After decades of keeping track of the stats of thousands of college basketball players, brothers Jay and Gene Gonzales will finally have time to stop watching the clock and enjoy their own minutes.
They have attended games at McKale Center since the early 1990’s in an official capacity, but many fans may not know their names — and that’s a good thing.
It means they got things right as members of the stat crew.
Jay, formerly of the Arizona Daily Star who was the beat reporter of Arizona’s first Final Four team of 1987-88, joined the stat crew for the 1990-91 season after leaving the Star.
Gene was a sergeant in the Tucson Police Department when former Arizona sports information director Tom Duddleston Jr. called to ask him before the 1993-94 season if he would like to join his brother on stat row.
What a joy ride it has been for the Gonzales brothers sitting adjacent to the court at the time Lute Olson took the program to the highest level and drew elite talent, including opposing players and coaches, to McKale Center.
Their memorable journey ends Monday night at 7 when No. 2 Arizona hosts No. 4 Iowa State. Fittingly, it’s a Big Monday game pitting highly ranked teams against each other. The Gonzales brothers are retiring from the stats crew following the type of blockbuster game they have been part of many times at McKale.
VALUABLE PERSONAL AND FAMILY TIME REASONS FOR RETIREMENT
“It’s just time,” Jay stated about retiring. “The last two or three years I’ve thought about it at the start of the season and decided to keep going. The decision point this year came when I went to the San Diego State game in Phoenix with my family and had a great time just being a spectator.
“I might’ve even made the decision at that game. But certainly by the next home game, I said this is it. I just want to be a fan and enjoy the game. The stat crew is hard work. I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s always been a ton of fun, But it is work and I’m ready to just go to a game and have fun.”
Gene told Jay a few years ago that when he decided to retire, he would also hang up the stat book.
“To finish, it’s been a great run working with Jay and Tom Duddleston every game for 33 years,” Gene mentioned. “I can’t thank Tom enough for giving me this opportunity 33 years ago. But as with everything, sometimes it’s just time to go. I was 40 years old when I started. I’ll leave at 73. Adios. It was awesome.”
Jay mentioned he will become a season-ticket holder, while Gene went so far as to suggest Monday’s game might be his last at McKale.
“I will probably watch many games at home and at sports bars with friends,” Gene stated. “I doubt I will ever attend another game at McKale, after having the best seats in McKale for 33 years and watching hundreds of games up close. I think I’m good to go.”
Continuing to attend games at McKale Center will be a meaningful family experience for Jay.
“I’ve been married to my wife (Gabrielle, a former Tucson Citizen reporter) for 35 years and we were together a few years before that,” Jay mentioned. “We’ve been to seven men’s basketball games together. Five of those were NCAA tournaments, including the 1997 Final Four and the 1998 Sweet 16 at The Pond in Anaheim (Calif.).
“Since the San Diego State game this year, we’ve talked about how much fun we’re gonna have going to games together.”
They will have the opportunity to be in the arena with their son Adam.
Adam and their daughter Rachel were raised around Arizona athletics and both have worked in the athletic department. Adam, who has been part of the stat crew with his dad and uncle, is the director of digital marketing at Arizona after a stint with the media relations department. Rachel also was in media relations at Arizona before becoming a communications coordinator at San Diego State last school year.
“Adam has been on the crew with me for years,” Jay stated. “I’ve also had a chance to work with my daughter Rachel when she worked in the media relations department at Arizona. I’ll be working with her at San Diego State this year.”
THEY JOINED THE BASKETBALL STAT CREW THROUGH BEING ON A BASEBALL TEAM
Jay and Gene were members of a city adult-league baseball team more than 35 years ago that included Arizona staffers and coaches, such as Dick Tomey and Rick LaRose.
Dave Hirsch, an assistant sports information director who worked under Duddleston, was also on the team.
Developing a friendship with Duddleston and Hirsch led to the Gonzales brothers joining the McKale stat crew.
“During a summer-league baseball game after I left the Star sports department in 1990, one of the guys on our team who was on the stat crew, Dave Ryan, announced he had taken a job that was going to have him leave town,” Jay stated. “I immediately asked Dave Hirsch if I could have his spot. Dave was the basketball SID at the time, and he gave me the spot right then. And the rest is history.”
Jay’s background with Hirsch and Duddleston included being the Arizona beat reporter for the Star. Gene got to know them through playing on the baseball team.
“I got a call from Tom Duddleston before the 1993-94 season,” Gene mentioned. “Jay was already on the stat crew. (Duddleston) asked if I would be interested in being on the stat crew. I asked, ‘For who?’ He said, ‘Arizona men’s basketball.’
“I then asked, ‘Where will I sit?’ He said, ‘On the floor.’ I immediately said, ‘Yes.’ My seats were in the upper deck with Bob Uecker. It was a no-brainer.”
For those who don’t know, the late Uecker, a self-deprecating comical former big-leaguer, was in a beer commercial in which he bragged about being in the “front row” at games but was then shown in the nose-bleed seats.
MEMORIES OF A LIFETIME
Gene went from being a fan to sitting in the thick of the action a few feet away from the court.
“There are many great memories — 33 seasons of Arizona basketball seasons with the best seat in the arena,” he stated. “So many great players at U of A and others who have come through that have gone on to great NBA careers and are now retired.
“Having some of the great coaches coach a game right in front of me — Tommy Izzo, Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun and Bobby Knight –watching (BYU’s) Jimmer Fredette score 49 points in 2009 and Caleb Love’s halfcourt shot to send Arizona to overtime against Iowa state last year.”
The memory of all memories was his experience with Knight when Texas Tech played in the NCAA tournament first and second rounds at McKale in 2005.
“It was a practice day and Knight was holding court with reporters, so I went down to listen in,” Gene recalled. “Knight was asking if anybody knew where a restaurant was in South Tucson that he ate at in 1986. What caught my attention is he remembered coming down Stone Avenue that it changed to Sixth Avenue and the restaurant was in a neighborhood.
“Several reporters mentioned Micha’s, Mi Nidito & L&L and he said, ‘Nah.’ Then I chimed in and said, ‘Coach, I think you’re talking about El Torero on 26th Street between Fourth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.’ He replied, ‘Yes, and it has a big entrance.’ I said, ‘Yes, it does.’ He then asked me, ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I’m a TPD Sergeant.’ He then said, ‘Do you want to join me for dinner?’ I replied, ‘Yes, but I’m with three other friends.’ He said, ‘Bring them. I’ll see you at 7 p.m. at El Torero.’
“We met the bus there and entered the restaurant. Some coaches were about to sit at his table when he told them, ‘Nope, my friends are sitting there with me.’ So we ate and talked and then he took pictures with us before we left. That was Bobby Knight at his best.”
That experience is hard to top but Gene’s time on the stat crew also afforded him the ability to work at all 13 Pac-12 tournaments in Las Vegas with Jay and Adam. Their good friend Dale Collins accompanied them to Las Vegas to work at the tournaments as part of the Pac-12 media relations team. The group also worked three years of NCAA tournament West regional games in California.
Gene mentioned other highlights on the stats crew included working the Final Four in Glendale and the women’s WNIT championship game at McKale in 2019.
One of Jay’s first experiences on the stat crew was Arizona’s epic double-overtime win over Duke and Mike Krzyzewski in 1991.
“The arena was as loud as I can ever remember,” Jay mentioned. “There was the time Michigan came here and Arizona crushed them in the (1993) Fiesta Bowl Classic. When Mark Lyons made the game-winning layup against Florida in 2013, Sean Collins was my spotter that day and he was literally yelling into my ear and I could barely hear him.
“The end of the 71-game home winning streak (in 1992) on a last second shot by UCLA’s Darrick Martin sticks out. And, of course, the halfcourt shot by Caleb Love against Iowa State. We have been moved to the media area in the corner, and from my angle on that shot, I knew it had a shot to go in.”
Before the stats crew was moved to the middle concourse level to make room for high-paying donors near the court, the members could observe the coaches from close range.
“We could hear them shouting instructions, talking to their players and coaches, and of course, working the refs,” Jay stated. “They were all here, Krzyzewski, Izzo, Mark Few, Calhoun, Jim Boeheim. It was so cool that the Arizona program was at the level that those coaches came here and we were up close and personal with so many of them.
“And of course, all the players, not just Arizona players, but Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal with LSU) and so many other great college players came here.”
FROM PENCIL AND PAPER TO COMPUTERIZED STATS
With a career on the stat crew spanning more than three decades, that means technology was not like it is now back in the day.
“When I started, everything was done by pencil and paper,” Gene mentioned. “I remember putting all the starters’ numbers on a yellow sheet of paper and charting the minutes played by starters and reserves.
“At halftime and the end of game, I hand wrote the stats on to the stat sheet, calculated the shots, 3-point shots and free throws. Then, someone ran to the printer at the office and made copies for the teams, TV and radio. Now everything is computerized. Crazy.”
The individual stat that sticks out the most for Jay and Gene was Fredette’s McKale Center-record 49 points on Dec. 28, 2009. Fredette was 16 of 23 from the field, 9 of 13 from 3-point range and 8 of 9 at the free-throw line. He also had nine assists and seven rebounds.
In Jay’s first year on the stat crew, Providence’s Eric Murdock set the previous McKale record with 45 points against Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl Classic on Dec. 23, 1990.
“There were a few triple-doubles,” Jay added. “We always kept an eye on things like that just for the fun of recognizing what we were experiencing when a player was having a great game.”
GRATEFUL GONZALES BROTHERS
When Jay was a reporter and Gene a police sergeant before 1990, they had no inclination they would significantly change their lives by being on a stat crew.
With so many fond memories and remarkable experiences, the Gonzales brothers are grateful for the opportunity.
“Being on the stat crew has led to me being able to do a lot of other work in college basketball,” Jay mentioned. “Knowing all the SIDs and Pac-12 conference media people, I’ve had a chance to work NCAA tournaments and all the Pac-12 tournaments that were played in Vegas.
“I’ll be working at the first and second rounds in San Diego this year. That will make 18 tournaments that I’ve worked, including two Final Fours. Being a part of those events has been a big part of my sports life that’s lasted more than half my life. I’ve had experiences that I’ll always treasure. I have lot of stories and I love telling them.”
Jay, who partners with Steve Rivera on Fridays during the “Eye on the Ball” sports talk show on Fox Sports 1450-AM, went on to note the special people he has worked with over the years. They include the original stat crew of Hirsch and Chip Plowman and those who have passed away — George Evanoff, Jim Walters and Ray Martinez (a close friend of Jay’s whose son Danny Martinez is the Arizona softball director of operations).
“Of course, my brother, Gene, my son, Adam, and daughter, Rachel, and the great Tom Duddleston, who was on every stat crew I worked on,” Jay added. “The stat crew table has been a special place.
“There are so many aspects to all of this and it’s been a big part of my life. The funny thing is, I don’t think I’m gonna miss it. I’m really looking forward to sitting in the seats and just being a fan.”
Gene’s experience with the stat crew brought him closer to those who are dearest to him.
“How great it’s been to have worked with Jay, my nephew Adam and niece Rachel,” he stated. “It’s truly been a family affair.”
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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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