To get ready for the upcoming Arizona football season, All Sports Tucson offers a countdown, which will include history notes and a look ahead to the season — a good way to keep Arizona football on the mind in the summer months leading up to fall camp in early August and then kickoff against New Mexico on Aug. 31 in the start of the Brent Brennan era.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS PREVIOUS DAYS IN THE COUNTDOWN
A LOOK BACK — NO. 73 BILL LUECK
With it being the 73rd day until kickoff between the Lobos and Wildcats, the best player to wear No. 73 for Arizona is offensive lineman Bill Lueck, who played at Arizona from 1965 to 1967. He was the second first-round pick in Arizona history, going 26th overall in 1968 to the Green Bay Packers (coached by Vince Lombardi at the time). Walter Ring Nielson, a running back, was the first first-round pick in 1939 by the New York Giants. Lueck played eight seasons in the NFL, seven with Green Bay and his last in 1975 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played in Super Bowl II with the Packers. After his NFL career, he went back to his family’s dairy farming business in Arizona. Lueck, an Avondale Agua Fria High School graduate, is 78 and living in retirement at Litchfield Park. In a 2016 interview with the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Lueck explained why he chose to play at Arizona instead of follow his brother Bob’s footsteps to Arizona State and play for Frank Kush. Arizona head coach Jim LaRue came to the Luecks’ dairy farm to meet his family and recruit Bill with a simple message. “He said, ‘Don’t you want your own identity?’ and ‘Aren’t you tired of being a little brother?’” Lueck said. “Besides, my wife (then girlfriend), Mary, was going to U of A.”
NO. 73 IN 2024 — OT MATTHEW LADO
Lado, 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds, is a freshman out of Glendale Apollo High School. He was three-star offensive lineman at Apollo. Chose Arizona over Colorado State, Montana State, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, and Utah State. He committed to Arizona a year ago to the day (June 19, 2023). Rated No. 32 in Arizona and No. 129 overall at offensive tackle by 247Sports. Played 17 total games over two seasons on varsity in high school. Also a defensive tackle at Apollo, he made 36 total tackles including 12 solo and 24 assists along with seven tackles for loss. He had 3.5 sacks and 11 quarerback hurries.
NOTE
Locked in !!! #BearDown #GoWildcats #ThankYouGod pic.twitter.com/c3wGAWpyDu
— Terry “T5” Shelton † (@terrydifferent) June 18, 2024
Irving, Texas, wide receiver prospect Terry Shelton committed to Arizona on Tuesday, a day after three other Class of 2025 prospects made a pledge to join coach Brent Brennan and the Wildcats. Shelton is one of three talents from Texas who committed in the two days, joining receiver Sean Robinson of Cibolo and running back Wesley Yarbrough of Crosby. In his junior season, Shelton finished with 32 receptions for 629 yards and eight touchdowns. He chose the Wildcats over offers from Kansas, Boston College, and Illinois among others.
ARIZONA CLASS OF 2025 COMMITMENTS
| NAME | POS | LOCATION | HT | WT | STARS | COMMITTED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terry Shelton | WR | Irving, TX | 6’4″ | 200 | *** | 6/18/24 |
| Sean Robinson | WR | Cibolo, TX | 6’4″ | 215 | *** | 6/17/24 |
| Wesley Yarbrough | RB | Crosby, TX | 5’10” | 190 | **** | 6/17/24 |
| Joshua Tuchek | DB | Long Beach, CA | 6’1″ | 180 | *** | 6/17/24 |
| Luke Haugo | QB | Gilbert, AZ | 6’5″ | 210 | *** | 6/4/24 |
| Robert McDaniel | QB | Hughson, CA | 6’2″ | 190 | *** | 5/26/24 |
| Kellan Ford | TE | Danville, CA | 6’5″ | 235 | *** | 4/7/24 |
THEY SAID IT
Rivals’ description of Shelton’s talent:
“Shelton provides Arizona with an athletic and lengthy athletic at wideout. Shelton possesses great measureables at 6-foot-2, 200-pounds and a near 80-inch wingspan. He also posted some great testing numbers including a reported 4.47 40-yard dash. As a basketball standout as well, Shelton has a 40-plus inch vertical jump.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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