Inside Gate 7 at the Gila River Arena, home of the NHL's 蜜柚直播 Coyotes, a room dedicated the 220 men and women elected to the 蜜柚直播 High School Coaches' Hall of Fame is open to the public.
If you look closely, you'll see plaques of 15 high school coaches from 蜜柚直播, dating to 1930s 蜜柚直播 High football coach Rollin Gridley to 2000 and 2001 Sahuaro High School state champion basketball coach Dick McConnell.
Somehow, in the 36 years the AHSC Hall of Fame has been inducting the state's leading coaches, it overlooked Hank Slagle, who is possibly the most successful high school baseball coach in 蜜柚直播 history. Or maybe there should be no qualifier 鈥 no "possibly" 鈥 when it comes to Hank Slagle's baseball coaching career.,
From 1942 to 1954, he coached the Badgers to 10 state championships, which included a national-record 52 consecutive victories.
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Not only that, Slagle is not among more than 300 members of the UA Sports Hall of Fame. How can that be? Slagle still holds the school's single-season batting average record, .506, set in 1937. When Slagle graduated, 蜜柚直播 baseball coach Pop McKale, who piloted UA baseball from 1915-49, said that Slagle was "one of the two best players" he had ever coached.
And it's not like Slagle was an interloper, an out-of-towner who showed up, played a few seasons and moved on. Slagle was the state's leading baseball player at Phoenix Union High School in 1933 and 1934, leading the Coyotes to back-to-back undefeated state title.
And after he coached 蜜柚直播 High to 10 state titles 鈥 mentoring Badgers Cliff Myrick and Lee Carey, who became state championship baseball coaches 鈥 Slagle became the first principal in Rincon High School history, and later, the first at Santa Rita High School.
How's that for a remarkable body of work?
In 1998, a few years before Slagle died, I asked him about being snubbed by the state Hall of Fame and by his alma mater's sports Hall of Fame. He took the high road.
"You know, my kids did all the playing and all the hitting," he said. "I assume that's the reason I've never been inducted."
Today, in Part 9 of our series on a century of 蜜柚直播 sports, decade by decade, we examine 蜜柚直播's leading coaches at the high school, junior college and the UA.
Here are my choices as the leading coach of each decade:
![Pop McKale](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d8/9d83eabb-1965-59ac-954a-a4a566df7c4a/5f3ea72721fd6.image.jpg?resize=200%2C262 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d8/9d83eabb-1965-59ac-954a-a4a566df7c4a/5f3ea72721fd6.image.jpg?resize=300%2C394 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d8/9d83eabb-1965-59ac-954a-a4a566df7c4a/5f3ea72721fd6.image.jpg?resize=400%2C525 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d8/9d83eabb-1965-59ac-954a-a4a566df7c4a/5f3ea72721fd6.image.jpg?resize=540%2C708 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d8/9d83eabb-1965-59ac-954a-a4a566df7c4a/5f3ea72721fd6.image.jpg?resize=750%2C984 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d8/9d83eabb-1965-59ac-954a-a4a566df7c4a/5f3ea72721fd6.image.jpg 1200w)
J.F. 鈥淧op鈥 McKale refused to schedule 蜜柚直播 State in 1938, 1939 and 1940 after the Sun Devils 鈥渒idnapped鈥 three players from the Wildcats. UA beat ASU 20-7 when they played again in 1941.
鈥 1920s: Pop McKale, 蜜柚直播. What you might not know about McKale is that he was the UA's head coach in baseball for 34 years, but also the head football and basketball coach. How did he do? McKale's win-loss record in basketball was 49-12; his record as head football coach was 49-13. He began his basketball head coaching career with 21 consecutive victories and closed it with a 9-0 streak. No wonder the city's most imposing sports facility carries his name. The UA record book lists McKale as 蜜柚直播's baseball coach from 1915 to 1919, and again from 1922-49. But according to the Star's coverage in 1920 and 1921 鈥 when Asa Porter is listed as the head coach 鈥 McKale was referred to as the head coach, and Porter his assistant.
鈥 1930s: Tex Oliver, 蜜柚直播 football. Born in Georgia, raised in Texas, Oliver played football at Army and earned his graduate degree at USC. He became 蜜柚直播's football coach in 1933 (and also its track coach) after developing a strong reputation at Santa Ana Junior College in California. Oliver's "Blue Brigade" went 32-11-4 in five UA seasons, beating bigger-name schools like Oklahoma State, Kansas, Oregon and Texas Tech. He produced the school's first NFL players, Tom Greenfield and Hoss Nielsen, and UA Ring of Honor quarterback Ted Bland. Oliver left 蜜柚直播 for a multi-year contract at Oregon after upsetting the Ducks in 1937.
鈥 1940s: Hank Slagle, 蜜柚直播 High baseball. Slagle was not just a good coach. After leaving 蜜柚直播, he reached Triple-A with the San Francisco Seals, a starting catcher in the same lineup with future MLB All-Star Dom DiMaggio.
![Fred A. Enke](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg?resize=200%2C158 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg?resize=300%2C238 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg?resize=400%2C317 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg?resize=540%2C428 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg?resize=750%2C594 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C950 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/cb/fcb4034c-5b65-11e7-b9ce-f7f7d6fa3d63/5952a314bb457.image.jpg 1700w)
CCNY coach Nat Holman and 蜜柚直播 coach Fred Enke pose at Madison Square Garden in New York on Feb. 28, 1950. (AP Photo/John Lent)
鈥 1950s: Fred A. Enke, 蜜柚直播 basketball. Enke was the UA's first "free-market" coaching hire. The UA pulled him away from then-smaller school Louisville, where Enke 鈥 who grew up in Rochester, Minnesota 鈥 had been the head football and basketball coach as well as an early-era athletic director from 1923-25. Enke was the UA's basketball coach from 1925-61, winning 522 games. His peak years were 1950 and 1951, when the UA went 26-5 and 24-6, breaking into the Top 25 polls for the first time and playing in the 1951 NCAA Tournament, also a UA first. His peak years were accomplished almost exclusively with local players like Roger Johnson and Ed Honea. But his failure to recruit outside of 蜜柚直播 cost him. Enke's 1955-59 teams went 46-82, leading to his forced retirement at age 65.
![25 CLARK](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg?resize=200%2C277 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg?resize=300%2C415 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg?resize=400%2C553 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg?resize=540%2C747 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg?resize=750%2C1037 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C1660 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/34/e34ec2d6-e300-11ea-ba71-7b565f514353/5f3ea282223c0.image.jpg 1700w)
Sue Clark was inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. She was 蜜柚直播 High School tennis coach from 1959-72.
鈥 1960s: Sue Clark, tennis, 蜜柚直播 High. Perhaps the least likely person to be on this list, Clark was not an athlete nor tennis player growing up in Van Horne, Texas, attending Sul Ross State College and later getting a masters at UA. But in 1958 she agreed to coach THS' girls tennis team. She was so successful it is head-shaking. Clark's Badgers won seven state championships in the 1960s as she built a national-record 213-dual meet winning streak. She didn't coach country-club, tennis-inclined players, but mostly taught entry-level THS players.
![Jerry Kindall](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg?resize=200%2C223 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg?resize=300%2C335 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg?resize=400%2C446 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg?resize=540%2C603 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg?resize=750%2C837 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C1339 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/5b/d5bed96c-34f4-5cc4-9c00-ec942584206e/5f3c815235290.image.jpg 1700w)
Jerry Kindall won 蜜柚直播鈥檚 first College World Series title in 1976.
鈥 1970s: Jerry Kindall, 蜜柚直播 baseball. 蜜柚直播 had been a national power for a quarter-century but couldn't win The Big One at the College World Series, 0-for-7 under Frank Sancet. Kindall, who had led Minnesota to the 1956 CWS title 鈥 beating 蜜柚直播, of all teams, in the final game 鈥 had played for the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians and seemed to be the coach-in-waiting at his alma mater, near his hometown of St. Paul. Instead, he moved to 蜜柚直播, confronted the nation's No. 1 baseball program 鈥 蜜柚直播 State 鈥 and beat the Sun Devils in the 1976 national title game, the first of three in his UA career.
鈥 1980s: Lute Olson, 蜜柚直播 men's basketball. Olson's path to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was a road less traveled. He grew up the son of a farmer in rural Mayville, North Dakota, graduated from Minnesota's Augsburg College, and coached at five high schools from Minnesota to Colorado to California before getting a shot at NCAA basketball, 1972 at Long Beach State. He agreed to coach 蜜柚直播 for $60,000 plus income from a TV and radio show in 1983, where he found 蜜柚直播 at the lowest level of Division I basketball, 4-22 a year earlier. By 1988 his team was ranked No. 1, reached the Final Four, 35-3 overall, perhaps the single greatest team in UA history, any sport.
鈥 1990s: Mike Candrea, 蜜柚直播 softball. An ASU grad, hired away from tiny Central 蜜柚直播 College, Candrea led 蜜柚直播 to four NCAA championships in the 1990s, becoming the nation's No. 1 softball program, which led to his berth as coach of USA's 2004 Olympic gold medal team.
![28 Hansen top 100 dsp1](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=200%2C120 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=300%2C181 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=400%2C241 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=540%2C325 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=750%2C452 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C723 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/1f/e1f93362-e300-11ea-b223-e3dcc9c44df4/5f3ea27fdc38d.image.jpg?resize=1700%2C1024 1700w)
Frank Busch led the womens and men's UA swim teams to NCAA titles in 2008.
鈥 2000s: Frank Busch, 蜜柚直播 swimming. A club coach on the Ohio-Kentucky border near his hometown of Cincinnati, Busch took control of a low-level 蜜柚直播 swimming program in 1989 and six times became the NCAA coach of the year, culminating with the 2008 NCAA titles in both men's and women's swimming. Busch produced 48 Olympic swimmers, coached 10 Olympic gold medalists and was 11 times the Pac-10 coach of the year.
![010718-spt-pima women bk-p3.JPG](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg?resize=200%2C148 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg?resize=300%2C222 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg?resize=400%2C295 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg?resize=540%2C399 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg?resize=750%2C554 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C886 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/d8/cd8bf8a4-7485-11ea-8c9d-af193580b96e/5e85478511c1f.image.jpg 1700w)
Head coach Todd Holthaus watches his team compete against the scout team during the Pima Community College Aztecs women's basketball team practice at the west campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road, on Jan. 4, 2018, in 蜜柚直播, Ariz. At right is assistant coach Pete Fajardo. Pima takes on 蜜柚直播 College at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 6.
鈥 2010s: Todd Holthaus, Pima College women's basketball. Talk about humble beginnings: Holthaus grew up in rural West Union, Iowa, and began his college career at Iowa's small Waldorf College, later a star player while earning a degree at Grand Canyon. After robust success as the girls basketball coach at Flowing Wells High School, Holthaus was hired by PCC for about $12,000 a year. From 2010-19, PCC's women's basketball team went 239-99 and played in the NJCAA national championship game in 2011 and finished in the top eight four times. Holthaus developed a literal Point Guard U for junior colleges, producing first team All-American point guards Abyee Maricigan, Sydni Stallworth and JJ Nakai.