Bordow: Sun Devils will lose a bit of soul if Tontozona is sold

Camp Tontozona - Rudy Burgoz woke up at 4:28 a.m. Saturday. By 4:29 a.m., he was already depressed. “I thought to myself, 'This is my last Camp Tontozona,’ ” said Burgoz, an Arizona State alum and longtime football fan.

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That may very well be the case.

Arizona State senior associate athletic director Mike Chismar confirmed during Saturday’s scrimmage that the university has had internal discussions about selling Camp Tontozona, the Sun Devils’ summer retreat since 1960.

“I know this is a place that is costing ASU money, and that’s not a good thing,” added senior associate AD Don Bocchi. “Not in this age of entrepreneurship.”

There was talk among fans and football staff that ASU already has put the property up for sale for $5.5 million, and that the Arizona Game and Fish Department is interested in purchasing it.

But school spokeswoman Terri Shafer said, “There are no plans to sell it at this time.”

Note the phrasing: At this time.

ASU already has began to phase out the bucolic site Frank Kush discovered.

For 47 years, the Sun Devils stayed at Tontozona for at least a week, practicing twice a day and pulling pranks on each other at night. This year, however, coach Dennis Erickson bused his team north only for Saturday’s scrimmage, and he did that just to throw a bone to ASU’s fans.

The truth is, everyone from the coaches to the players to the support staff hates Tontozona. The technology is outdated, there’s no cell phone service, and the facilities are lacking — laundry had to be driven 20 miles into Payson every night.

And now that ASU can escape the heat in its indoor practice facility, there’s no need to head to the pine country.

“Everything at some point becomes obsolete,” Bocchi said. “That doesn’t make it any less meaningful. I liken it to Yankee Stadium. Yankee Stadium is going away, too.”

(The Yankees are moving to a new stadium in 2009).

Camp Tontozona’s time may have come and gone. But there’s something to be said for tradition, too. ASU will lose a small piece of its soul if and when Tontozona is sold.

“I think this is one of the greatest assets ASU has,” said Rudy Campbell, an Arizona Board of Regent for 16 years and a member of the Sun Angel Foundation Board of Directors for 25 years. “Not coming here to practice ... it’s like going in the Army and not going through boot camp.”

For Burgoz, losing Tontozona is like losing a member of the family. He has made the 90-minute drive north since 1962, when he was a junior at ASU.

He remembers players using their helmets to pick up rocks off the practice field, and how they’d roll the field by standing on a telephone pole and moving it across the grass.

“I’m going to be seeing these guys here for the last time,” he said. “What a shame that it’s going to be gone.”

Burgoz has told friends and family members that if he wins the lottery, he’ll buy Camp Tontozona and donate it to the university.

There’s just one condition, though.

“They’ll have to practice here seven days, minimum,” he said.

It’s a nice thought, but those days are gone. All that soon will be left of Tontozona are memories: The thunderstorms rolling in in the afternoon; the cool temperatures and fresh air; the stories of seniors throwing a skunk into the freshman cabin or quarterback Jake Plummer dancing the funky chicken while in his birthday suit.

Former ASU coach Dirk Koetter once asked how those shenanigans help a football team win. Maybe they don’t.

But they were part of what made Camp Tontozona special.

“You know what it feels like?” Burgoz said. “Like I’ve had a dagger stuck in me.”