Chris Fanning

Inducted Class of 2025

One of the first indications that Chris Fanning, a Sahuarita High School sophomore, was a winner came in the fall of 1983 when he won the state golf championship at Payson Country Club.
He then became an All-Conference baseball player at Sahuarita, earning a scholarship to New Mexico State. How good was he? Thirty years later he was still No. 2 at NMSU in career RBI (199) and career runs (192). In one game, against 1989 Pac-10 champion Arizona and Pac-10 pitcher of the year Scott Erickson, Fanning went 3-for-4. Fanning would hit .408 with 12 home runs.
So when Sahuarita High School hired Fanning to be its softball coach in 1993, there was a strong indication he would succeed.
And did he.
He coached Sahuarita to the 1999, 2011 and 2018 state softball championships. He finished No. 2 in state in 1997. 1998, 2002, 2004 and 2010.
In 2024, Fanning coached Sahuarita to his 600th career victory, believed to be the most in Southern Arizona history. He enters the 2026 season with a career record of 650-252, and that includes a period of three seasons when he left the Sahuarita softball program to work on his duties as the school’s athletic director.
There’s more: Fanning was also the Sahuarita girls basketball coach for five seasons, and the head football coach from 1993-2002, a period in which he coached the Mustangs to an 8-1 record and the region championship in 1997. Talk about old school. In the ‘90s, Fanning was Sahuarita’s head coach in softball, football and girls basketball. Somehow he made it work, excelling at all three sports.
Fanning comes from a strong athletic background. His father, David, an elementary school coach/PE teacher, had the school’s gymnasium named after him. His brother, John, coached the Rio Rico boys basketball team to the 2004 state championship. And his brother, “Skeets,’’ has been a long-time assistant coach on Chris’s Sahuarita teams. Chris was also an Academic All-American while playing baseball at New Mexico State.
Chris grew up a so-called “gym rat.’’ An avid Chicago Cubs fan — his family is from Chicago — he is known as “Cub’’ to his friends. He has left his mark everywhere: he worked at the Haven Golf Club in Green Valley as a young man and been one of the top baseball players and softball coaches in Southern Arizona history.