Jim Click Hall of Champions - Tucson, AZ
Background
The Jim Click Hall of Champions is a museum for Arizona Athletics, connected to McKale Center. Home to many historical achievements, the Hall of Champions offers fans, students, and alumni the chance to learn more about Arizona Athletics. Whether it be getting up close with trophy cases, readings, and displays featuring Wildcats memorabilia, there are numerous exhibits that cover decades of success. According to the University of Arizona website1, this facility is 36,000 square feet and located in the Eddie Lynch Athletics Pavilion on 1766 E University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85719.
Founded in 1885, the University of Arizona has had a rich athletic history that the Hall of Champions showcases. The Hall of Champions is where any and all sports trophies are displayed, including Bowl games, PAC-12, and NCAA wins and honors. Despite being attached to the McKale Center, the Hall of Champions holds the history of every sport and athlete the University of Arizona has ever had.
Trophies along one wall
Exhibits
Along with the walls of trophies, the Hall of Champions has a wall dedicated to the athletes who continued their sport, called “Wildcats in the Pros”. This wall showcases the many students that have taken their game to the next level. The Wall is continuously updated whenever a change to someone’s status is made. Also along the walls are newspaper and magazine covers that celebrate Wildcat athletes, with some featured being Sports Illustrated covers of Rob Gronkowski and Nick Foles.
The Hall of Champions also gives a stage to women’s athletics. This includes tributes to the 2020 Women's Basketball team lead by Aari McDonald and coach Adia Barnes, while also honoring legendary softball coach Mike Candrea since his retirement. There is an exhibit where you can see the trophies that the women’s teams have won during their college and professional careers. There are a few trophies from their legendary softball teams, who have won multiple national championships. Besides trophies, there are pictures of the actual athletes that made history, including All-American Jennie Finch and home run leaders Katiyana Mauga and Jessie Harper. The exhibits show when women’s sports were established, when they started to become more popular, and when they got implemented into the university. These exhibits offer great pride to women and especially to the women who were a part of it.
The University also shows how aspects of not only the sports but the cheerleading and mascots have changed throughout the years. There are actual uniforms for every sport from years ago, as well as the old mascot suits, all in exhibits with explanations as to what they are and their significance in the history of the University. Through these historical exhibits you can see the change in uniforms on a general basis but also a change in colors, as the University of Arizona originally used sage green and silver as their colors, “sage in reference to the indigenous sage bush and silver symbolizing the state’s mining industries”.
There are some interactive displays in the Hall of Champions, one of which is a button that, when pressed, will play a mountain lion roar which is the sound of the Wildcat mascot.
What makes the Hall of Champions unique and interesting is that it highlights every sport and its own history. While you are walking around, in every corner you can find a different sport and its achievements. There is a very unique collection of articles, jerseys, and in-game collectibles. In every collection of each sport, there is equipment that the athletes used to use from that time period. Their shoes, their racket and most of this equipment never stayed the same. One thing to notice is how it changed over time. For example, how the basketball that they used was different from the current time period. Also, there is one exhibit about baseball and it shows how they used to have open shoes and their baseball bats used to be in a different size. All/most of these actual items were given to the Hall of Champions by Wildcat alumni.
The highest regarded sport at the University is the Men's Basketball program, consisting of 4 Final Four appearances, 11 Elite Eights, 20 Sweet Sixteens and one National Championship. The University of Arizona won the NCAA National Championship in 1997 with a team coached by Lute Olsen and led by Mike Bibby and Miles Simon. Lute Olsen is the most beloved basketball coach at the UofA and has been honored with a statue on the pavilion outside the Hall of Champions, modeled after him when the Wildcats won their Championship.
On one of the larger walls, there is an exhibit that shows all the athletes that participated in the Olympics games over the years. There are a lot of athletes from different sports that have participated. According to University of Arizona News, there have been 122 Wildcats in the Olympics, 56 women and 66 men, with there having been 187 appearances between them all.
Mascots
The famous mascots of the University are Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat. In the Hall of Champions, there is an exhibit that shows how the Wilbur and Wilma suits have changed over time including the live mascot that was the first mascot of the University of Arizona, which was a bobcat named “Rufus”. They used to bring the bobcat to sports events as a part of the tradition. Rufus got changed to the Wilbur and Wilma mascots after an incident with a live bobcat dying by accident. They have an exhibit of the old version of Wilbur and Wilma that one can see in the Hall of Champion. A fun fact about the couple: “The pair met on a blind date on March 1, 1986. They were married on Nov. 21, 1986 before a football game against Arizona State University.”
Wilbur and Wilma
The Jim Click Hall of Champions is truly symbolic to Arizona Athletics. This is the space where all former athletes are welcome and celebrated at the University of Arizona. For a program that is built around tradition, legacy, and honoring the greats, the Hall of Champions is a collective that will forever bring memories and celebrations for Arizona Wildcats of all types.
Where and When?
The Hall of Champion is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 am – 5 pm and on Saturday it is open from 9 am -1pm. It is open during the day before basketball and football games start. While it was closed during the Pandemic, the Hall of Champions is now open and ready to welcome guests. The space can also be rented for catering events, meetings, and other parties by going to ArizonaWildcats.com, and going through their reservation process.
Sources
University of Arizona Athletics, arizonawildcats.com/facilities/jim-click-hall-of-champions/3.
“Jim Click Hall of Champions.” University of Arizona Athletics, arizonawildcats.com/sports/2013/4/18/208236739.aspx?id=3359.
NCAA.com, Wayne Cavadi |. “College Softball's All-Time Home Run Leaders.” NCAA.com, NCAA.com, 10 June 2021, www.ncaa.com/news/softball/article/2021-06-07/college-softballs-all-time-home-run-leaders.
“Arizona Wildcats Men’s Basketball.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Mar. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Wildcats_men%27s_basketball.
