This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure Your most Prized Possessions.
I hope everybody stuck with us. We were back for a while. Let me just give you a schedule here. It's only about three forty three something like that. We're going to try to get ahold of Rocky the Rose we had around for a brief moment earlier before we went to two technical difficulties. But we'll get her back on the phone and talk more about Cedric Dempsey and the passing of Cedric over the weekend and what impact he had at the u of A that Dave and I both dealt with him, and what a great man
I posted over the weekend. I think you saund for well, you saw you. He was already here, Dave Race just for a few minutes. Yeah, you know, you know I was going to bring this up with Rocky.
You know, there was a so I went to San Diego State and there was a brief moment where he was the athletic director there before he went to Houston.
It was really weird.
I remember, I think I was an intern in the TV station in the late seventies and they had a big news conference introducing the new athletic director, Cedric Dempsen. He was there, and he was there less than a year, maybe even like six months. And I don't know if he saw the writing on the wall, but you know, eventually SDSU would would would join, would would move up
into a different conference. But at the time they were in the PCAA yeah, yeah, and they eventually got to the whack when Arizona made the move, all this and that. But yeah, he was there really briefly for a little bit, and then he shows up in Tucson just before I got here. So we basically again I've kind of told the story a million times about how Lute and I got here the same year.
I also got here the same year as so you were part of that magic. It must have been me. It had to have been Rocky is issue Rocky?
Yeah, Hello, we're back. I hopefully will stay with you for a while. We were talking. We were talking off the air. We thought you were on the air. But let me take us back again to eighty three, eighty two on the air and just just the situation back then when Cedric came aboard.
Yeah, it was a pretty remarkable time. I remember it honestly like it was yesterday, said got hired. At the time, the women's department and the men's departments were totally separate physically. The women were over in in a getting building and
the men were in McHale. And even though the women sort of reported partially to the athletic director, which would have been Dave Strack and to the president's office, there was momentum to merge the programs and said did that literally, Like I think the first day he was there, there was discussions between Mary Robie and myself and the next thing, you know, we're packing up our banks and moving to Okale the sales center.
So let me ask you what was his reputation before he got here, because you know, you have you hires and all that stuff.
What do you say, oh, this is great or what was the thought?
Yeah, it actually was because and that the University of Arizona, so people knew him around the campus, and so there was a lot of excitement. Actually, you know, it was pretty tough on him because he he has just I think he'd been in Houston less than a year and he accepted the Arizona job. So that was a pretty brave move for him back then.
If I remember too in my books, uh, I think maybe you mentioned you broke up a little. He was an assistant for Larson back in the day.
Yeah, yeah, assistant basketball coach, that's right, for the University of Arizona coach Larson.
So he knew.
He knew all about Arizona from back in the day bear down and all that.
He sure did. Yeah, he was. He said, this was his first choice to come back to. He loved Tucson, he loved the University of Arizona, the campus. Uh So he was anxious to get back.
Plus he went to the same university or same college as pot McHale.
Right, I mean that's I.
Know, isn't that?
The Star and Davey too, They all three of them went to Albion, which is where where is that axe?
Does anybody? Yeah? Okay, yeah, I know, so I know you were posted him.
I actually posted a photo of you guys with me and my other show back in the day.
How did this hit you?
Oh? You know, it's a man. It just takes you back to First of all, how grateful I am for him and forgiving me the opportunities he did for what he did for the University of Arizona, which is our love, right, and the athletic department and this community, and so all those memories just come flooding back. They truly do.
You know.
It's a sad day. But he lived a long, happy, fruitful, rewarding life, and so that I think we're all grateful.
And he was a tough dude. He was a tough dude.
And I say this, you know, you never kind of just because he was a nice guy, and nice guys are what they are. But he you know, survived cancer and two or three times, right, and.
Just a tough Oh more than that, he is a tough dude. You're absolutely right. What a remarkable human being. He Actually, one of the last times I talked to him, he had added up that he had been in chemotherapy over nine years of his life, off and on over his life. Isn't that something? Yeah? Amazing, amazing.
Talk about his role with the NC double A because that was a big deal when he got that job. I mean, I don't know if you watched the women's game yesterday, but they did a moment of silence for him right before the National anthem, So you know, he's obviously remembered at the NCUBA level. How important was he to that organization?
Yeah, well, I mean, if you'll note at halftime today in the men's game, they're going to give him a lifetime achievement of more So, how amazing is that they had hoped they'd actually had selected him almost a year ago, but had planned to do it at Final four, which is kind of just a heartwarming because one of Said's favorite times of the year was the Final four. So
it's very touching. But well, you know, we always knew Said had an interest in national I mean, he always wanted to be on an NCAA committee, He always wanted to lead an NCAA committee. He loved legislation because he knew that was the foundation of where athletics grew or at least went in the right direction as he saw it.
So we always knew he had an interest, And yeah, it was wonderful because he was an athletic director, he had been there, and for him to be the executive director president of the NCAA having been on a campus was really I think what a lot of the athletic directors and presidents quite frankly of the universities were hoping for.
He when talked without the South the year, he had a lot of secret sauce to him. Right, he brings in the big domino that led to a lot of other dominoes.
That's right, Yeah, you know that. I talked about the first move, which was moving the women over into the Cail Center, But his biggest mood move, no doubt, was hiring coach Loudolph, and that changed the whole culture, the whole atmosphere in Mcial Center. And boy, we took off after that. I mean, think of all the national championships that came in after that. I mean, of course Jerry Kendall had won one before Lude arrived, but after that we totaled up to twenty two now, so it's pretty amazing.
It just there was just a winning culture with Luke there, and the coaches all bonded together. And that's all because said set had this vision. He wanted to bring in a coach that was successful, and he knew that continuity and consistency is what brings the victories. And so with through said, we were able to hold on to a lot of coaches for a long time.
Not only that the notoriety brought to the University of Arizona. I mean, for many of us, we didn't know anything about the University of Arizona until we got to Tucson, but specifically, like I mean, you know, I certainly learned about it, but before I got here, there was not much news about the u of A. But when he got here and took him just a few years to get to the final four, what did that mean? You think maybe to the overall campus and the recognition that the school got nationally.
Oh yeah, I mean we had a study A, missions went way up, people trying to get into the u A went way up, Fundraising dollars went way up. So uh, it impacted you know, the university greatly, and not only that, just our spirit and you know, our enthusiasm and everything else about it.
You Yeah, so you're talking about the Domino. I want to go to the other ones.
You've got Kendrea, you got Frank Bush, Dick Tomy, and you know I mentioned, and not even the women women's side. You don't have the Joan of course, and some you know Fred Harvey, he's got a lot of these powerful.
Dave Rubio, Yeah, we all, yes, that night. Yeah, Grave Rubio, Yeah, what do you what do you look for?
What did he look for?
Well, he looked for tenacity, dedication. He liked the young, the young bucks, so to speak. And I say that women and men. He liked those that had a fire in him. And I don't you know, people have asked me that too. You know, what do you see? And it's just a gut feeling when you talk to coaches,
when you interview them. I think also you have said, was under the philosophy that you traveled with teams because you were looking at the other coaches, whether it be assistant coaches or not, because you never knew when you were going to lose your coach, Right. So he had this a list literally of coaches that he would watch, that he would put on his list, and so he was always ready.
Yeah, yeah, it was, it was. It was a great.
It was really fun to just kind of watch all these people come in and have such great success one after another. I mean that those years really, really the whole nineties basically once he got rolling, that was quite a run for that program.
Yep.
Yeah, there's no doubt built the foundation for our future success.
Absolutely, You've been an ad for a number of years under him, in fact, Bockgrath and all these people. What did you take away from him?
Well, what I what I loved about said is that he truly demanded excellence in all areas of our department. So academically, he wanted our athletes to succeed in leadership and personally, and of course winning athletically. And you know, he was the one who assigned me to build a program that would encompass all three of those things and would touch on things that athletes wouldn't get in a traditional classroom. So that was the Cats program. And how
about that? That went national? You know, we built that program and next thing, you know, the NCAA adopted it and required all Division I schools to have a program similar to our Cats program. Well that was because of said, he truly had this educational component in him and believed that athletics was a part of the educational learning of an individual. So I love that about said.
Yeah, it's funny.
We talk about this all the time, Dave, and you know Jay and Greg, how the nineties, the mid nineties and early nineties were just the glory years and it kind of has a sense of trying to come back. But I don't know, do you feel the same way. Back in those days, it was like a lot of winning, a lot of fun.
It was a lot of fun.
Yeah, no questions. We were all young.
We were young, but dang, we had some fun. You know. You know, I'm thinking of tonight with that doom, and I think you're going to have Rhino on the show. Ryan Hansen and Ryan and I worked very closely together when we would go to final fours or you know, Elite eight, Sweet sixteens, but the big days were when we went to the final four and just having flashbacks of those days and how much work it was, but yet how much fun it was. My goodness, we were rolling and it felt really good.
I think one of the things that I said, I called him a very good man, great man in fact, is that he was so he didn't really show emotion, at least not with us, right. He was kind of very stern, are very very dignified, and his you know, like you were speaking to your grandfather with all due respect, but you didn't want to piss off your grandfather.
Well that is true, It is true. You had a lot of respect, per said, but honestly, he had a very kind heart. He'd walk around the Chale Center and make sure he said hi to everybody. So he was really engaged in all the various departments. I'll tell you what happened to me. That was just which kind of
bonded us. We've laughed about it our entire lives. But I had gone in there, and you know, when you move into the men's side of athletics, all of a sudden you're like, oh, my goodness, there's all these opportunities for women. And so I went into Said's office just as a little baby, and I said, I want to talk to him about being an athletic director and what
he would think about that. And he was waiting on a call from the president of the university and he was President Coffler at the time, and he said, so I may get interrupted, and he said, it's a really important call because we're talking about some subsidies and redoing some of Arizona Stadium and stuff. And he said it's a really important call. I said, okay. So I sat there.
Sure enough, the phone rang, said, picked it up, said hello President, and all of a sudden, this cricket was coming towards me and said, kind of stuck his leg out and his foot out and leaped forward to kill the cricket before it came to me. And he unplugged the phone and hung up on the President.
How did you explain that one I got a car?
Yeah, then he couldn't get it plug back in, and pretty good about that.
The good thing Coufflor didn't look for a new a D.
So, yeah, he had a good humor aside to him as well, and and he was just he was a good guy. We all enjoyed working for him.
So today's point, when he left to the n C double A, what was the what was the thought because he had done so well. I know you got Jim afterwards, but what was the thought in him leaving you thinking, oh, no, what's going to happen?
Well, yeah, you're always worried, right about what the heck? I now? Who am I going to work for? And you know, we had had such a great relationship and you know, we had things going and yeah, so it was a scary time. It's always a scary time. But then we got Jim. Yay. Jim was terrific, of course, and built on that foundation and it all worked out great, thank goodness, And of course I knew Jim from Washington State,
so that was a real joy. But boy, let me tell you, every time there's an ad change, the staff is worried, sick because you just never know. Y, you never know, speaking.
Of which we've experienced that here, you know, in the last two years or so, and all kinds of changes going on in athletics. Are you glad to be away from it and kind of looking in now as a fan?
Yeah?
Are they asking you for any advice? I mean, what's your involvement now?
No?
Well, I do have my toe still kind of stuck in there. I chair the Sports Hall of Fame Committee, and I always joke that's because I'm history and you can take that anyway you want, right, But I enjoy that because a lot of our inductees are athletes that I was there when they were competing. So it's fun to still have that connection. The other way I have my little toe in there is I chair actually the President's Committee, the Faculty Committee on Athletics. It's called the
Intercollegiate Athletic Committee. It's a committee that's required by the NCAA, and so I report to the president for that. We meet once a month with Desiree and her staff, and our committee is made up of faculty members from the university. So that's exciting for me because I get to, you know, hear a lot about what's going on and the changes, and I am forever grateful that I'm on the sidelines by.
Now.
Yeah, I wouldn't want to be Desiree, no, no question, my respect to her.
I hope you will hang with us for a little bit.
One of the things that I was shocked about I heard a few months ago that I guess, did the thing get passed this morning?
The twenty million.
I haven't tried, but let's assume it gets past, which I'm sure it will be. And I heard that the women's sports are going to get very little percentages, and I'm thinking that's not going to happen.
That's not true. I guess it's true.
And I was like shocked because in the time of title line equity and all that, what are your thoughts on that?
Well, it's a late and see right, I think the schools are trying to figure this out too, And I don't know specifically what the University of Arizona is going to do at this point. What I have heard nationally discussed is that it will be based on the revenue that teams bring in. So that's how they came up with yes of seventy five percent for football, because typically most football programs bring in the biggest revenue. Basketball men's basketball will be second, and then they'll divide the rest
amongst the remaining sports. So now whether or not, you know, the University of Arizona does follows suit, the other thing is, no one's real sure how this actually, this twenty point five million that can be paid directly to student athletes, how that is going to be looked at by Title nine.
And so you know, no doubt there's going to be more court caated that go forward, you know, because it is money that's being distributed by universities, and therefore Title nine, if you're receiving federal money, you have to be equitable in that lane. But they're also literally just basing it on the revenue that sports are bringing it in. But then they're going to determine them