Arizona Wildcats Insiders Podcast: Arizona Ring of Fame

Welcome! To another edition of the Arizona Wildcats Insiders Podcast featuring your host Troy Hutchison, who will be delivering a daily podcast discussing everything happening surrounding Arizona athletics giving you an inside look at all the programs on campus.

Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years with his coverage spanning all-across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their prospective sports there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats excelling outside of Tucson.

To watch, view below.

Throughout its history, Arizona football has seen many ups and downs with the program making 22 bowl games and recording four 10-win seasons. In 1998, the Wildcats finished with a school-record 12 wins capped off with a 23-20 win over Nebraska.

As Arizona enters its 122nd season as a football team, the program has seen legendary players that have helped build the brand with four College Football Hall of Fame players, 29 All-Americans and 290 players that have made their way to the NFL.

Arizona has honored its legendary players with 52 being inducted into the Ring of Fame and now the Wildcats will be adding two more to the list in former Wildcats Tetairoa McMillan and Randy Robbins with the program making the announcement on Monday morning ahead of training camp.

Although McMillan played just last season, it has been a long time since Robbins has strapped on the helmet for Arizona. He played from 1980-83 under then-head coach Larry Smith where he helped build the program back up with fellow defensive stars Ricky Hunley, Lamonte Hunley, Allan Durden and Byron Evans.

“I’ll tell you what, there’s never been a more deserving guy than Randy Robbins,” said Ricky to Arizona Wildcats On SI. “That guy’s a local, Casa Grande High School and probably the greatest player to come out of Casa Grande.”

In four seasons with Arizona, Robbins recorded 12 interceptions ranking fifth all-time in program history and led the Pac-10 with six during the 1982 season.

While Robbins was on campus, Arizona went an impressive 24-18-2 as Smith was building the program from the ground up. During that time, the Wildcats upset No. 1 USC, No. 2 UCLA, No. 9 Notre Dame and started “The Streak” against in-state rival ASU.

“We came in as freshmen together under Larry Smith and the guy was just a blue collar hard working guy, who played corner. He was mister reliable. You didn’t have to worry about that side of the field,” said Ricky. “Randy played quiet. He doesn’t say much. He just works hard to get the job done.”

After his time in Tucson, Robbins would go on to play nine years in the NFL and was drafted by the Denver Broncos where he played with Ricky and former Wildcat Vance Johnson. In his NFL career, he recorded 13 interceptions, recovered 10 fumbles and collected eight sacks in 141 games.

Robbins, Ricky and Johnson helped the Broncos and star quarterback John Elway get to two Super Bowls and were key pieces as part of the offense and the historic “Orange Crush” defense.

Everyone will be talking about McMillan getting into the Ring of Honor and it is well deserved. However, Robbins is one of the top five cornerbacks in program history and as Ricky put it “It’s about damn time.”

So, fans should not only celebrate Robbins’ honor but thank him and the Wildcats of the 80s for laying the foundation of the program.

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