Gridley coached Tucson High to a record 32 consecutive football victories, 1942-45, and three state championships. Corbett was Mr. Baseball in Tucson, probably the key figure in bringing spring training baseball here. Fred W. Enke was surely the UA’s leading athlete of the ’40s, a standout in football, basketball and baseball, which led to an eight-year career as an NFL quarterback. Fred A. Enke, his father, reached his coaching peak from 1946-50, leading Arizona to the Top 25 for the first time, with successive seasons of 25-5, 21-3, 19-10, 17-11 and 26-5.

Kellner, a pitcher from Amphitheater High, played in MLB from 1948-59, winning 101 games and making the American League All-Star team. Luppino was the UA’s first national-level football star, leading the NCAA in rushing in 1954 and 1955, gaining more than 1,300 yards each year. Sancet won 831 games as Arizona’s baseball coach, 1950-72, leading the Wildcats to the College World Series three times in the 1950s.

Redd became Arizona’s first Black athlete, playing both basketball and baseball from 1953-55. On Dec. 8, 1951, the talented young man from all-Black Phoenix Carver High School, became the first Black UA athlete to play in a game at Bear Down Gym. He went on to score 784 career points and become a starting first baseman for the baseball team. He subsequently became the chief investigator for the San Francisco Police Department.