David Jacobs; Coach, Athletic Director at Whittier College

David A. Jacobs, 58, Whittier College director of athletics and a physical education professor who coached its championship basketball team for 24 years, died Saturday in Whittier of lung cancer.

Jacobs, educated at Springfield College in Massachusetts, where he was a basketball star and later on the coaching staff, had been at Whittier since 1971. The Poets won seven Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, one National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics district championship and one National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division III regional championship during his tenure.

He was named NAIA district coach of the year in 1977 and was the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches’ regional coach of the year four times. Jacobs, who wrote three coaching manuals, also participated in coaching tours to Taiwan and Australia.

As the college’s director of athletics since 1974, Jacobs established and directed the Whittier College Summer Sports Camp for area youths.