Former Coach Retires a Champion

By Ryan Marshall

One of Santa Clara basketball's all-time coaching greats, Dick Davey, coached his last game on March 29 in the championship game of the NCAA post-season National Invitational Tournament between Stanford and Minnesota. Davey instructed players from the Stanford bench en route to a blowout victory, 75-51. 

After a controversial departure from Santa Clara in 2007, Davey had spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach at Stanford, but in early March announced that he would retire at the end of the season. However, winning the NIT doesn't make leaving the game any less painful for Davey. 

"Going out on any note is not necessarily all that good," Davey said. "I love the game so much. I know I'm going to miss it." 

Davey spent the first 15 of his 30 years at Santa Clara as an assistant coach for Santa Clara's all-time wins leader, Carroll Williams. Davey joined Williams' staff in 1977 and together they amassed six 20-win seasons, four NIT appearances and a 1987 NCAA Tournament berth before Davey took over the head coaching reins  following the 1991 season.

While running the show for 15 years at Santa Clara, Davey was a four-time West Coast Conference Coach of the Year, compiling four 20-win seasons, three NCAA Tournament berths, three regular season WCC Championships and a WCC Tournament title.

Under Davey, Santa Clara basketball was known for pulling off huge upsets. In the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament, Steve Nash and the 15th-seeded Broncos took down No. 2 seed Arizona. Nash also carried the Broncos to a victory over a 13th-ranked California Golden Bears team that featured future NBA stars Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray.

When asked of such accomplishments, Davey was as humble as the grass, eager to give credit to all those surrounding him.  

"I had a great staff," he said. "There's no magic wand or formula. We try to coach them, we try to improve them, but good players make good coaches." 

All good things must come to an end, but the end of Davey's coaching career at Santa Clara, in Davey's words, "has been a bit chronicled." 

The Broncos finished with losing records from 2003-2006 under Davey, and it appeared that the program had begun searching for "answers." Davey was not fired from his 30-year post, but the oddly timed announcement of his retirement rasied some speculation that it wasn't entirely his decision. 

Davey made the announcement in Feb. 2007, with several weeks remaining in the season. What's more, the Broncos were off to one of their best starts in school history with a record of 15-7 at the time.

"I was hoping we would wait until the end of the season to announce this decision," Davey told The Santa Clara at the time, "but the university felt that it was in the best interest of the school to announce it sooner, in order to look for a new coach."

Former university President Paul Locatelli shot down the speculation that major university donors and people above Athletic Director Dan Coonan were interested in the idea of hiring a high-profile coach for the rising basketball program.

"(The San Jose Mercury News and The San Francisco Chronicle) don't have most of the facts right," said Locatelli in 2007. "(The San Jose Mercury News) talked about the trustees getting involved, but the trustees have never even talked about this."

Regardless of what really happened, Davey made it known that his departure from the university is not something he wants to be remembered by. Davey was appreciative of the opportunities he was given at Santa Clara. 

"Let's face it, Santa Clara was great to me," he said. "I love the place, I love the school and I love the people that are involved in the program. The whole thing was an absolutely perfect scenario for me. I'll always have a tremendous appreciation and respect for the school and the people. I couldn't have been luckier than to be there for a whole 30 years." 

Not before adding this year's NIT Championship with Stanford to his long list of accomplishments, Davey's illustrious career comes to a close. Davey said that he looks forward to spending more time with his wife and watching his grandchildren grow up, but the game of basketball will surely never be a forgotten part of his life. 

"I've had a tremendous time, I love the game," said Davey. "Some people go to work every day, and I got to go coach." 

Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 554-4852.