Top 25 Cal Coaches of Alltime in All Sports: Nos. 11-15

Jeff Tedford is among the coaches in this outstanding group of former Cal leaders

We have reached the top 15 in our ranking of the 25 best coaches in Cal history, and this segment has some memorable names from the recent past. Football, golf, gymnastics, basketball and rowing are represented in this grouping.

The video in this segment is provided by longtime golf coah Steve Desimone, who loves to talk--as you will see.

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15. STEVE DESIMONE, men's golf

Cal dropped men’s golf to club status in 1979 and Steve Desimone had the task less than a year later of bringing back the sport on a $2,500 budget.

The 2012-13 Cal squad would be considered the best in the history of college golf. The Golden Bears set an NCAA record by winning 12 of 14 stroke-play events, including Pac-12 and NCAA Regional titles while also finishing eight shots ahead of the field during the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championships. Cal had such a dominant season that the Bears finished the season as the nation's unanimous No. 1 team despite being upset by Illinois in the match-play semifinals.

The Steve Desimone video:

The Desimone file:

Sport: Men’s golf

Cal tenure: 1979-80 through 2015-16

Record: 66 stroke-play victories over 37 years

Championships: 2004 NCAA title; 2 regional titles (2012, 2013); 2 Pac-12 titles (2012, 2013)

Other Achievements: 2 NCAA semifinals (2012, 2013); 11 NCAA Championship appearances; 22 All-America selections; 66 pro golfers; 2013 National Player of the Year (Michael Kim)

Honors: 2-time National Coach of the Year (2004, 2013); 3-time Pac-10/Pac-12 Coach of the Year (1987, 2012, 2013); Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame.

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14. NIBS PRICE, football, men's basketball

The 1928-29 academic year was eventful for Clarence Merle “Nibs” Price. He coached the Cal football team to a berth in the Rose Bowl following the 1928 football season, losing to Georgia Tech 8-7 when Roy Riegels returned a fumble the wrong way on Jan. 1, 1929. Two days later he coached Cal’s basketball team to a victory over Kansas at the Oakland Auditorium. The Bears beat the Jayhawks again the next night, on Jan. 4, in route to a 17-3 season, including 9-0 in conference play.

Famous story from the Oakland Tribune when it was an afternoon paper: Price died on a Saturday morning. The desk had minutes to slap together a quick story. One guy got a photo, one guy wrote the headline, another the obit. None knew what the other was doing, so in the paper that day there was a photo of the coach on the phone under the headline, "Death Calls Nibs Price."

Photo courtesy of Cal athletics

The Price file:

Sport: football, men’s basketball

Cal tenure, football: 1926-27 through 1930-31

Cal tenure, men’s basketball: 1924-25 through 1953-54

Record, football: 27-17-3 in 6 seasons

Record, men’s basketball: 453-294 in 30 seasons.

Championships, football: 0

Championships, men’s basketball: 11 conference titles (1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1939, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1953)

Other achievements, football: 1929 Rose Bowl appearance (lost to Georgia Tech 8-7).

Other achievements, basketball: Winningest basketball coach in Cal history; 1927 national champions (Premo-Porretta Power Poll); two undefeated teams (1926, 1927); won 30 consecutive games from the end of the 1924-25 season through the start of 1927-28 season.

Honors: University of California Athletics Hall of Fame

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13. JEFF TEDFORD, football

Jeff Tedford was a soft-spoken coach who limited his words and never complained. Cal fans remember with anger when Cal finished the 2004 regular season ranked No. 4 in both polls, and a top-4 finish in the BCS standings would have assured the Bears a berth in the Rose Bowl. But Texas coach Mack Brown did enough public politicking to get enough poll voters to change their final votes, which, with the inclusion of the computer rankings, pushed Texas to No. 4 in the BCS standings, one spot ahead of Cal and giving the Longhorns the Rose Bowl berth. Tedford did no politicking for a higher ranking and never complained about Brown's tactics.

Tedford’s Bears recorded a triple-overtime win over USC in 2003, a year in which the Trojans went on to win the AP national championship. And the Bears did it with their starting quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) sidelined with an injury for the entire second half.

Cal came within a whisker of being ranked No. 1 in the country midway through the 2007 season. The 5-0 Bears were No. 2 and needed only to beat Oregon State in Berkeley on Oct. 13 to move up a notch. The Bears lost 31-28 when Cal quarterback Kevin Riley, starting for injured Nate Longshore, was tackled at the Beavers’ 9-yard line as time ran out because Cal had no more timeouts.

Photo courtesy of Michael Pimentel

The Tedford file:

Sport: Football

Cal tenure: 2002-03 through 2012-13

Record: 82-57 in 11 seasons

Championships: 2006 Pac-10 title (tied), still Cal’s only conference title since 1958.

Other achievements: Half of the 16 bowl berths Cal has had in the 61 seasons since Cal’s last Rose Bowl came during Tedford’s time as head coach, and Cal had a 5-3 record in the postseason under Tedford; Tedford holds the Cal records for most wins and bowl game victories; three times Cal ranked in the final top-25 under Tedford, with a high of No. 9 in 2004.

Honors: 2-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year (2002, 2004)

12. STEVE GLADSTONE, men's rowing

An American literature major at Syracuse University, Gladstone worked at a New York advertising agency before becoming a rowing coach. He served in the dual roles of Cal athletic director and men’s rowing coach for four years (2001-2004). He was responsible for hiring Jeff Tedford as Cal’s football coach in 2001 when Tedford had never been a head coach and the Bears had won only one game the previous season.

(See and hear an extensive video interview with Steve Gladstone by clicking here.)

Photo courtesy of Cal athletics

The Gladstone file:

Sport: Men’s rowing

Cal tenure: 1972-73 through 1979-80, 1996-97 through 2007-08

Record: 20 seasons.

Championships: 6 National Intercollegiate Association varsity-8 titles (1976, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006); 8 conference vasity-8 titles (1979, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006); 9 conference team titles (1979, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006)

Other accomplishments: Cal’s varsity-8 went undefeated for three straight years (2000-2002); 1973 U.S. national coach; Gladstone’s varsity-8 boats won 14 IRA titles as coach at Cal, Brown and Yale.

Honors: 4-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005)

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11. HAL FREY, men's gymnastics

Hal Frey earned his Ph.D. in Education so he was really Dr. Hal Frey. He had 10 brothers and two sisters and grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania Dutch country during the great depression.

From a 2014 Bruce Jenkins column in the San Francisco Chronicle:

When Frey took the Cal job, in 1957, he was disheartened to learn that his athletes would be practicing in Harmon Gym’s Room 109, exactly 40 feet by 60. “It was so small that we had to start our vaulting and tumbling runs out in the hallway and run full speed into the room,” recalled team member Herb Solomon. “We had to post lookouts to keep people out of danger.”

A Cal dual meet was nothing short of a happening, crowds of 5,000-plus having an uproariously good time as witnesses to pure sporting excellence [in the late 1960s]. 

Photo courtesy of Cal athletics

The Frey file:

Sport: Men’s gymnastics

Cal tenure: 1957-58 through 1968-69, 1970-71 through 1982-83

Record: 238-39 in dual meets in 27 seasons

Championships: 2 NCAA team titles (1968, 1975); 12 Pac-8 titles (1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)

Other achievements: 6 top-3 NCAA team finishes; 10 undefeated seasons; 13 individual NCAA champions

Honors: 3-time NCAA Coach of the Year (1967, 1969, 1975); U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

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Click here for coaches Nos. 16-20

Click here for coaches Nos. 21-25

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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