Wildcat Wednesday - OOH AAH MAN - University of Arizona Athletics

March 6, 2013

OOH AAH MAN

Joe Cavaleri, the “Ooh Aah” man, has been an incredible part of the history and tradition of Arizona Athletics dating back to his first cheers at Arizona baseball games in 1979. After 34 years, Ooh Aah will perform for the final time this Saturday during the men’s basketball game. While Ooh Aah will be retiring from performing on the court, Joe will still be attending Arizona games in the future as our guest, sitting in his same seats for many years to come.

As a thank you for all Joe has done for the Wildcats, we will honor the Ooh Aah man and pay tribute to his legacy during a ceremony at halftime of Saturday’s game. Joe and his daughter, Olivia, will also be our guests for the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. In addition, we are excited to reveal below the design of the Ooh Aah man t-shirt. The shirt is now available online at the UA Bookstore's website and it will be available at the A-Store at McKale beginning on Saturday.

We are very appreciative of Arizona alum, Marc Herman, who is CEO of the Original Retro Brand. Marc’s company worked with Joe to design and produce the Ooh Aah man t-shirt, and he has generously donated his profits from the sale of the t-shirts directly to Joe and his family.

We look forward to seeing many of you on Saturday to pay tribute to this great man.

TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR SATURDAY’S BASKETBALL GAME

As this weekend is the beginning of Spring Break, The McKale Ticket Office received a very limited number of tickets back from ZonaZoo. These seats are general admission and can be purchased tonight online atArizonaWildcats.com. Wear red!

PARKING ON CAMPUS THIS SATURDAY

The Tucson Festival of Books is Saturday, March 9 on the UA campus. This event presents some parking challenges for those coming to Saturday’s men’s basketball game and/or softball doubleheader, mostly in the form of extra traffic around campus. Cherry Avenue will be closed near the mall, so those used to driving southbound on Cherry to get to the Cherry Garage will need to take an alternate route. Additional information is available here. Click here for a campus map.

Make sure to arrive early to allow plenty of time to get to your parking spot.

SOFTBALL SCHEDULE CHANGE

Due to Friday’s weather forecast for rain, Friday’s softball game vs. Boise State has been moved to tomorrow (Thursday) at 6 p.m. All tickets issued for Friday’s game will be honored tomorrow. We apologize for the inconvenience. The team is encouraging fans to wear pink as part of their “Take a Swing at Cancer,” breast cancer awareness night. There is also a baseball game scheduled Friday at Hi Corbett Field vs. Columbia. As of right now that game is still scheduled to be played at 6 p.m. on Friday. Make sure to follow Arizona Athletics on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news.

PAC-12 MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Thank you to all of our fans who are making the journey to Las Vegas to show our Wildcat Pride in force for our men’s basketball team. Tournament tickets have been mailed and we wanted to give you a reminder that we assigned all tickets through the Wildcat Club priority point system. This first year our tickets start on the baseline corner behind the south bench. Our location will rotate each year and my hope (not a guarantee) is that next year our seats will be closer to mid-court.

The Alumni Association is hosting a special Wildcat Fan Party Wednesday night at Diablo’s Cantina. This event starts at 7 p.m. and is open to all Wildcat fans. Diablo’s is located on the Strip, in front of the Monte Carlo. Click here for details.

The McKale Ticket Office has secured a limited number of additional Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament all-session tickets. These all-session tickets can be purchased starting tomorrow at 9 a.m. atArizonaWildcats.com or the McKale Ticket Office. We look forward to seeing all of you in Vegas.

NAU FOOTBALL GAME

Our 2013 football home opener against NAU has been moved to Friday, Aug. 30. This is a great opportunity to showcase our program as we will be the only Pac-12 game broadcast that night.  The television selection and official start time will be announced by the Pac-12 office in June. However, we are pushing for kick off at either 7 or 7:30 p.m. This is important to us in order to allow our fans to have time to finish their workday and then make it to the game.

We hope the move to Friday night will also allow for some fans who are planning to head out of town for Labor Day Weekend to catch the game before they depart. We know it is a different approach but this is great exposure for our program, and will be a way to best maximize our opportunity for a packed crowd at our home opener.

CHAMPIONSHIPS UNDERWAY

In the pool in Federal Way, Wash. for the Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships,the Wildcats added to their already long list of accomplishments this season with five conference titles on the women’s side. Junior Margo Geer led the way for the Wildcats as she was part of all five titles. Arizona won championships in the 200 medley relay, 200 free relay, 400 medley relay and Geer added individual titles in the 50 free and 100 free. Freshman diver Rafael Quintero won a title in the platform diving competition, becoming the first Arizona newcomer to win a Pac-12 title in diving since Wildcat diving coach Omar Ojeda won all three diving events in 2001. The women finished the Pac-12 Championships in fourth place. On the men’s side, sophomore Kevin Cordes won a Pac-12 title in the 100 breast. With one day of competition left, the Arizona men sit in fourth place in the team standings.

CONGRATS, LAWI!

One of the most decorated distance runners in Arizona history, junior Lawi Lalang was named the USTFCCCA (Coaches’ Association) West Region Track Athlete of the Year for the second-straight season. Lalang currently holds the No. 3 collegiate time in history and the No. 1 collegiate time this season, 7:42.79, in the 3,000-meter race – also breaking his own school record. Lalang also holds the No. 2 time in the country for the mile. He broke his own school record at the Millrose Games with a personal-best time of 3:54.56, also the No. 3 collegiate time ever.

A-CLUB LETTERWINNER UPDATE – BASEBALL ALUMNI WEEKEND

We were very excited and proud to welcome back our baseball alumni letterwinners this past weekend. We recognized the 1963 baseball team who went to Omaha and were the runnersup in the College World Series. Special thanks to the many baseball alumni letterwinners for making a contribution to support the baseball program. I’m sorry I missed seeing them and everyone else but I heard they had a great time reuniting with former teammates and catching some great baseball. Thanks to everyone who came back and made it a memorable weekend.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

**Women’s basketball is in Seattle for the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament. The Wildcats will play Utah in the first round tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.

**Men’s basketball wraps up the regular season Saturday afternoon vs. our rivals up north. It’s an important game for both the Territorial Cup Series and Pac-12 tournament seeding. Our outstanding senior class will be honored after the game in the annual Senior Day Ceremony. The game starts at 2:30 p.m. and will be televised on FSN. **Qualified members of the indoor track and field team are headed to Fayetteville, Ark. to compete in the NCAA Championships Friday and Saturday. Live video streaming will be available at espn3.com.

**Women’s tennis faces Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and Colorado in Boulder on Sunday at 10 a.m.

**Baseball continues their home stand with a weekend series vs. Columbia. Friday’s and Saturday’s games start at 6 p.m. Sunday’s game is at 12 p.m. For Saturday’s game, fans attending Saturday’s men’s basketball game can purchase two tickets for the price of one when they bring their basketball ticket to the Hi Corbett Field box office.

**Gymnastics competes against the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman on Friday at 6 p.m.

**Softball will host Boise State in a three-game series at Hillenbrand Stadium this weekend. As we mentioned earlier, Friday’s game has been moved to tomorrow at 6 p.m. Saturday is a doubleheader with games at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

**Men’s tennis will play two matches against Denver Saturday and Sunday. Both matches start at noon and both matches are in Denver.

To purchase tickets for any of our home events, call 520-621-CATS, visit the McKale Center Ticket Office ororder online at ArizonaWildcats.com.

WEARING THE COLORS

Continue to do what you can to help Arizona Athletics and:

Join the Wildcat Movement
Buy Season Tickets
Wear the Colors (Especially on Friday)
Get Others to Do the Same

Bear Down with Pride,

Greg Byrne
Vice President for Athletics
University of Arizona
uofaad@arizona.edu