The Cal 100: No. 52 -- Dave Maggard

Maggard was an Olympic shot-putter who was Cal's athletic director for 19 years and was director of sports at the 1996 Summer Olympics

We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.

No. 52: Dave Maggard

Cal Sports Connection: Maggard was a member of Cal’s track and field team as a shot-putter, and was a letterman on the Bears football team. He became head coach of the Bears track and field team and was Cal’s athletic director from 1972 to 1991

Claim to Fame: Maggard held the Cal shot put record for 19 years. He placed second in the 1968 Olympic Trials and fifth in the Olympics. While he was Cal’s athletic director, the Bears earned their first men’s NCAA basketball tournament berth in 30 years and their first football bowl berth in 29 years. He was the Director of Sports for the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games, and served as the Vice President of Sports Administration for Turner Sports/Time Warner Inc.

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The case for Dave Maggard’s inclusion in the Cal 100 is not based on a single achievement but rather on the aggregate of his many impressive achievements in sports.

Maggard, a 1962 graduate of Cal, set a Cal record in the shot put of 59 feet, 8.75 inches while finishing fourth at the NCAA meet in 1962. That school record stood for 19 years. 

He placed second in the 1968 U.S. Olympic Trials, but finished ahead of Randy Matson, who was third at the Trials but won the Olympic gold medal that year in Mexico City. Maggard finished fifth in the 1968 Olympics despite competing with a virus.

Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

However, it was as a coach and sports administrator that Maggard had the greatest impact.

He became Cal’s head track and field coach in 1970, and the Bears finished first in the NCAA championships that year, although the title was later taken away when it was discovered that freshman sprinter Isaac Curtis was deemed ineligible. (A 1970 Sports Illustrated story about Cal's track title focused on Maggard.)

Maggard was named Cal’s athletic director in 1972, and he made two important coaching acquisitions in that role. He hired Lou Campanelli as basketball coach in 1986, and he hired Bruce Snyder as football coach in 1987.

In 1990, Campanelli led the Bears to their first NCAA tournament berth in 30 years, and that started a run of 14 NCAA tournament berths over the next 27 seasons for the Bears. Also in 1990, Snyder’s squad earned Cal’s second bowl berth in 32 years, and the next season, Cal finished with a No. 8 AP ranking, still the Bears’ highest final ranking since 1950. Both coaches left Cal under controversial circumstances after Maggard had departed from Cal to become the athletic director at the University of Miami following 19 years as A.D. at Cal.

Maggard left Miami when he was named to the high-prestige, huge-responsibility job of Director of Sports for the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games, the second time since 1932 the Summer Olympics were held in the United States.

He later became the athletic director at the University of Houston, and Maggard, now 83 years old, has worked as a consultant in recent years.

The Cal 100: No. 53 -- Darrall Imhoff

Cover photo of Dave Maggard courtesy of Cal Athletics

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