1985-86 Zips

Ken MacDonald was the Zips sports informaton director in 1985-86 when UA made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. He is in Portland for the game and brought a post-season yearbook from that year.
As with the 2008-09 Zips, that team was not highly regarded headed into the season. They were picked to finish sixth in the Ohio Valley Conference, but tied with Middle Tennessee for first in the regular season and then defeated MT in the tournament final to make the NCAA Tournament.
It was interesting to see photos of a much younger Bob Huggins and assistant Frank Jessie, and of players such as Marcel Boyce and Mike Dowdell.
As a newcomer to this area that very same year, I liked seeing the list of UA employees from that season in the yearbook.  I got to know and like many of them through the years, but was not completely aware of  their connections to the university.  In that group were the likes of Chris Bame, Pat Ciccantelli, Loralee Bolinger (later Daley), Russ Swartz, Gary Robison, Jim Corrigall, and Rocco Cona. I also liked MacDonald talking  about past UA radio announcers Denny Schreiner, Whitey Wahl and Don Ursetti, who have the misfortunate of being friends of mine.