Hawaii assistant Dick Tomey (left) talks with San Jose State head coach Mike MacIntyre before a game this season. Photo by Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

Dick Tomey, at age 73, returned to coaching this season as the special teams coordinator at Hawaii.

He had his health, the energy, the passion, and he was living in Honolulu anyway in “retirement” … so why not?

But head coach Greg McMackin stepped down last week after posting a 29-25 record in four seasons at Hawaii, so Tomey’s coaching future is cloudy as the Warriors go through a transition.

“I don’t know,” Tomey said late last week in a phone interview.

“If I have a chance to coach again, that would be great. I had as good a time as you can have this year. But if that’s all there is, that’s fine.”

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Dick Tomey, who last strolled the sidelines for San Jose State in 2009, is back at Hawaii.
Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Former Arizona Wildcats head coach Dick Tomey is coming out of retirement at age 72, according to a story by Ferd Lewis in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Tomey, who has lived on the islands since retiring as head coach of San Jose State after the 2009 season, is expected to be announced Thursday as the special teams coordinator for the University of Hawaii, where he began his head coaching career.

Couldn’t he have come back to Arizona and coach the secondary?

Tomey isn’t the slow-down type. Even in his supposed retirement last year, he worked as an analyst for several games on the new WAC Sports Network.

Tomey is the winningest coach in Arizona history, with a 95-64-4 record from 1987 to 2000. He was 63-46-3 at Hawaii from 1977 to 1986.

At Hawaii, he will be working under head coach Greg McMackin.

Duane Akina, right, celebrates a win at Nebraska last season with Texas head coach Mack Brown.
Photo by Bruce Thorson-US PRESSWIRE

Duane Akina is the middle of explaining his difficult decision to leave the University of Texas when he starts flashing back to all things Arizona.

Chuck Cecil pouncing on ASU punter Mike Schuh’s dropped snap in 1987 … Darryll Lewis turning Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave sideways at the goal line in 1990 … the Desert Swarm days … coaching All-American cornerback Chris McAlister …

Akina is a Wildcat again, lured from Texas, where he had spent 10 seasons as an assistant, to return to Arizona, where he had spent the previous 14 seasons under Dick Tomey.

Now, Akina will coach the secondary for Mike Stoops.

“It was extremely hard,” Akina said by phone Monday night after packing up his locker at Texas.

“It was the exactly the same thing emotionally, with all the anxiety, that we went through the first time when I was leaving Tucson to come to Austin. It was like, ‘Oh no, not this again.’ Stomach churning. Couldn’t sleep.”

In the end, Akina said he felt the timing was right. He had felt a pull to head back west. His family was “fired up” to return to Tucson. He talked about his “unfinished business” as a Wildcat.

“We had a great stand when we were there in the 1990s,” Akina said.

“We were close. And that’s still the goal: I want to line up and be part of the first Arizona team in the Rose Bowl. We need to go there and get that.”

With Akina’s experience, success and Wildcat ties — plus, he inherits a terrific group of young defensive backs — there will be no shortage of topics in the coming weeks and months. For now, here are eight things about Akina’s hiring to hold you over:

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Robert Anae coached with Dick Tomey in 1986 at Hawaii.
Photo from BYU

Less than an hour after coach Mike Stoops offered an assistant coaching position to Robert Anae — who accepted — the former BYU offensive coordinator called the man who gave him his first coaching job.

Dick Tomey.

“He is really fired up about being a Wildcat,” Tomey said Tuesday night from his home in Hawaii.

“I have talked to him several times, and he is so excited about coming to Tucson. … He is fortunate to be coming to Arizona, and Arizona is fortunate he’s coming. It’s a win-win.”

Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne broke news of the hiring on his Twitter account on Tuesday night, although it was already well-known that Anae was likely to replace offensive line coach and co-offensive coach Bill Bedenbaugh, who is leaving for West Virginia.

Still to be determined (or announced) is whether Anae will handle any of the coordinator or play-calling duties.

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Here’s something I did not know: Former Arizona Wildcats coach Dick Tomey helped launch the coaching career of Denver Broncos interim head coach Eric Studesville.

As told in a very fine feature by Terry Frei in Sunday’s Denver Post, Studesville graduated from Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1989 and worked as a personal trainer for a year before deciding to go to graduate school.

He is an excerpt from Frei’s story:

He was admitted to the University of Arizona’s exercise physiology program and went to Tucson in 1990. He found himself missing football and began checking out the Wildcats’ practices. Dick Tomey was Arizona’s coach.

“I pestered Coach Tomey for about a semester,” Studesville said. “About every two weeks, I’d go over to the football offices and leave him a message saying who I was and that I’d like to talk to him about anything I could help him with, anything to be around football. Finally, after the Christmas break, I was able to sit down and talk with him — for a few moments.”

Studesville laughed and added: “This week, I talked with Coach Tomey and reminded him of the fact that, at that moment, when he said, ‘OK, you can be around,’ that opened the door for me to be exposed to this business. I’m always going to be indebted to him.”

Tomey, 72, retired from coaching last year after a five-season run as San Jose State’s head coach.

“He was obviously very persistent,” Tomey said from his home in Hawaii. “He also was terrific, right from the start. We were really, really glad we brought him on. He was assertive and he was confident, and you could tell he knew what he wanted, but he could make that known while being kind and articulate in stating his case well. We were just putting together our program at Arizona, and he worked with a tremendous group of people.”

For the rest of the story, follow the link.

Studesville’s head coaching debut didn’t go so well Sunday, as the Broncos committed six turnovers while losing at the Arizona Cardinals 43-13.

Dick Tomey was 0-5 against Boise State when he was the head coach at San Jose State/Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Consider former Arizona Wildcats football coach Dick Tomey a Boise believer.

Tomey saw plenty of the Boise State Broncos when he was coaching at WAC opponent San Jose State from 2005 to 2009. He saw Boise State as recently as last Saturday when he served as an analyst for the WAC Sports Network during the Broncos’ game at New Mexico State.

Boise State is 4-0 and ranked fourth nationally, and there could be quite a discussion about their worthiness for the national championship game should the Broncos finish 12-0.

“I think they stack up,” Tomey said in a phone interview Thursday.

“I think their defensive front is as good as anybody’s, including Alabama or whoever, and that’s where you start on defense. That’s the biggest difference in their team now and their team four years ago. Four years ago, they were not nearly as strong in the defensive line.

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Rob Waldrop earned All-American honors in 1992 and 1993/Tucson Citizen file photo

I received an e-mail last week from a Sports Illustrated staff writer, asking for help tracking down former Arizona all-star defensive tackle Rob Waldrop for a story.

On Wednesday, ESPN.com’s Pat Forde, in his always-informative Forde-yard dash column, was curious about the same thing. Forde wrote:

Putting out an APB for …

… Former Arizona defensive lineman and Desert Swarm linchpin Rob Waldrop. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the 1993 Outland Trophy winner, please apprise The Dash.

OK, so what gives?

Why the sudden interest in the guy who was selected the 1993 national Defensive Player of the Year in 1993 by the Football Writers’ Association of America?

I talked with Waldrop on Wednesday morning to find out.

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This was Miami's Lamar Thomas on his way to the end zone against Arizona in 1991.
Photo by Xavier Gallegos, Tucson Citizen

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved three football rules changes Thursday, including one that had me thinking of 1991 and Lamar Thomas and Heath Bray and Gino Torretta and Dick Tomey.

Starting in the 2011 season, the rules will be different for a player who is penalized for taunting on his way to the end zone — stuff like high-stepping, diving when no defender is around or pointing at the other team.

As it is, those penalties are worth 15 yards on the extra point attempt, the 2-point conversion or the ensuing kickoff.

In 2011, the penalty will be enforced at the spot of the foul, which means the touchdown will be wiped out.

Anyway, that had me thinking of the most egregious taunting moment I can remember seeing in person, which happened in the 1991 Arizona-Miami game in Arizona Stadium. It involved Thomas, a Hurricanes receiver, and here is the story I wrote about it in October 2006 for the Tucson Citizen:

Arizona fans with long memories were not surprised by the announcing antics of Lamar Thomas.

Thomas was the TV analyst last week for the Miami-Florida International game, carrying on like a fool as players brawled on the field, swinging helmets, stomping on legs and — in the case of injured players — using crutches as clubs.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Thomas, a Miami alum, boasted on air.

“You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don’t come into the OB (Orange Bowl) playing that stuff. . . . I say, why don’t they just meet outside in the tunnel after the ballgame and get it on some more.”

His employer, Comcast Sports SouthEast, dealt with Thomas. He was fired.

In the Phoenix area, former Wildcat Heath Bray watched with interest.

Lamar Thomas is one player he can never forget.

“It’s been 15 years, and it’s like yesterday,” Bray said. “As soon as I heard that audio, I turned to my fiancée and told her the story.”

The story goes like this:

It was 1991, and Arizona was in the midst of a tough 4-7 season that wouldn’t get any better when unbeaten Miami visited Tucson on Oct. 26.

Early in the second quarter, quarterback Gino Torretta caught UA in a blitz, lofting a pass to Thomas, a speedy receiver who beat cornerback Darryl Morrison in one-on-one coverage. Thomas was off to the races down the east sideline of Arizona Stadium.

Thomas, all alone as he approached the end zone, slowed down and, curiously, stopped completely.

In a brazen look-at-me moment, full of the lack of sportsmanship he would display on the air 15 years later, Thomas put a toe over the goal line and gently placed the ball in the end zone.

“I had blitzed from the right side, and hit Gino in the mouth as he was throwing the ball,” Bray said. “We’re both on the ground on our backs . . . and we see him running down the field and just place the ball in the end zone. Gino turns to me and says something to the effect of, ‘What a (expletive).’ ”

The crowd booed, but what were the young, injured Wildcats to do? They lost 36-9, and coach Dick Tomey, still outraged a day later, called Thomas’ play “the height of showboating, the height of taunting.”

“That was certainly premeditated,” Tomey said. “I couldn’t believe he wasn’t called for a penalty.”

Bray, a vice president in a Scottsdale financial advising firm, was not surprised when Thomas said of Saturday’s melee, “I was about to go down the elevator to get in that thing.”

In 1992, Arizona was almost involved in one of those brawls with Thomas and the Hurricanes in a game at the Orange Bowl.

As Bray and punter Josh Miller went out for the coin toss, they attempted to shake hands with Miami’s Kevin Williams and Jessie Armstead.

“They put their hands behind their backs and looked at the ground,” Bray said. “(Linebacker) Charlie Camp saw that and started going ape crazy. The whole team came out into the middle of the field.”

Miami was already there.

After the near-skirmish, the fired-up Wildcats transformed into Desert Swarm that day, losing 8-7 to the top-ranked Hurricanes.

Arizona had entered that game coming off a tie at Oregon State, basically on life support. Perhaps in part because of guys such as Thomas and the over-the-top swagger of Miami, that group of Wildcats left the Orange Bowl knowing it found the emotional level it took to be successful.

In a strange way, perhaps a thank-you is in order.

That’s probably not the way Bray will see it. He and Torretta actually became friends after college — “he’s one of the nicest, most sincere guys I know,” Bray said — but he still does a slow burn if you mention Lamar Thomas and the 1991 game.

“That play colored the way I have thought about Miami for 15 years,” Bray said. “It will take something monumental to change it.”

Anthony Gimino can be reached at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com

Jennie Finch's 60 consecutive pitching victories might be the most impressive individual streak in Arizona history.

The Arizona Wildcats have the now dearly departed Streak in basketball — 25 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Thanks, Lute.

Arizona has The Streak in football — the upset-filled nine-season unbeaten run against Arizona State, from 1982 to 1990. Thanks, Larry Smith and Dick Tomey.

Arizona has so much more.

With a big boost from coach Mike Candrea‘s eight-time national championship softball program, the Wildcats have plenty of other (lower-case) streaks to celebrate.

Here are 12 of the best team streaks, in no particular order:

1. Softball’s 16 consecutive appearances in the College World Series, from 1988 to 2003. If not for a shocking upset in the regionals when the Wildcats were ranked No. 1 under interim head coach Larry Ray, the streak would be up to 22.

2. Softball’s 17 consecutive seasons with an All-American pitcher, from 1991 (Debby Day) to 2007 (Taryne Mowatt). This helps explain that College World Series streak.

3. Men’s basketball 71-game winning streak in McKale Center (1987-1992). It included a double-overtime win against eventual national champion Duke in 1991 and ended with an 89-87 loss to UCLA on Jan. 11, 1992.

4. Softball’s 18 consecutive years of being ranked No. 1 at some point of the season. That streak ended in 2009.

5. Women’s swimming current streak of 19 consecutive top 10 finishes in the NCAA meet. Thanks, Frank Busch. (The women also have a streak of six top three finishes in a row.)

6. Men’s swimming current streak of 12 consecutive top 8 national finishes in the NCAAs. Thanks again, Frank Busch. (Men’s and women’s swimming each won a national title in 2008.)

7. Men’s basketball 312 consecutive appearances in the AP regular-season poll. But not one week in 2009-10.

Not only was Lute Olson the author of the The Streak, he had significant runs at McKale Center and in the AP poll/Tucson Citizen photo

8. Softball’s 38-game winning streak over Arizona State (1991-2000). All the more amazing because the Sun Devils had a decent program, but Candrea owned his alma mater.

9. Men’s basketball’s 81-game winning streak in Bear Down Gym (1945-51). All that in the watch of coach Fred Enke.

10. Football’s 214-game scoring streak. It started with the 1972 season and ended with a 28-0 loss to Syracuse in the 1990 Aloha Bowl. It was the second-longest streak in the nation at the time.

11. Softball’s 47-game winning streak from April 1996 to March 1997. That’s an NCAA record.

12. And here’s one more from softball: The Wildcats had a 70-game winning streak at Hillenbrand Stadium from 2000 to 2002).

Individually, it’s hard to believe anything tops Jennie Finch‘s 60 consecutive pitching victories from 2000 to 2002. Another super softball streak: Caitlin Lowe stole 56 bases without being caught.

In softball, Amy Chellevold has the school’s longest hitting streak at 30 games. The baseball hitting streak belongs to Brian Anderson (2003) and Jason Donald (2006) at 26 games.

More impressive might be what Jake Thrower did in 1997. He had hits in 11 consecutive at-bats.

Have a favorite streak we missed? Let us know in the comments section or at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com.

Offensive lineman Conan Amituanai is one of the current Wildcats with Polynesian ties. His uncle is UA defensive coordinator Mike Tuiasosopo/2007 Tucson Citizen photo

The Arizona football team, building on its tradition of recruiting American Samoa and players of Polynesian heritage, has added defensive tackle Aiulua Fanene to its recruiting class.

Fanene, the brother of defensive end Jonathan Fanene of the Cincinnati Bengals, is from Tafuna High School on the island and was part of a recent “60 Minutes” feature on football in Samoa. You can watch it here. I’d recommend watching the whole thing if you haven’t seen it, but the part with Fanene begins at about the 6:12 mark.

Fanene was recruited by UA defensive line coach Mike Tuiasosopo, who has known the family since he recruited Jonathan to Utah.

In a 2006 story in the Tucson Citizen, Tuiasosopo talked about Arizona’s connection to the island.

“Others claim they have been there, but if anybody has a history, or can make that claim it is Arizona,” said Tuiasosopo, who was born in Samoa and has a nearly endless list of relatives who have played football in the United States.

“Utah and BYU can make a claim they have been involved because of their Mormon influence, but Washington and Oregon, I get a tickle out of that. They can say that now, but trust me, Arizona has a history.”

Former Arizona coach Dick Tomey, who had previously been the head coach at Hawaii, was, “instrumental in building the Samoan pipeline,” as described in a 2003 Sports Illustrated story titled “Football in Paradise.” And not just the pipeline to Arizona — the prolific pipeline from Samoa to colleges to the NFL.

The magazine wrote that Tomey had more than 120 Samoan players on his rosters at Hawaii and Arizona, spanning 24 years.

“There are no athletes that are, in my estimation, more competitive, more athletic or more family-oriented, or who fit into a team concept as well as Samoan athletes,” Tomey told SI. “The more we could get on our team, the better I felt.”

The Wildcats have sent at least a dozen players of Polynesian ties to the NFL: DL Stan Mataele, OL Mu Tagoai, OL Pulu Poumele, OT Edwin Mulitalo, TE Brandon Manumaleuna, DE Van Tuinei, OL Makoa Freitas, OL Makai Freitas, OL Steven Grace, OL Kili Lefotu, OL Manu Savea and DT Joe Salave’a.

The long list of Polynesian players at Arizona includes quarterbacks George Malauulu and Willie Tuitama. Malauulu is the president of the AIGA Foundation, which, according to its blog, seeks to “bring exposure to Pacific Islander football players excelling at the high school, collegiate and professional level.”

Many of the current and former Arizona players with Polynesian ties come from Hawaii or the West Coast, but some have come directly from American Samoa, including Savea and the late Young Thompson.

Salave’a, who was born in Samoa and grew up there, lost several family members in last September’s devastating tsunami and has been active in relief efforts through his foundation.

In another good story on the subject, this one a 2000 story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer written by Ted Miller, now of ESPN.com, then-UA defensive coordinator Rich Ellerson was quoted about the values of the Samoan culture.

“Their physical profile is outstanding for the game,” Ellerson said, “but I think the cultural profile — the family values, the idea of sacrifice, taking pride in your performance, the importance of toughness — that’s also important. Their chances of success are impacted by how close they are to their culture.”

Family values, sacrifice, pride and toughness: In the 60 Minutes profile, Aiulua Fanene was said to “do a day’s work before school under the direction of his father, David.”

Fanene will see plenty of friendly faces when he arrives in Tucson, and he won’t be fazed by the rigors of coach Mike Stoops‘ fall camp.