Dick Davey

Early life, college playing career, and baseball playing career

Born in San Francisco, Davey grew up in Ceres, California and graduated from Ceres High School in 1960. He then attended the University of the Pacific, lettering in baseball and basketball. In 2007, he was inducted into the UOP hall of fame. Davey graduated from UOP with a Bachelor of Arts in education in 1964. After graduating, Davey played minor league baseball in the San Francisco Giants farm system as a catcher and outfielder, for the Decatur Commodores in 1964 and Magic Valley Cowboys in 1965.

Coaching career

Davey then was an assistant basketball coach at Leland High School in San Jose, California for five years, before becoming an assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972.

Davey moved to Santa Clara University in 1977 and served as assistant to longtime Broncos head coach Carroll Williams. In 1992 Davey was elevated to head coach with Williams' move to the Athletic Director position. In his first season, Davey's Broncos finished third but won the WCC tournament and became only the second 15-seeded team to win in the first round, defeating 2-seed Arizona 64-61. The win is considered one of the top ten upsets in NCAA Tournament history. [1]

Led by future NBA MVP Steve Nash, Santa Clara would go on to win the West Coast Conference regular season in 1994-1995 and 1995–1996 and garner NCAA Tournament berths. The 10-seed Broncos beat Maryland in the first round in 1996. Santa Clara was expected to falter after Nash's departure to the NCAA in 1997, but again won the league title led by long-range bomber Marlon Garnett. Despite modeste achievements in several subsequent injury riddled seasons Davey was awarded a seat on the NABC Board of Directors by his fellow coaches and Mid-Season coach of the year honors by CollegeInsider.com in 2003 "for doing more with less" while starting 4 walk-ons on an injury plagued squad.[2] Over the course of his career Davey's teams, even when undermanned developed the reputation of Giant Killers with the Broncos shocking five top 25 teams during his tenure with one of the most stunning being a victory over eventual NCAA champion North Carolina in 2004.[3]

Davey 'retired' as Santa Clara coach with a statement on February 1, 2007 [4]. Newspapers widely reported the Santa Clara administration forcing the move to bring in a new coach [5][6], who eventually was Kerry Keating, an assistant at UCLA. Davey spent the rest of the year being lauded by local and national media, fans, and even by opposing teams' fans at away games. Raw emotions led to the firing of Santa Clara's longtime radio announcer Dave Lewis when he referred to Davey's departure at a Santa Clara event. [7]

Santa Clara was forecast to be in the middle of the standings by the preseason coaches poll but with conference-leading defense [8], the Broncos finished 2nd and made the conference tournament final, losing to Gonzaga. The team's 21 wins were the 5th most in Santa Clara's 100 year basketball history. Davey's coaching colleagues voted him coach of the year in the WCC during his final season. It was his fourth time garnering the award. Davey's teams compiled a 251-190 record during his tenure and his conference win percentage of .581 was second only to Gonzaga during his 15 seasons.

In late 2007, Davey had a biography entitled Dick Davey: A Basketball Life Richly Led published by a sports writer and friend, Chuck Hildebrand. [9] In June 2008 Davey became the Associate Head Coach under Johnny Dawkins at Stanford University.[10] Davey announced his planned retirement near the end of the 2011-2012 season [11] and the Cardinal responded with a great stretch of basketball winning the post season NIT and finishing the season 26-11 with a Cardinal record 7 wins in March. In 2016, Davey was inducted into the Santa Clara University Hall of Fame and in 2017 became a member of the West Coast Conference Hall of Honor. [12]

Davey is married to Jeanne Davey, formerly a kindergarten teacher and has two children. Davey's son, Michael, has been head coach of local area Saratoga High School where he has compiled a record of 231-140 [13] in 14 seasons.[14] Mike has since switched to coaching the girls team at Saratoga and has a 148-88 mark in nine seasons. Mike was married to Kathleen who had a cardiac arrest in January 2004 and was in a coma for nearly ten years. [15] Mike recently remarried Molly Matava and has two daughters from his first marriage, Samantha and Rachel along with two step daughters Vivian and Natalie. Dick Davey's daughter Kimberly, a former professional ballet dancer for the San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet theaters is married to Alvaro Orozco and they have two children, Nicholas and Kyra.