It is perhaps fitting that Brent Brennan and Todd Graham are the opposing coaches on Saturday when San Jose State and the University of Hawaii play for the bronze Dick Tomey Legacy Trophy at Aloha Stadium.
Not just because Tomey coached at both schools in his 29-year tenure as a head coach, but because he also made indelible impressions on Brennan and Graham, as he did on dozens of others during formative periods in their coaching careers.
Tomey coached for 10 seasons at UH (1977-86), 14 at Arizona (1987-2000) and five at San Jose State (2005-09) compiling a 183-145-7 record. He died in May of 2019 at age 80 from lung cancer. UH and San Jose State, annual Mountain West Conference opponents, came up with the trophy in his honor.
UH won the inaugural meeting, 42-40, last year.
Tomey was a baseball player at DePauw University in Indiana, from where his pursuit of the goal of becoming a college football coach was decidedly an uphill task.
The fact that he greatly benefited early on from knowledge and time shared by veterans, including Bo Schembechler at Miami of Ohio, Homer Smith at Davidson and Pepper Rogers at Kansas and UCLA, was not forgotten. In his 15-year climb to become a head coach, Tomey said he vowed to return the favor several times over if he got in a position to do so.
So, “I think playing for the (trophy) is a really cool thing,” the 47 year old Brennan said during his weekly media session. “He is a really special guy for me. I know he is special in Hawaii.”
Tomey gave Brennan his second coaching job, hiring the UCLA graduate, as a graduate-assistant at Arizona in 2000, two years after he had been a GA at UH. Tomey later hired Brennan as a full-time assistant at San Jose State from 2005-09.
“He’s definitely someone that I’m really missing right now,” Brennan said. “I think he’d be a great sounding board for me as I’m trying to work through just all the challenges the last eight months have presented. I think the trophy is a cool thing and it is probably more special to me because of what Coach Tomey was to me in my life.”
Graham, 55, didn’t serve under Tomey but came to know him early in his head coaching career.
“When I was a young head coach he kinda took me under his wing and mentored me,” Graham said. “When you first get a head coaching job you are kind of clueless and he helped me a bunch.”
Graham said, “I got to know him going to the Pebble Beach Classic where all the other coaches go every year. He’d really reach out to the young coaches. He was just a legendary guy. He was always talking to the young coaches about doing it (coaching) the right way and respecting the game, taking care of your players, honoring the traditional values and the institution. I was really able to connect with him.”
He said Tomey even offered his assistance in later years despite the fact that Graham was at Arizona State and Tomey had been a head coach of arch rival Arizona.
“I know some people gave him a hard time for that,” Graham said.
“But Coach Tomey didn’t care, he was all about helping the younger coaches whenever he could.”
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
