There's one person that has been at Arizona longer than athletic director Greg Byrne, men's basketball head coach Sean Miller and football head coach Rich Rodriguez - combined. And he may play just as an important role in the day-to-day operations in athletics.

Wendell Neal, the assistant athletic director for equipment operations, has been in Tucson since 1998 and has worked with everybody from former athletic director Jim Livengood to legendary basketball coach Lute Olson.

But his arrival at Arizona came with a twist of fate and some irony.

Neal came to Arizona from Washington State, where he had a similar role and worked alongside Livengood, who was the AD in Pullman for five of Neal's 10 years. Neal also knew the man who was in charge in Tucson before Livengood, Cedric Dempsey, while working at Houston.

But Neal had a preconceived notion about the program, assuming there was some arrogance attached to winning programs. But the 53-year-old said he could not have been more wrong.

"Lute Olson is the classiest person I've ever worked with," Neal told GOAZCATS.com Tuesday afternoon.

Neal started his career at Houston, his alma mater, and has worked with the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and the famed "Phi Slamma Jamma." At Washington State, he helped take care of the needs of quarterback Drew Bledsoe. So he's watched more than a few successful athletes in his time.

And it's his passion for athletics that he said originally gave him the vision of becoming an athletic director fresh out of college. But Neal said a conversation with Livengood changed all that when he was asked to be the equipment manager at Washington State.

"Jim just really felt an equipment guy was an important part of the program," he called. "We're proud people from Texas, and I wasn't really fired up about moving to the middle of nowhere in Pullman. So I wasn't really excited about the job. My wife was really excited about the salary and getting out of a 1AA program (at Sam Houston State) where you were limited.

"Mr. Livengood assured me that day: 'You trust me when I tell you, you don't want to be an athletic director.' And he made a deal with me that day. He goes, 'I want to make this the best equipment job in the country. If you give me two years - if you're not the happiest - and feel like it's not the best equipment job in the country, I'll help you become an assistant AD and help you achieve whatever. It took me no time to figure out and it hasn't changed."

In fact, just a few days ago, Neal said he was at a senior staff meeting with Byrne. Topics such as the changes in the conference with the new Pac-12 network were discussed.

Neal turned to the gentleman sitting next to him and said: "You know, sometimes it's not too bad being the laundry guy."

Neal, who is entering his 34th year as an equipment manager, considers himself as a "facilitator," meeting the needs of the coaches and players he works with on a daily basis.

"My role is to make sure the coaches and the players have the best they need to be successful," he said.

One day he could be researching the latest concussion-reduction helmets for the football team, the next he could be helping out a quarterback choose a game ball.

While in Pullman, Neal recalled a time when a signal caller - who he chose to keep nameless, other than saying he was drafted early out of Washington State - wanted to make sure there was a game ball he felt comfortable throwing.

"He thought he was an expert on that ball's a good ball, that ball's a bad ball," Neal said.

Neal handed the young man a ball, he fired a wobbly pass over his intended receiver and said, "Get rid of that ball. It's not good." However, Neal simply placed it to the side of the bag and acted as if he was grabbing another, all the while keeping his hand on the previously thrown "bad ball." He tossed the quarterback the same exact ball, he fired a strike to his receiver and said, "Now there's a game ball."

"That taught me right then a lot of it's in the head," Neal said. "I could write a book about stories like that."

As an equipment manager, he also has had his share of mishaps that he doesn't particularly care to remember, in fear of jinxing himself. But while at Arizona, Neal said he has avoided major issues because of a detailed itinerary he keeps in one-inch notebooks on a wall next to the desk in his office, which is located in the equipment room at McKale Center.

He fills the entire notebook, one for each game, with checklists that keep track of the 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of equipment that is loaded into the semitrailer driven to each of the football team's road contests. Among the items packed are the essentials, such as your basic jerseys and pads, to the not-so-common like a sewing machine, in case a roster change is made and a player's name has to be stitched on one of the handful of blank jerseys packed as an emergency.

"We basically take our equipment room on the road," Neal said.

He also makes sure to call the host school for basics like hot water.

"I was at Washington State a number of years ago, we went and played the Beavers and it was time to shower after the game. No hot water," Neal remembered. "Wendell wasn't real popular after the game, as if I controlled the water temperature. But I tell you what I could control, I added that on my list of game duties."

In terms of equipment, Neal refers to football as an "animal all of its own" because of an overwhelming number of items in comparison to the other 18 sports at Arizona.

On his staff, he has a full-time staff member and a handful of student managers who help run practices. With the addition of Rodriguez and the feverish pace of his practices, Neal noted a challenge "a lot different than what I've ever had to deal with."

"I've always said: Our role on a football team is like a pinch hitter in Major League Baseball. You never know when they're going to need something," Neal said.

"This is no disrespect to the other people that work in here, but you could take all of the other sports and combine them together, and it doesn't come close to the workload for football."

As he's gotten older, Neal said he travels less and less with the teams. Up until September of last year, he used to update a blog that highlighted the work of the student managers he refers to as "the real heroes" of the staff. Depending on how he feels, Neal said he may start it up again.

A season-ticket holder and donor to the Wildcat Club, along with his wife, Cindy, Neal still considers himself a fan. And he said that's one of the reasons he "looks forward to getting here every day."

"As long as that fire's still in me, I'm going to do this until they run me out of here," Neal said.

"I'm just the luckiest guy in the world, man."

Click Here to view this Link.Tracy McDannald

GOAZCATS.com Senior Editor