Even Raiders superfan Augmon, who, along with several of his 1990 championship teammates, lit the Al Davis Torch before a game last season, introduced Grgurich.

Grgurich came to the desert from Western Pennsylvania, where he rooted for a certain Raiders rival.

“I’ll tell you what, when I was growing up in Pittsburgh and coaching at the University of Pittsburgh, we hated them and they hated us,” Grgurich, Tarkanian’s top assistant from 1981-92 before becoming UNLV’s head coach for seven games in 1994, told me with a deep laugh.

“I was there for the Immaculate Reception. I was there.”

Yes, nearly six months to the day after Davis was at Ali-Quarry II.

“And when you talk about how hard our practices were [at UNLV], the defensive backs for the Raiders … they were walking killers,” Grgurich continued. “They were like our practices.”

Way back in 1999, when I worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, I wrote a story on the number of people with UNLV ties being with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Anthony, Augmon and Isaiah Rider were on the court while Grgurich was an assistant and Warkentien, who had been on Tarkanian’s staff and later served as the school’s assistant athletics director, was Portland’s assistant GM at the time, while a scout, the strength and conditioning coach and his intern were all also Rebels.

“What we’re doing definitely has a UNLV flavor,” Warkentien told me at the time. “We want athletic, multiple-position, very hard-playing, get-after-you kind of guys. So it fits our prototype.

“We want guys who play with a little bit of an edge. We had those types of guys at UNLV.”

On the more, ahem, gentlemanly side of things, there was golfer Ryan Moore, who won an individual national title at UNLV in 2004 and has five PGA wins to his name entering the SNSHOF.

“I probably shouldn’t say on this, but I’m still a Seahawks fan,” the current Las Vegas resident said, alternately bristling and smiling. “I grew up there. I’ve always been a fan.

“I will say, the Raiders are definitely my second team that I’m pulling for at all times. I can have one of each; I think that’s fair.”

On this night, where Las Vegas’ glorious sporting past met its hopeful future, it was more than fair.

Especially with Davis also looking to the future.

Yes, I asked him about No. 1 draft pick Fernando Mendoza.

“Off the field,” Davis said, “he’s got every intangible you could ever imagine. If he could actually play football to that level, we’re going to be in good shape.”

You might even call it a full-circle moment.