Sports
CORKY: Honoring the great Bruce Larson
By Corky Simpson, Special to the Green Valley News
The graver business it has become frowns today on the fun and leisure that once dominated college athletics.
Success has become more a requirement than a goal. It’s an age of boom or doom.
For one thing, home-grown talent is almost unheard of at most major schools.
Bruce Larson would know better than anybody.
In 60 years at the University of Arizona, as an outstanding basketball and baseball player, head basketball coach and beloved classroom teacher for decades, the white-haired native of Fargo, N.D. has seen it all.
At a large and lively turnout at the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday at the Holiday Inn on South Palo Verde in Tucson, the man known simply as “Coach” talked about the dramatic changes he has seen.
“We used to have guys from Snowflake and Ajo, small towns like that, and a lot of them from Tucson High and Amphitheater,” Larson said. “You look at the culture of college basketball, as well as other athletics, and you see that things have really changed.”
As a player in 1949-50 under Fred Enke, then as Enke’s assistant and from 1961-72 as head coach of the Wildcats, Larson’s world of thump-thumps was much smaller than today’s multi-million dollar college basketball business.
“The budget just wasn’t there to recruit nationally,” he said. And yet, the Wildcats were almost always competitive.
To show how informal things were in the old days, Larson — who had played baseball under J.F. “Pop” McKale at Arizona — said that when he graduated, McKale, who was also athletic director, hired him thusly:
McKale: “You want a job?”
Larson: “Sure.”
Already a member of the UA Athletic Hall of Fame (1972) and the National Junior College Hall of Fame (1989), Bruce was among those inducted Sunday into the Pima College Sports Hall of Fame.
Among those on hand were many of Larson’s former players, students, university associates and fans.
Other inductees and their fields included the late Fred Snowden, basketball coach at Arizona in 1972-82, the first black head coach at an NCAA Division 1 school; the late Gene Adelstein, TV sports promoter; Bruce Bobell, sports management; Sue Darling, women’s basketball coach; Lionel Goar, sports administration; Marc Janis, coach; Dale Lopez, sports management; Lou Pavlovich Jr., sports journalist; Jim Scott, coach; Bob Vielledent, coach and Roger Werbylo, coach.
Even as a golden ager, Larson is fit and trim. Over the years he has been a highly competitive handball and racquetball player and is probably still today among the best free-throw shooters at the University of Arizona — including today’s highly-recruited national blue-chippers. Bruce can easily drain eight-of-10 from the free-throw line using his old-fashioned underhand technique.
John Gleeson is president of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. The organization’s exhibit facility is located at 110 S. Church in La Placita Village, Suite 6120. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Tucsonan Pat Darcy, former major league pitcher and member of the great Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine” of the 1970s, was master of ceremonies at Sunday’s event.
Former Tucson Citizen columnist Corky Simpson writes a weekly commentary for the Green Valley News.
Success has become more a requirement than a goal. It’s an age of boom or doom.
For one thing, home-grown talent is almost unheard of at most major schools.
Bruce Larson would know better than anybody.
In 60 years at the University of Arizona, as an outstanding basketball and baseball player, head basketball coach and beloved classroom teacher for decades, the white-haired native of Fargo, N.D. has seen it all.
At a large and lively turnout at the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday at the Holiday Inn on South Palo Verde in Tucson, the man known simply as “Coach” talked about the dramatic changes he has seen.
“We used to have guys from Snowflake and Ajo, small towns like that, and a lot of them from Tucson High and Amphitheater,” Larson said. “You look at the culture of college basketball, as well as other athletics, and you see that things have really changed.”
As a player in 1949-50 under Fred Enke, then as Enke’s assistant and from 1961-72 as head coach of the Wildcats, Larson’s world of thump-thumps was much smaller than today’s multi-million dollar college basketball business.
“The budget just wasn’t there to recruit nationally,” he said. And yet, the Wildcats were almost always competitive.
To show how informal things were in the old days, Larson — who had played baseball under J.F. “Pop” McKale at Arizona — said that when he graduated, McKale, who was also athletic director, hired him thusly:
McKale: “You want a job?”
Larson: “Sure.”
Already a member of the UA Athletic Hall of Fame (1972) and the National Junior College Hall of Fame (1989), Bruce was among those inducted Sunday into the Pima College Sports Hall of Fame.
Among those on hand were many of Larson’s former players, students, university associates and fans.
Other inductees and their fields included the late Fred Snowden, basketball coach at Arizona in 1972-82, the first black head coach at an NCAA Division 1 school; the late Gene Adelstein, TV sports promoter; Bruce Bobell, sports management; Sue Darling, women’s basketball coach; Lionel Goar, sports administration; Marc Janis, coach; Dale Lopez, sports management; Lou Pavlovich Jr., sports journalist; Jim Scott, coach; Bob Vielledent, coach and Roger Werbylo, coach.
Even as a golden ager, Larson is fit and trim. Over the years he has been a highly competitive handball and racquetball player and is probably still today among the best free-throw shooters at the University of Arizona — including today’s highly-recruited national blue-chippers. Bruce can easily drain eight-of-10 from the free-throw line using his old-fashioned underhand technique.
John Gleeson is president of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. The organization’s exhibit facility is located at 110 S. Church in La Placita Village, Suite 6120. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Tucsonan Pat Darcy, former major league pitcher and member of the great Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine” of the 1970s, was master of ceremonies at Sunday’s event.
Former Tucson Citizen columnist Corky Simpson writes a weekly commentary for the Green Valley News.
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