Dick Tucker deserves this honor

For half a dozen decades, I’ve been a loyal Orange Coast College football fan.

I’ve been on the Pirate bandwagon since 1962 — my freshman year at OCC. That was the year Dick Tucker arrived at Coast from the high school ranks to serve as the college’s greatest head football coach ever.

This is my 55th season of rooting for the Bucs, and my passion hasn’t ebbed one bit.

I’ve attended nearly 300 Coast football games over the years. I’ve lived and died with the Bucs. The reason OCC has been so easy for me to root for is because of its longtime headman: Dick Tucker.

The charismatic Tucker took over a beleaguered Orange Coast program in ’62 that had stumbled to a 7-19-1 record the three previous seasons. He led the Pirates to a 9-1 record that first year, and a victory in the Orange Show Bowl.

The next year, 1963, the Pirates went 10-0 and won the national title. During his first three campaigns the Bucs were 25-5.

Tucker went on to lead OCC’s football fortunes for 24 seasons, through 1986. His teams won six conference championships.

Orange Coast will officially honor Tucker Sept. 17 by naming its football field after him. OCC will host Ventura College at 6 p.m. The ceremony will take place at halftime.

The surface will officially be called Dick Tucker Field. The facility itself, which opened in 1955, will remain LeBard Stadium.

“I played for some great NFL coaches like Bud Grant, Don Coryell and Bill Belichick,” former Pirate JC All-America kicker, and eight-year NFL veteran, Benny Ricardo, said recently.

“I would always tell them about Dick Tucker and how his words, at just the right moment, and with the most amazing instinct, could propel you to accomplishments on the football field that were seemingly beyond your ability.

“Coach Tucker was the first person of authority and expertise to give credibility to my dream of playing in the NFL.”

Dick and I became friends when I joined OCC’s staff in 1971. He’s always been “Mr. Class,” as far as I’m concerned. I’ve admired the likes of coaches John McKay, Terry Donahue, Tom Osborne and Bobby Bowden. But no one have I respected more than Hal Richard “Dick” Tucker.

I was in Pasadena on Dec. 14, 1963, when OCC beat Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, 21-0, in front of 44,044 to win the Junior Rose Bowl and the national championship.

I was 18 years old. What did I know? I assumed the rest of my life would be like that sun-splashed Saturday afternoon. Obviously, a lifetime of mountaintop experiences is an unrealistic expectation. We learn to savor our Junior Rose Bowl moments.

I was at the Avocado Bowl in 1975 when the Pirates capped a perfect 11-0 season by beating Rio Hondo College, 38-14. That win gave Tucker a second national crown.

I was also at a game in the mid-1970s when we led arch rival Golden West 27-0 just before halftime, lost our quarterback to a leg injury and lost the game, 28-27. That hurt!

And I remember a gut-wrenching loss to another rival, Fullerton, on the final play of a 1980s game. We were substantial underdogs, yet held a four-point advantage in the closing seconds. Fullerton scored after we were nailed for a questionable roughing the passer call on a fourth-and-long sack.

Losses seem always to hurt more than victories uplift! But that’s football.

Coach Tucker taught me much about dealing with life.

A Long Beach native, Dick was head football coach at Brea-Olinda High School for 11 seasons. His Wildcats captured eight league championships and two CIF titles. They were Orange League champs seven years running.

I knew who Tucker was when I enrolled at OCC in ’62. His Brea team won the Orange League championship my junior year in high school, and clobbered my Costa Mesa High Mustangs in the process.

I feel the way I do about college football today because of Dick Tucker. Borrowing a thought from Alexis de Tocqueville, Tucker was a great coach because he’s a good man.

And he richly deserves this OCC honor!

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JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.