There was not a track and field event in which Dick Coxe did not have expertise, but he probably preferred the grueling discipline of cross country.
Friends and former athletes will honor Coxe with their recollections of the demanding, straight-shooting and compassionate mentor in a celebration of his life on Sept. 18 from 1-4 p.m. in the Captain’s Room of Marina Village, 1936 Quivera Way, San Diego, 92109.
Coxe, who recently passed at age 95, coached 30 years at area high schools Mar Vista, Sweetwater, and Lincoln, and at San Diego Junior College and Mesa College
“He had champions in events ranging from distance, jumps, relays, weights and sprints (as a college volunteer assistant at Hoover in 1952, Coxe even coached pole vaulters),” remembered Mesa distance runner Rich Cota.
“Dick Coxe was organized, structured, and focused,” said Cota. “He took great pride in having well-rounded dual meet teams. To him, this proved your coaching ability. Plus, there was a winner and a loser.”
The graduate of Hoover High and San Diego State developed, among dozens of others, 1972 Olympic long jump bronze medalist and 1976 Olympic gold medalist Arnie Robinson at Mesa, where Coxe’s teams produced 15 state and 4 national community college champions from 1964-65 through 1981-82.
His first-year programs in 1964-65 at the school on Kearny Mesa won the Pacific Southwest Conference and state cross country championships in the fall and the conference track championship the following spring.
“I know I’m biased,” Cota said, “but I believe Coach Coxe thought his greatest accomplishment was winning the state cross-country title in ‘sixty-four, our first year.”
Included among Coxe’s standouts were Bob Hose, who set an American community college record of 1:48.3 in the 880; Wesley Williams, and James King, who went on to become world-ranked 440-yard intermediate hurdlers.
Williams, who won the state 300 intermediate hurdles championship in 1967, claimed the National AAU indoor 600-yard title in 1974 and ’75 and King was the Pan American games winner in 1975.
Williams anchored the state mile relay championship quartet in 1968. King was leadoff man in 1968 and the first runner on the title-winning 1969 foursome.
Bill Trujillo was a state individual champion in 1964 and
Mesa’s mile relay squad of Bill Millar, Jay Elbel, Wes Williams, and Harold Moore set a national community college indoor record of 3:20.9 in the inaugural 1966 San Diego Indoor Games.
A scholarship in Coxe’s name is being established at Mesa College, c/o Simone Sherrard, 7250 Mesa College Drive, San Diego, 92111.
I ran for Coach Coxe in Cross-Country and Track and Field at Mesa J.C.. From the moment I first met him to the last time I saw him at an all-comers track meet I competed in at Balboa Stadium back in July or August of 1972 he was a man in motion. He always displayed that tireless energy which often rubbed off on the rest of my team members. An experienced coach he recognized talent and when an athlete was holding something back and not competing up to his ability. When this was my case he’d call me aside and tell me that I could do better and running below my ability. This inspired me to compete beyond myself. When this occurred he’d call out, “Way to go Bobby.” Even at that all-comers meet he cheered me on and was assisting me in the proper form to help me run better. When that mile race was over he was gone. After my military career I tried to get a hold of him by phone but his wife said he was out playing tennis. He was 84 years old.
Coxe had a sometimes dour front, but he was genuine and he cared about his athletes.
I was never a track athlete. However, I have as much respect and admiration for Coach Coxe, as I’ve for all the great football, baseball and basketball coaches I played for or worked with. We shared a very special mutual admiration friendship, and on occasions when we would cross paths, we would share memories of the good old days and our mutual friends who made them that way. What a mighty-mighty man was he!
Well said, Bob.
Remarkable lady and remarkable family.
I graduated from Lincoln High in 1961, and I remember the strong track teams that Coach Coxe had at Lincoln in his last two years there, 1959 and 1960. Particularly memorable was the way he managed to steal a dual meet victory against San Diego High in 1960 by “double teaming” San Diego’s top sprinter, Bennie Lewis, in the 440. It was expected to be a close meet, and Lincoln would need every point it could get, but we did not have a 440 runner who could keep up with Lewis. Lincoln fans were thus astonished when we saw our top distance runner, Lafayette “Mackie” McIntosh line up in the starting blocks to run the 440 against Lewis. Mackie was a great runner, and holder of the mile and half-mile school records, but no one expected that he could beat Lewis at the shorter distance. But Coach Coxe had it all figured out. He didn’t need Mackie in the distance events, because Lincoln’s remaining distance runners were still better than San Diego’s. So he entered Mackie in the 440 with a clever strategy to give Mackie the advantage over Lewis. When the gun sounded Coach Coxe had Lincoln sprinter Troy Echols go out as a “rabbit”, and run the first 220 as fast as he could. Caught off guard, Lewis tired himself trying to keep up. Mackie’s superior stamina enabled him to pass Lewis in the final 220, and gain a win that everyone had figured would go to San Diego. And Echols got a standing ovation from the knowledgeable Lincoln track fans as he staggered across the finish line in last place. As I recall, Lincoln won the meet by two points. Those were two points we would not have had if Coach Coxe hadn’t figured out a way to win a race that everyone else had ceded to San Diego.
I also was there. Ed Goodman held off Benny Lewis on the final leg of the 880-yard relay and Lincoln won the meet. The score was something like 53 5/6 to 50 1/6. There had been a four or five-way tie in one of the field events, probably the high jump. Lincoln was trailing in points before the relay. This was the fourth successive year of a dramatic dual meet between the two rivals. Lincoln had beaten the Cavers in an upset, 56-43, in 1957 (both teams disqualified in the relay). San Diego won, 52 1/2-51 1/2, in 1958 and 55 1/2-48 1/2 in 1959. Great memory, Doug. Thanks for writing.