Bob Elliott and the ‘Kiddie Korps’ lead all-Snowden era team at Arizona

For Tucson basketball fans, Fred Snowden’s Arizona teams remain part of the city’s sports identity, especially the group that filled the new McKale Center with fast-paced basketball and larger-than-life personalities. The Wildcats of the 1972-73 through 1981-82 seasons won 60.7% of their games and reached the 1976 Elite Eight. An all-Snowden-era team, built with five starters and five reserves, captures both the talent of those teams and the lasting influence of the coach who helped turn Arizona basketball into a major Tucson attraction.

The foundation was Snowden’s first recruiting class, quickly nicknamed the “Kiddie Korps” because freshmen had just become eligible to play varsity sports. Eric Money, Coniel Norman and Al Fleming were among the young players who immediately changed the program’s energy. Money scored 53 points in the 1972-73 Red-Blue Game, then opened his regular season with 37 points against Cal State-Bakersfield, still the fourth-highest single-game total by an Arizona freshman. He averaged 18.9 points as a freshman and 18.1 as a sophomore while shooting 50% from the field before entering the 1974 NBA Draft. He became the 33rd overall selection and played six NBA seasons.

Norman, known as “Popcorn” for his ability to shoot from anywhere, is the first guard in this lineup. His 23.9-point career scoring average remains the best in Arizona history, despite the absence of a three-point line during his career. Norman averaged 24 points as a freshman, another school record for freshman scoring average, and was a first-team all-WAC selection in both of his seasons. Like Money, he declared hardship to enter the 1974 draft, going to the Philadelphia 76ers in the third round. His life later included military service and homelessness, but he rebuilt his life in Los Angeles beginning in 2010. Norman died in 2022.

Herman Harris earns the other starting guard spot after delivering one of the defining performances in Arizona history. In the 1976 Sweet Sixteen against UNLV, Harris scored 17 of Arizona’s final 25 points in an overtime victory that sent the Wildcats to their first Elite Eight. He scored 49 points across the regional’s two games, including 18 against UCLA in the next round, and was named to the all-regional team. Harris improved throughout his four seasons and became a first-team all-WAC selection as a senior, averaging 20.1 points in 1976-77. His numbers would have been even more valuable in the modern era because many of his field goals would have counted for three points.

Fleming joins Harris and the guards in the starting five. Also part of the original Kiddie Korps, he averaged 12.8 points and 9.9 rebounds as a freshman in 1972-73, then posted a double-double in each of the next three seasons. He had 21 points and 13 rebounds against 17th-ranked USC and finished his freshman season with the third-highest rebounding average by a freshman in Arizona history at the time. Fleming was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the second round of the 1976 NBA Draft and later played in Europe. He died of kidney cancer at 49 in 2003 and entered the Arizona Ring of Honor in 2021.

The most obvious choice as the starting center is Bob Elliott, whom Arizona basketball historian Javier Morales described as the most important player of the Snowden era. Elliott ranks second in program history in scoring, with 2,131 points, and second in rebounding, with 1,083. He averaged a double-double as both a freshman and a junior, and scored 23.5 points per game as a sophomore in 1974-75, when Arizona reached the NCAA Tournament. As a senior, despite an undisclosed knee injury, he averaged 16.5 points in 29.6 minutes per game. Elliott was a three-time all-WAC selection, later returned to Tucson as an accountant and became a regular Arizona television analyst.

The reserves reflect how much depth Snowden had during the program’s formative years. Russell Brown remains Arizona’s career assists leader with 810, including a school-record 247 in 1978-79. Elliott praised Brown’s court vision, especially because assists were awarded under stricter standards at the time. Jim Rappis, another original Kiddie Korps member, provided the steady leadership and toughness of a glue player. He averaged 12 points as a junior and 13.4 as a senior, earning second-team all-WAC honors in 1975-76. In the UNLV game, he scored 24 points and handed out 12 assists despite injuring his left heel in the first half.

Joe Nehls gives the bench a premier shooter, even though Arizona played before the three-point line. He started 72 of 84 games and averaged 19.1 points in 1976-77 and 19.3 in 1979-80, including 20.2 in Pac-10 games. He was a first-team all-conference selection and later built a real estate career in Tucson. Larry Demic is another reserve whose patience paid off. He played sparingly early in his career, considered transferring, then stayed and broke out as a senior with averages of 19.3 points and 10.3 rebounds. The New York Knicks selected him ninth overall in 1979, making him Arizona’s first-ever first-round NBA pick. Phil Taylor completes the group, having shot 52.1% over his career and averaged a double-double as a junior. He later averaged 16.6 points and 8.1 rebounds as a senior while earning second-team all-WAC honors.

The 1976 Elite Eight team showed both the promise and the limits of Snowden’s early success. Arizona defeated UNLV 114-109 in overtime before facing UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, where the Wildcats stayed close for 32 minutes. Elliott’s layup tied the game at 58 with 8:21 remaining, but UCLA finished with a 24-8 run for an 82-66 victory. UCLA coach Gene Bartow said the Wildcats appeared to be affected by the previous game’s exhaustion. Rappis played through his injured foot, while Fleming finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds. The defeat ended the original Kiddie Korps era, with Money and Norman already gone to the NBA, but the team’s run helped establish the foundation for what Lute Olson later built.

For Tucson families who watched those games, the players were more than names in a record book. One local recollection describes children waiting outside the McKale Center locker room, seeing Norman and Money joking around, talking with Elliott and receiving attention from Rappis. Snowden, known as “The Fox” for his baseball speed, had arrived at Arizona on March 21, 1972, after serving as an assistant at Michigan, becoming the first African-American head coach at a major college basketball program. His run-and-gun style energized Tucson, and the memories of those McKale Center teams still connect the city’s early basketball boom to the championship eras that followed.