Hall of Fame: Ron Davis (Corona del Mar)

Richard Dunn

It’s not a boastful thing, it’s a basis of reality: Corona del Mar

High does not hang league title banners in its gym; it hoists only CIF

championship flags -- a tradition started by former athletic director Ron

Davis.

Long considered the standard by which all athletic directors are

compared, Davis set the course for an incredible run at Corona del Mar

from 1967 through 1989, a span in which no less than 24 CIF title

banners, as well as two state championship banners, were pinned up on the

walls inside the gym.

“We had so many league championships and CIF championships that it’s

not fair for me to single out any one team, and I’m not sure I could,”

Davis said. “I think the highlight for me was when we decided to hang all

those CIF banners in the gym (in 1980) ... most schools hang league

championship banners, but we didn’t hang anything but CIF banners ...

they continue doing that (under AD Jerry Jelnick).”

With Davis in charge of the department and working closely with

long-heralded former CdM Principal Dennis Evans, the Sea Kings managed

small dynasties in numerous sports, including boys basketball and water

polo.

Davis, who accepted an early retirement offer from the Newport-Mesa

School District after ‘89, capped his CdM career with Coach Dave

Holland’s football program winning back-to-back CIF Division VI titles.

“I’m sure an athletic program can’t flourish without a supportive

principal who thinks athletics are part of the school program,” Davis

said. “Most principals I had put academics at the forefront and athletics

right next to them. That’s the kind of principal I had. I haven’t had to

go into an office on bended knee very often. I went in there and we got

it done. I’m not sure it’s that way with all athletic directors. I would

not want to head up a program and not be supported by the principal.”

In the 22 years Davis was athletic director at CdM, Evans was the

principal during the majority of his term. But Leon Meeks, Gerald

McClellan and Tom Jacobson also served as CdM principals during the

celebrated span.

Meeks hired Davis away from Azusa High, where he was athletic director

for five years, and McClellan served one year as interim principal,

before Evans came aboard. Evans was later swapped by the district to

Newport Harbor for Jacobson.

“It was bizarre to me,” Davis said of the trade. “I’m sure they were

both traumatized. Tom was great, but we were really sorry to lose Dennis.

He was excellent ... the superintendent switched them. He said change was

good. Maybe it is sometimes.”

Just to scratch the surface, some of the sporting highlights at CdM

when Davis was AD included CIF basketball titles under coaches Tandy

Gillis and Jack Errion; Holland’s football conquests; Dick Morris’ CIF

championship wrestling team in 1972; baseball coach Tom Trager’s 1981 CIF

title squad at Anaheim Stadium; and, among the countless water polo

victories, the 1969 polo win over Newport Harbor at East Los Angeles

College (Cliff Hooper vs. Bill Barnett) in the CIF finals.

“Those things still come to mind,” Davis said in February 1990, during

his first year of retirement.

Since selling his Laguna Beach home about eight years ago, Davis and

his wife, Dionne, have enjoyed the great outdoors in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“Retirement is so great,” Davis said. “I should’ve done it sooner. I

haven’t worked a day. There’s a lot of recreation and traveling and I’ve

enjoyed every minute of it.”

They lived briefly in the San Juan Islands, “Friday Harbor, to be

exact,” he said, and later lived in Florida during the winter and the

mountains of New Hampshire in the warm months. Then they lived in Lake

Tahoe for a year, before settling in Sun Valley.

“I used to come here and ski during Christmas vacation,” Davis said.

“I just looked around and fell in love with it here. I have a lot of

friends here, so I decided to move.”

Born and raised in Coronado, Davis was a prep star in football (wide

receiver and defensive back), basketball (forward) and baseball

(shortstop), before attending the University of Redlands, where he also

played all three sports, earning all-conference honors in basketball and

baseball. He was also the football team’s captain and is a member of the

Redlands Athletic Hall of Fame.

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

attended Claremont graduate school and received his masters degree, then

started a 10-year career at Azusa, which preceded his distinguished term

at CdM.

Davis has one living son, Mike, and two granddaughters. Mike Davis, a

former Laguna Beach football player, is also living in Sun Valley. “He

skies and plays golf,” his proud father said.