Fifty years later, the memories of the road to Omaha are still fresh on the minds of the players who experienced making history at Arizona.
On March 19, team members of the 1976 Arizona national championship team — the first team to win a national title in school history — gathered at the Sands Club to reminisce and share their stories with All Sports Tucson.
Enjoy reliving the experiences from the players’ perspective.
How Jerry Kindall and his staff put together the run to a national championship as told by the players
Bob Chaulk and his parents got a home visit from the late Jim Wing, a legendary pitching coach with Arizona. Wing told Chaulk’s parents that the program really liked their players to get an education and had a person on staff who made sure players went to class because if they didn’t go to class, they didn’t go on road games.
Chaulk was invited to Tucson to meet the existing players and attend a game.
The moment Chaulk knew he was going to play at Arizona was a play involving Pete Van Horne’s forehead.
“The game I went to that night had a little Colorado pitcher that threw BBs and Van Horne got hit by the ball so hard off of his forehead it went into the dugout, and I said, ‘This is the team I’m playing for, I don’t care about any others,'” Chaulk said.
With that, Van Horne’s bad luck turned into good luck for Arizona.
Chuck Zopfi had verbally committed to Pepperdine and was pitching on the same American Legion team with Les Pearsey, who had already signed his letter of intent to Arizona.
Kindall was attending the game to watch pitcher Tim O’Neil, who was playing on the opposing team.
After Zopfi pitched a great game, Kendall approached him and said he was so sorry that he wasn’t looked at earlier in the season and he understood that he had committed to Pepperdine. Zopfi let him know that he was waiting for his letter of intent. Zopfi remembered that Kindall was shocked that he hadn’t signed his letter of intent yet and immediately asked if he could have a home visit.
At the home visit, Kindall offered Zopfi a scholarship. After all of the formalities of signing the letter of intent, Kindall asked, “I have one more questions, how’s your grades?” Zopfi showed Kindall his grades and the deal was done.
Van Horne was at baseball practice when he was introduced to Kindall. Van Horne’s coach was Kindall’s teammate on the national championship team that Kindall played on at Minnesota. The coach wanted Kindall to take a look at Van Horne.
Van Horne wasn’t sure if he was going to play baseball or football since he had more football offers.
After a home visit, Van Horne was offered a spot on the Arizona team, but he wanted to visit Arizona before he made the final decision.
As Van Horne remembers, “Marvin Thompson was the guy who took me around. Marvin was a straight guy. Not always, but he was when we got here. He was a heck of a baseball player. He took me to the (college bar) Green Dolphin. Watching this madness going on around me he goes ‘Hey, you want a beer?’ and I go, ‘This is a fool’s trap, absolutely not Marvin, I think I’m good here tonight.'”
Van Horne signed his letter of intent on that visit and the rest is history.
Tucson’s own Ron Hassey didn’t have to travel to see Arizona’s facilities or the program he liked the most. Hassey was born in Tucson and played at Tucson High School.
When Kindall came to see him on a visit, Hassey’s dad knew how to play his cards to ensure his son put on a Wildcats uniform.
They met at a local Mexican food restaurant.
“The conversation started, and Kindall said, ‘We’d like to offer Ron a half-scholarship,'” Hassey said.
“My dad said to him, ‘Well, if you’re going to offer a half scholarship to him, ASU is offering him a full ride, Texas is offering him a full ride, and ‘SC is offering him a full ride.’
“Kindall said, ‘Well, if we offer him a full ride, where will he go?’
“My dad looked at me and he didn’t say anything. Kindall had to get up and go to the bathroom. I said to my dad, ‘Where are these scholarships?’
“He said, ‘Just be quiet.’
“(Kindall) came back and he said, ‘What do you guys think?’ My dad said, ‘He’ll go to the U of A if you give him a full ride.’ And that was it.”
How was Tucson High’s Ron Hassey recruited to Arizona by coach Jerry Kindall? I’ll let him tell you about it. Such a great story! pic.twitter.com/t0O57Vfxu1
— Lori Burkhart (@loriburkhart) March 31, 2026
Dave Stegman was playing high school baseball in California and thought he would end up at Santa Clara where his brother played football, or San Luis Obispo, but he didn’t get offers from those schools. His offer came from Kindall at Arizona.
Kindall was out in California recruiting Roy Howell, who was the fourth overall pick in the 1972 draft by the Texas Rangers.
After taking Howell and his family out to dinner, Kindall made a visit to the Stegman household. Following some discussion, Kindall told Stegman he had a scholarship if he wanted it.
Stegman’s reaction: “It about floored me. I just looked at my parents and said, ‘Of course’ and that’s where I ended up.”
While the facilities may not have been state of the art at the time, Kindall and his staff were good at selling the baseball program to recruits and putting together a championship team that would lay the foundation for those who came after them.
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