Column: Dick Tucker could have moved up and out but he loved coaching junior college football

A couple of weeks ago I received word of the passing of a true legend: Hal Richard “Dick” Tucker.

My wife, Hedy, and I were traveling with our kids and grandkids in North Carolina. I received notification of Dick’s passing in the form of a voicemail from my longtime buddy, Leon Skeie.

Hedy and I were checking into a hotel at Wrightsville Beach when we retrieved the message. Leon was hired by Dick at Orange Coast College in 1973 and served as athletic trainer and physical education professor for more than four decades.

“Jim, Dick passed away today,” Leon said, his voice breaking. “Call me.”

Brief and to the point, I knew exactly what Leon was talking about. Our bigger-than-life-hero was gone after several years of diminishing health. He was 92.

Expected? Yes, but still a shock.

I paused for a moment to reflect upon Dick’s innumerable life, career and athletic achievements. He was a kind, generous and humble man, never egotistical or full of himself. Good memories flooded my consciousness.

The world has lost a creative football coach and a darned fine human being.

An icon and hero to many, Dick had a powerful impact upon my life and the lives of tens of thousands of others. He was a role model. In my career, I tried to emulate him.

Dick, a longtime resident of Corona del Mar, was a football coach, educator, mentor, motivator, steady voice in every storm, humanitarian and teller of outrageously funny stories and tales. Some of his stories came from secret stashes that no one else seemed privy to (I’m guessing here), others were personal accounts of actual events, still others were open to speculation.

He was just plain funny. Though he was an artist at embellishing tales, he never embellished his own narrative. He was always humble.

His players loved and revered him.

I was OCC’s public relations director for 37 years. For more than a dozen years I also served as sports information director. Dick and I did a weekly cable TV show together. I accompanied him to innumerable meetings, coaches’ clinics, conventions and media briefings.

“Jimboy,” he called me over the years. I even grew to like it.

Dick was a gifted orator. His deep, resonant voice commanded respect and attention from the podium. When coaches and conferences hosted media luncheons, Dick was always a favored speaker.

Some coaches would mumble through their presentations; others would stammer and clear their throats and rock side to side; others still would unload dry, emotionless recitations. Not Dick. His presentations were polished, seemingly off-the-cuff, lively and informative.

Dick was a tall, strapping, handsome leader of young men. He was also a warmhearted and loving husband, dad and friend. He wept openly when he announced his retirement from coaching football at OCC in 1985. He coached the Pirates for 24 seasons.

Dick died July 27 just 15 hours after his beloved wife of 68 years, Phillippa, breathed her last. For all intents and purposes, they were on the journey together. They’d been inseparable during life’s earthly journey and stepped across eternity’s boundary together. They’d been as one since their student days at Whittier College. She never missed one of his games.

Dick was quarterback of the Whittier football team; Phillippa a sterling academic.

I met Dick in 1962 as a 17-year-old Orange Coast College freshman. He was the charismatic new head football coach. Students loved him.

A Long Beach native, Dick was hired as head football coach at Brea-Olinda High School in 1951. In 11 seasons, his Brea teams captured eight league championships and two CIF titles.

OCC’s football program during that same era had fallen on hard times. During the 1959, ’60 and ’61 seasons the Pirates were a combined 7-19-1. By the spring of ’62, founding president, Basil H. Peterson, had had enough. He hired Dick.

That first season, Dick and his assistants, Dale Wonacott and Fred Owens, turned OCC’s program around. The Pirates went 9-1 and beat Glendale College, 23-16, in the Orange Show Bowl in San Bernardino. George Mattias joined the staff as an assistant coach the next year.

In ’63, LeBard Stadium was packed for every game as the Pirates went 10-0 and beat Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for the national title in the Junior Rose Bowl Game, 21-0. More than 44,000 fans were on hand, and the game was telecast nationally.

In Dick’s first three seasons, the Pirates went 25-5 and played in three bowl games. Dick produced his second national championship in 1975. OCC’s Pirates went 11-0 and dominated Rio Hondo College in the Avocado Bowl.

In 24 seasons, Dick logged 129 victories. Six of his squads won conference championships, and he was voted Conference Coach of the Year six times. Twice he was California’s Junior College Coach of the Year. His combined 35-year OCC and high school record was 231-115-5.

Dick served as OCC’s athletic director for a decade, from 1979-89. He retired in 1995 after 33 years at the college.

In 2004 Dick was inducted into the California Community College Football Coaches Assn. Hall of Fame. Three years later he became a member of the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame. In 2016, OCC named its football field Dick Tucker Field

Dick had been a personal friend of mine for 45 years. In addition to being a great motivator and coach, he conducted his life with absolute class.

After his first few seasons at OCC it was expected by many that Dick would move on to the four-year level. USC expressed interest in hiring him.

But Dick had found his niche. He loved Orange Coast College and he loved JC football.

Two of Dick’s sons, Rhett and Clay, played football for him at Coast. Oldest son, Travis, was an OCC basketball player.

Dick and Phillippa Tucker’s joint memorial service will take place at 5 p.m. Sept. 15 in the OCC Fitness Center. A reception will be held afterward on the patio overlooking Dick Tucker Field.

Jim Carnett, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.