Corky: Pima football owes debt to Scurran

It's inspiring to see the football team at Pima Community College rarin' to go into its fifth season, and we wish Mark Hourany and his staff great success.

You have to wonder what the student body was thinking last fall when it voted to change the school colors to navy and black.

And the nickname "Aztecs" may eventually run up against the power of political correctness, although the NCAA and National Junior College Athletic Association probably don't have jurisdiction over a long ago Mexican culture.

But first things first, and right now the program appears to be legally named, doing well and coming off a 9-3 season last year.

As one who said years ago that football would never make it at Pima, I am still amazed.

The man who made it work was Jeff Scurran. And the ONLY man who could have made it work was Scurran. The former Sabino High School coach convinced the right people that he could find enough athletes, a place to practice and play, and more importantly, enough money to buy equipment and uniforms.

He even finagled a practice field out on East Irvington Road - an artificial turf practice field - for his team.

T

he man is a football genius and as long as the game is played at Pima, the school, the students and the players will owe him a debt of gratitude. Four-year NCAA institutions who use Native American mascots are now in gross disfavor, but as we mentioned, Aztecs ought to be a fairly safe nickname for Pima. If, however, the school should ever be forced to change from Aztecs, it might to consider "Scurrans" or "Lord Jeffs," the unique name used by Amherst College. School colors at Pima are interesting. When the junior college first opene

d, at the West Campus on Anklam Road, the colors were brown and orange. Some of us are fond of those colors. Scurran most assuredly was not.

And when we suggested to him that first year he had a chance to put a team on the field in the same colors as the Cleveland Browns, he said, "Forget it." He put them in black uniforms with baby-blue helmets.

He also changed the name to "Storm," giving identity, I suppose, to the East Campus just off Irvington. The Storm have subsided, thankfully, and the nickname returned to Aztecs. But they can be gowned in rustling silk with team colors of eggplant and ecru and called the "Cell Phones," as long as the program can give local high school athletes who don't project to NCAA Division I caliber an opportunity to play football.

For that we can thank Scurran and, this season, Hourany.

CORKY SIMPSON
Tucson Citizen