Arizona Memories from the ’70s

Arizona in the 1970s was a time of unexpected change, unprecedented extremes and unbelievable highs and lows.

The Phoenix Suns got their shot in the 1976 NBA playoffs, in triple overtime. (Many fans still refer to it as the greatest basketball game ever played.) ASU’s football team played in five out of the first seven Fiesta Bowls, winning all but one.

Women made history in media, business, and politics with firsts as TV anchors, judges, and mayors. Arizonans elected the state’s first Hispanic governor.

The state faced a series of devastating tragedies from the murder of reporter Don Bolles to the marauding Tison gang. The Arizona desert weathered an unusual series of violent storms, resulting in more than one 100-year flood.

Miles of new highways and housing developments continued to feed Arizona’s growth. Promoters even brought the beach to the desert and called it Big Surf.

And the events unfolded with the distinctive ’70s soundtrack which Arizonans Alice Cooper, The Tubes, and Stevie Nicks helped define.