Daily Pilot Hall of Fame: Dick Davis (Colleges)

Richard Dunn

Dick Davis hasn’t been afraid to take risks, especially when

holding a winning hand.

But the cards, as in life, don’t always turn up aces with the chips on

the table.

Davis, the second men’s basketball coach in UC Irvine history, led the

Anteaters to their only NCAA postseason wins in 1968 and ‘69, then

accepted an offer to coach at San Diego State, leaving UCI after four

years -- two as the freshman coach and two as head coach, following Danny

Rogers.

“Wayne Crawford (former UCI Athletic Director) hired me with tenure,

and, at that time, it took nine or 10 years to get tenure,” Davis said.

“And it was a lifelong job, even if I didn’t coach, but I was young and

wanted to get to the big school and play in a big arena and have a big

schedule. I thought it would take a little longer (to reach those goals)

at Irvine. That’s why I decided to (move on to San Diego State in 1969).”

In 1967-68, Davis guided the Anteaters to a 20-8 record and a spot in

the NCAA Division II Tournament, in which UCI received the 32nd and final

berth, then upset No. 1-seeded San Diego State, 78-69, in the first

round.

“Then we lost a really great game to UNLV in the final of the

regionals (79-74),” Davis said, “and the next year we had most of the

kids back and we got into the playoffs again. We didn’t win the regional,

but we won the third-place game (over UC Davis, 82-70, and finished

19-9). And that’s when the San Diego State coach retired and Al Olson,

the athletic director at the time, called me and asked if they could

interview me.”

Davis, a former all-around athlete at Laguna Beach High (circa 1948)

who later played basketball at Orange Coast College and volleyball at

UCLA, arrived at UCI from Glendale, a CIF Southern Section large-school

power.

In 1959, Davis’ first year at Glendale as an assistant basketball

coach under Gene Haas, the Nitros won the CIF title, “then (Haas) got his

wife pregnant for the fourth time and got a job in administration, and I

got the job (as head coach),” added Davis, Glendale’s coach from 1960-65.

Davis, an All-American outside hitter on UCLA’s 1956 national

championship volleyball squad, was promised a coaching and teaching job

at his alma mater, Laguna Beach, after graduate school. But those plans

changed when a new administration entered the picture.

“There I was with no job and no prospects,” Davis said. “My sister

said Glendale (with 4,500 students) needed teachers. I had never set foot

in Glendale before. And the principal thought I was interviewing for a

shop teacher’s job. But the high school (basketball) talent was amazing.”

Davis, who these days plays poker for a living at a Hawaiian Gardens

casino, grew up playing volleyball on the beach and later played as a

6-foot-3, 190-pound slugger for UCLA.

“I was going to go to Oregon on a basketball scholarship, but I ended

up going to UCLA,” Davis said. “I tried out for the basketball team, but

I could see I wasn’t going to play. Maybe I would have made the team, but

I concentrated on the volleyball end of it after JC.”

As an OCC basketball player under Coach Miles Eaton, Davis was the

team captain and leading scorer in 1951-52, averaging 14.4 points per

game. In older OCC basketball publications, Davis is listed as the

school’s career leader in rebounds with 718.

“I played with George Yardley’s brother, Bob, and Bob Yardley would

put up 50 shots a game and miss about 40 of them, so there was a lot of

rebounding available,” Davis said, tongue in cheek.

Davis and George Yardley are “best buddies” and play golf together

frequently.

As for highlights, Davis, who resigned at San Diego State in 1975 and

left coaching, said “every year at Glendale was just an A-plus, and the

same at Irvine. All those coaching years were really great. If I had to

pick out one highlight, I don’t think I could do it.”

Davis, whose father, Gerald, built the first motel in Laguna Beach in

1939, fell into a job as commissioner of a new professional basketball

league in Europe in ‘75, but the league folded after one year.

“The concept was great, but it was about 15 years ahead of its time,”

said Davis, whose office was based in Munich, Germany. “The Europeans

weren’t ready for it.”

After a brief stint with the European basketball league, Davis entered

the athletic club business. He and his wife, Irene, started a successful

women-only gym in Irvine.

“Now I play poker ...” Davis said. “I enjoy playing poker, and I need

the health insurance.”

Davis, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, said

coaching and poker playing “have some really strange similarities.”