Richard Hastings Tomey (June 20, 1938 – May 10, 2019) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach and player. Tomey served as the head football coach at the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

(1977–1986),

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

(1987–2000), and

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

(2005–2009), compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

record of 183–145–7. His last full-time coaching position was as the special teams coach at Hawaii in 2011 under head coach

Greg McMackin Gregory James McMackin (born April 24, 1945) is a retired American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Oregon Institute of Technology from 1986 to 1989 and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 2008 to 20 ...

, who resigned after the season. Tomey was not retained by McMackin's successor,

Norm Chow Norman Yew Heen Chow (born May 3, 1946) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach for the Helvetic Guards in the European League of Football. He was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Man ...

. Tomey served as a head coach of the victorious West team in the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Game on January 11, 2013 at Kino Stadium in Arizona.

Coaching career

Early positions

Tomey is a 1960 graduate of

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the G ...

. At DePauw, Tomey earned three varsity letters on the DePauw Tigers baseball team at

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

from 1957 to 1959. He began his college football coaching career as graduate assistant and freshman coach at

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...

under

John Pont John Pont (November 13, 1927 – July 1, 2008) was an American football player and coach. He served as head coach at Miami University, Yale University, Northwestern University and Indiana University. Early life Pont was born on November 13, 1927 ...

in 1962, then under Bo Schembechler in 1963. In 1964, Tomey became freshman coach at

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

under

Howard Fletcher Howard W. Fletcher (March 13, 1913 – August 23, 2001) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the Northern Illinois University from 1956 to 1968, compiling a record of 74–48–1. Fletcher's Norther ...

. From 1965 to 1966, Tomey coached

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

s at

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

under Homer Smith. He then coached the same position at

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

from 1967 to 1970 under

Pepper Rodgers Franklin Cullen "Pepper" Rodgers (October 8, 1931 – May 14, 2020) was an American football player and coach. As a college football player, he led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to an undefeated season in 1952 and later became their head ...

, then followed Rodgers to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1971. From 1971 to 1973, Tomey was both offensive line and defensive backs coach under Rodgers. When Dick Vermeil became head coach in 1974, Tomey coached only the defensive backs. In 1976, new UCLA head coach

Terry Donahue Terrence Michael Donahue (June 24, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American football coach and executive. He served as the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1976 to 1995, compiling a record of 151–74–8. His 15 ...

promoted Tomey to defensive coordinator.
2013 UCLA Football Media Guide
', p. 90. During Tomey's time as assistant, UCLA won the 1976 Rose Bowl following the 1975 season.

Hawaii (head coach)

From 1977 to 1986, Tomey led his teams at Hawaii to their first in season top-20

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

ranking in 1981, and their first AP first-team All-American player,

Al Noga AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media * Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera * Al (''Fullmetal ...

. In 1981, he also earned

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

"Coach of the Year" honors. He left as the winningest coach in Hawaii history, but was passed by

June Jones June Sheldon Jones III (born February 19, 1953) is an American football coach and former player who is currently the Offensive Coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons. Jones was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 19 ...

during the 2006 season.

Arizona

In 1987, Tomey became head coach at

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, earning

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

"Coach of the Year" honors in 1992. During his tenure, he coached five future NFL first-round draft choices, 20 All-Americans, and 43 Pac-10 first team players. His best teams were in the mid-1990s, highlighted by a tenacious "Desert Swarm" defense. He led Arizona to two of three ten-win seasons in school history, highlighted by a 12–1 campaign in 1998, in which they finished fourth in both major polls, the highest ranking in school history. The Wildcats were drubbed in the 1999 season opener against

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and won just six games that year; Tomey resigned after the 2000 season. The school president and athletic director represented Tomey's "nominal resignation was in lieu of termination by the university," but clarified in 2019 after Tomey's death that the threatened termination was a ruse to pass $600,000 to Tomey as a show of gratitude, as he would not be contractually entitled to it if he resigned. His 95 wins are the most in Wildcats history.

San Francisco 49ers and Texas

In 2003, he was an assistant defensive coach for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

specializing in the

nickel defense American football, a nickel defense (also known as a 4–2–5 or 3–3–5) is any defensive alignment that uses five defensive backs, of whom the fifth is known as a nickelback. The original and most common form of the nickel defense features ...

. In 2004, he helped lead the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

to an 11–1 season and victory in their first-ever Rose Bowl as assistant head coach and defensive ends coach.

San Jose State

In 2005, he became head coach at

. Despite a 3–8 record in his inaugural season, the Spartans posted a 3–2 record at home, their first winning record since the 2000 season, although one of these wins came against a Division I-AA team. Also, the Spartans were the Division I-A leader in improved attendance. They were one of 11 teams to allow 100 fewer points from the previous year. Three of their losses were by only one touchdown and one of those came against the 2005 WAC co-champion,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. Finally, the Spartans closed out their season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 1997. This two-game winning streak ended during the 2006 season opener, when they lost to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. In 2006, the Spartans finished their regular season 8–4, and participated in the inaugural

New Mexico Bowl The New Mexico Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2006 at University Stadium, on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Owned and operated by ESPN ...

against

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. San Jose State won the game 20–12 on December 23, 2006 and finished with a 9–4 overall record. In 2009, he was named President of the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

. On November 16, 2009, Tomey announced he would be retiring at season's end. Tomey finished his final season as the Spartans head coach with a 2–10 record in 2009, bringing his head coaching record to 25–35 at San Jose State and 183–145–7 overall in college football.

Hawaii (special teams)

Tomey returned to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

to be special teams coach under

for the 2011 season.

Broadcasting career

As of September 9, 2010, the WAC Sports Network—the

and its multimedia rights partner, Learfield Sports—appointed seven members to the WSN broadcast team, one of which was Tomey as a color commentator for the network. Tomey was also a color commentator for KFVE-Hawaii Sports from 2000 to 2003, and for Spectrum Sports Hawaii in 2013.

Administrative career

In February 2015, Tomey joined the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

as associate athletic director for sports administration. Tomey left his position in April 2016.

Personal life

Born in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...

, Tomey grew up in

Michigan City, Indiana Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, Indiana Metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City Combined sta ...

and graduated from

Michigan City High School Michigan City High School is located in Michigan City, Indiana. History Michigan City High School was formed by the merger of Rogers High School and Elston High School in 1995. Michigan City High School is located on the former campus of Rogers ...

in 1956. In 2017, Tomey's memoir, ''Rise of the Rainbow Warriors: Ten Unforgettable Years of University of Hawaii Football'', co-written with Lance Tominaga, was released by Watermark Publishing of Honolulu. Tomey's wife,

Nanci Kincaid Nanci Pierce Kincaid (born September 5, 1950) is an American novelist who wrote a short story collection titled ''Pretending the Bed Is a Raft'' (1997), as well as novels ''Crossing Blood'' (1991), ''Balls'' (1999), ''Verbena'' (2002), and ''As Hot ...

, is a contemporary fiction author. Her latest book title, ''Eat, Drink and Be From Mississippi'', is a January 2009

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

publication that received strong, favorable reviews from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Tomey and Kincaid are the parents of five adult children and grandparents of nine. Tomey was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

in January 2019 and died from complications of the disease that May.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Hawaii profile

San Jose State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomey, Dick 1938 births 2019 deaths Baseball catchers Arizona Wildcats football coaches DePauw Tigers baseball players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football coaches Miami RedHawks football coaches Northern Illinois Huskies football coaches Kansas Jayhawks football coaches San Francisco 49ers coaches San Jose State Spartans football coaches Texas Longhorns football coaches UCLA Bruins football coaches University of South Florida people Sportspeople from Bloomington, Indiana People from Michigan City, Indiana Coaches of American football from Indiana Baseball players from Indiana Deaths from lung cancer