ASU brings athletics Hall of Fame into modern age

PHOENIX – Since his return to campus in January, Randy Policar has led a demanding and arduous project to re-invent the Sun Devil Hall of Fame.

As senior associate athletic director Doug Tammaro notes, Policar’s attention to detail makes him the right man for the task. 

“There’s this Taylor Kelly jersey from 2012,” said Policar, the assistant director of Sun Devil Tradition and Growth. “There’s a mark on the (former quarterback’s) sleeve and I can see how it’s faded there. I looked at about 12 different photos from this game and zoomed in, and I found a mark that matches up. It kind of varies from jersey to jersey.” 

This process of photo-matching helps Policar pair old jerseys to the players who wore them, and highlights the moments for which they were worn. Policar, a class of 2002 graduate, combs through hundreds of photos, focusing on the smallest of details to ensure the right artifacts are preserved.

The Hall of Fame, located inside the Carson Student-Athlete Center, will be fully digitized and modernized this summer to include more of Arizona State’s storied athletic past. 

“I’ve always kept up on Arizona State history and the history of the athletic department,” Policar said. “When I was brought back in, one of the things that was discussed was how we can bring the Hall of Fame into the digital age and really make it a destination for people when they’re on campus.” 

Policar’s vision aims to remove much of the permanence of the current facility by making the experience accessible through the scan of a QR code. 

“The idea is to digitize everything so that it can be updated all the time,” Policar said. “Things can be added all the time and we don’t have to worry about doing construction to redo an entire case. We can put new items in, you have a QR code that you can scan or a touchscreen that we’ll have. You can get all the information about that item, that sport, that student-athlete all at your fingertips.” 

The process to complete the project has been rigorous, with Policar having to spend long hours reviewing archives and old scorebooks to compile the necessary information. For Policar, the experience has proved rewarding. 

“The most exciting thing is going through our archives and figuring out exactly what we have,” he said. “Each sport has their own storage, each sport has their own unique history and it’s finding those items and being able to show them off.”  

The department is finally in a position to remedy some of the outdated elements of the Hall, Tammaro said.

“We were behind in that area and now we’re staffed to actually do something,” he said. “Randy Policar is a walking encyclopedia of Arizona State knowledge. He started out as a student in our office so it’s cool for us because I know it’s in good hands with him doing things.” 

Tammaro hopes the renovations will upgrade an already important part of the community and educate more of the public on the history of the Sun Devils.

“I just think there’s some great artifacts that can be shown,” Tammaro said. “There’s some things that need to be updated on the fly, and it’ll be fun for people who walk in this building to be able to touch and learn about Arizona State.”

Not only will the renovations benefit Sun Devils fans, former ASU athletes are also optimistic about what the project will bring to the university. Dallas Escobedo Magee, a former pitcher for the Sun Devils softball team and 2025 Hall of Fame inductee, reflected on her time at the Carson Student-Athlete Center and the Hall during her playing days. 

“I honestly just loved it as an escape from my dorm, to interact and go to study hall and see the history of ASU athletics on the first floor,” Escobedo Magee said. “Seeing the growth over the years that I was there as well as being able to go back and show my family and friends my own display, it’s just a really cool piece of history of the whole university.”

Escobedo Magee credited athletic director Graham Rossini in helping build back traditions at ASU. 

“I think he’s done a tremendous job of bringing back athletes and now coaches like Kenny (Dillingham),” she said. “He’s hiring the right people and he has the ideas and the outlook of what is going to be the Sun Devil way.” 

Policar believes the renovations will make the Sun Devil Hall of Fame a must-visit for ASU sports fans. 

“We want to make it a destination for people when they’re on campus,” Policar said. “Whether they come to a football game, a basketball game, a volleyball game or (they’re) just walking through the football stadium, we want them to come and look at it and want to come back and see new stuff.”

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