“88” The Documentary Sean P. Malone
Four months ago Editor of zonazealots.com, Shereen Ryan, did a story about a film focusing on the Arizona Wildcats Basketball program called “88”. The movie about the 1988 Final Four Cats is something my brother Sean and I have been working on for many years.
I was made more aware of ZonaZealots.com because of the article about our film prject and it got me interested in joining the Zona Zealots team as a sports writer/contributor. Shortly after Shereen wrote the piece about us, I applied, interviewed, and then became a part of the team.
I have had a blast so far writing from a fan’s perspective about our beloved Wildcats.
The reason my brother and I are doing the movie is because the ’88 team made us Arizona Basketball fans for life.
In the past few years we were able to score interviews with Lute Olson, Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, Bruce Fraser, Kevin O’Neill and Jay Bilas for the movie.
Photo by Sean P. Malone
I thought it would be a good time to give our ZZ fans an update of what we have accomplished this summer including additional feature interviews and other stuff.
Our first bit of great news came when we were able to land an interview with one of the greatest point guards in Arizona history, Mike Bibby. It was a ton of fun talking to Mike about the 1997 National Championship run and his time at Arizona.
In June we started a Kickstarter campaign asking for $23,500. The money would help us to travel for and film the remaining interviews needed to complete the film. In addition, we needed to cover the Kickstarter fees and reward costs for the campaign.
Arizona fans from all over stepped up and donated their hard earned cash to this project. When the campaign ended we had surpassed our goal and raised $26,862 thanks to 262 backers! We were so appreciative, this confirmed our project was something people desired.
Before we knew the campaign was a success, we were busy little Wildcats. Sean took some time off from his day job in California and came to Tucson for a few weeks in July. I also took some time off from my job. This gave us an opportunity to talk to lots of folks with great knowledge about the basketball program and the ’88 team.
Arizona Wildcats
We started our interviews in Tucson by talking to legendary Arizona broadcaster Brian Jeffries. He has been working in radio in Tucson since the early 1980’s. 1987-88 was a big year for Brian, because it was the first year he was the full-time play-by-play announcer for the Cats; 27 years later he is still doing a first-class job.
Next up was Jay Gonzales. Jay grew up in Tucson and is one of the most knowledgable Arizona fans I have ever met. During the 1987-88 season he was the basketball beat writer for the Arizona Daily Star. Wherever the Cats went that year, Jay followed, even to a shivering Alaska for the Great Alaska Shootout.
We then talked to former local television personality Dave Silver. He came to work in Tucson in 1983. He covered the Wildcats for the entire Lute Olson era. I don’t think Dave has aged a day in 20 years.
Have any of you read ‘100 Things Arizona Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die’? If you are an Arizona Basketball fan you will love it. It’s jam-packed with cool nuggets of Arizona Basketball info. The authors of the book, Steve Rivera and Anthony Gimino, were kind enough to let us interview them next. These guys have been writing about Arizona Athletics for decades.
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We then talked to Dana Cooper. He produced and hosted the football and basketball coaches’ show at Arizona for 13 years. His documentary ‘Memories ’88’, is a staple in any hard-core Arizona Basketball fans memorabilia collection.
Our final interview this summer came from former Gumby Matt Muehlebach. He played at Arizona from 1987-90. Matt never lost a game in McKale in four years and had the first recorded triple-double in Arizona history.
We couldn’t thank these gentlemen enough for taking time out of their schedules to talk to us. We also thanked everyone that helped us with our Kickstarter campaign. We are very humbled by all the support we have received from the fans.
We still have lots of work to do and many more people to talk to but if all goes according to plan, we still hope to have the film ready for Spring 2017. I cannot wait for our movie to be complete so Sean and I can show the fans our passion for sports and entertainment along with our complete fandom of the Arizona Wildcats.
Thanks and Bear Down!