinging for the fences and he connected, which what I what I loved about
Herman Harris. We put him on the right field and he could be halfway
out the right field some guy hit a line drive and herm would just jump
up and catch the darn thing when it should have been way over his head.
Weapon exactly. Greg, appreciate you. Yeah, all right, Sorry
I missed that interview. You got an iPod, Yeah, we do.
We do have a podcast. It'll be up on our Go to the iHeart
website or Spotify or Apple Podcasts and search Eye on the Ball and you'll find
us. Okay, Hey, thanks a bunch. You Griggs a good guy.
Yeah, no, it's it's funny because well see, and that's the
thing that the community loved those guys, right, They loved Eric Money,
they love Coneil Norman. I remember I was really, really, really really
upset when they left after two years. But understood why, you know,
they were from Detroit, you know, probably finances and stuff like that.
They they you know, they got drafted, played some time, spent some
time in the in the NBA. Understood, But man, was I upset
when when they were gone because you just thought that they could be around here
a couple more years even. And I'm sure we have a ton of things.
I'm sure when you were a kid and you were playing on the court,
you were one of those guys. Yeah, we were all. I
was Eric Money, I love being icy. I didn't have Coneel's. Okay,
let's go nobody, all right, we'll be right back