Rick LaRose

Originally hired as the men's head water polo coach and assistant swim coach, he guided the water polo program to four NCAA regional championships and three fifth-place finishes at the NCAA Championships. His teams were never ranked out of the top six nationally and produced five All-Americans and one United States Olympian. Coach LaRose compiled a 154-37-2 record as the UA Water Polo head coach. But he left an indelible mark on the Wildcat golf programs, taking over men’s golf head coaching duties in 1978-79. In the 34 years that followed he established Arizona golf as one of the nation's finest college golf programs. His golf teams were ranked in the top 20 in 26 of those 34 campaigns, including a string of eight consecutive years that the cats were ranked in the top three nationally. Further, the team as the nation's No. 1 team 13 different times, most recently during the 1997-98 campaign, when it was ranked No. 1 for the majority of the season. Accepting double-duty as the head coach for both the men's and women's programs, he led the women to the 1996 NCAA title and each squad was ranked No. 1 nationally during those seasons. He is the only coach in NCAA history to win both a men's and women's national championship. In addition to those two NCAA titles, LaRose's teams won seven NCAA regional championships, four Pac-10 crowns and three Rolex Match play titles. Further, he also is the only one to produce both a men's and women's Rolex match Play and Pac-10 championship teams. His career in the NCAA's not only include the 1992 men's and 1996 women's titles, but six third place, two fifth place and two sixth place efforts. He guided the Wildcats to 23 NCAA Championship berths in 26 years, including 21 consecutive from 1987-2007, making Arizona one of only six programs nationally to appear in 20 straight NCAA finals. Since 1978, LaRose's golf teams won 62 men's tournaments and 19 women's tourneys. He also produced seven national players of the yea, 11 Pac-10 Players of the year, 68 All-Americans and 109 all-Pac-10 Conference performers. He had a hand in coaching US Amateur winners, five US Walker Cup Players, a pair of Ryder Cup golfers, a US President’s Cup Performer and three US Publinx champions. 18 of his pupils have also represented the US in international collegiate competitions. Former UA golfers have won more than 60 professional events worldwide, including nearly 40 PGA Tour events. LaRose, who won more than 6,200 head-to-head matches in his career, was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame in 2009. His 39 years served as a head coach is the second longest tenure in school history.