The article below originally appeared in the Lagonian and is being reprinted with permission.
Foster City’s Bill Dickey, who has been affiliated with College of San Mateo as a student, coach, faculty member and administrator for 56 years, will be one of 16 people inducted into CSM’s first Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 23.
A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at the Hall of Fame Plaza above the campus gym at 4 p.m. and a 6 p.m. ceremony will revisit 90 years of San Mateo County sports history.
CSM alum Hal Ramey of KCBS will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the evening.
About Bill Dickey
Dickey, 71, attended CSM after graduating from South San Francisco High School, where he was recognized as an outstanding high school football player and student-athlete and was named to the High School All-America football team in the fall of ’57.
H also received the coveted Blanket Award as the outstanding student-athlete and received the honor of playing in the East-West All-Star game.
At CSM, he played guard on the football team and was voted the team’s “most inspirational player” in 1959.
At the end of his sophomore year, he was awarded an athletic scholarship to Utah State University. In his senior year, Dickey was named co-captain with Merlin Olsen and Tom Larshide and was selected to the all-conference team.
After graduating from Utah State, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education and a minor in Psychology, Dickey taught and coached football, wrestling, and tennis and taught history, driver’s education and health education at Murray High School in Salt Lake City for one year.
He returned to the Bay Area to teach and coach at South San Francisco High school and coached the frosh-soph baseball team to a conference championship and taught psychology, history, math and driver’s education.
In 1965 Bill was appointed as a full time faculty member and served as a physical education instructor and assistant football coach for CSM.
In 1969, he was elevated to Head Football coach and held that position until 1971. In the spring of 1971 he was offered a position at Stanford University and joined his former coach from Utah State, John Ralston. That season, Stanford won the PAC-8 Conference title and beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
After the Rose Bowl win, coach Ralston accepted a position with the Denver Bronco’s and Bill accepted a position as assistant football coach at the University of California at Berkeley and coached there for two seasons.
Wanting a change of environment for his family, he accepted a position at the University of Utah and was on the staff for the 1974 season.
In the spring of 1975, the head football coaching position opened at CSM and he was appointed head coach for a second time.
Dickey was selected coach of the year in the Golden Gate Conference twice. His coaching record at the college was 78 wins, 48 losses and 3 ties.
In 1983, he took a leave of absence from the college to coach in the United States Football League with the Oakland Invaders.
Dickey coached there for three years and was later appointed Acting Dean of the Physical Education division at CSM.
During that time, he finished his Master’s Degree at St. Mary’s College in Physical Education Administration.
In 1997 he assisted then Head Coach Larry Owens and helped the team win the Bay Bowl game.
In March 2011, Bill was inducted into the California Community College Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“Bill not only got a great education as a student-athlete at CSM, but an opportunity to coach and teach, make an impact on many young lives, and achieve a financially secure future and a wonderful retirement,” said a CSM Sports Information Office statement.
“Bill gives special thanks to the great teachers and coaches whom he has been associated with at the college, especially Steve Shafer, Ted Tollner and Tom Martinez,” said the statement.
“These men made a great impact on his career. They were great teachers and coaches and the experience of working with them during his coaching and teaching experience at College of San Mateo were invaluable.”
Dickey and his wife Sue live in Foster City and have two sons, Chris and Jeff, who both attended CSM.
2011 Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees
- Archie Williams – 1936 Olympic gold medalist in the 400 meters and team mate of the legendary Jesse Owens
- Nicole Carroll-Lewis – 1996 Olympic javelin thrower
- Jenny Freeman – CSM softball star
- Jack Avina – Men’s basketball coach
- Ray Balsley – Men’s basketball coach, golf coach
- John Noce – Baseball coach
- Bob Rush – Track coach
- Bill Walsh – Football player
- John Madden – Football player
- Bill Ring – Football player
- Neal Dahlen – Football player
- Murius McFadden – Football coach
- Herb Hudson – Football coach
- Bill Dickey – Football coach, player
- Ted Tollner – Football coach
- Tom Martinez – Softball coach, women’s basketball and softball coach
