Dewey Halden was as Old School as you could get.

But if it wasn’t for Halden’s trailblazing days, it’s improbable that Davis High School athletics would have earned the lofty reputation they enjoy today.

From the day DHS opened in 1927 until the late 1950s, Halden often oversaw the entire sports program. He taught, he administrated, he coached. He loved the kids.

According to those who knew him, Halden was all about those kids, teamwork and good sportsmanship.

Halden, who died in Davis in 1993, is being remembered for his longtime contributions with induction next month into the Blue & White Foundation’s Davis High School Hall of Fame.

“If my father were still alive, I am quite sure he would be honored to be included in the Hall of Fame,” son Allan Halden told The Enterprise via email from his Piedmont home.

Pay tribute

What: Davis High School Hall of Fame induction

When: 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15

Where: Freeborn Hall, UC Davis

Tickets: $65 each, www.dhsblueandwhite.org

Allan Halden reports that his father is a member of several other Midwest halls of fame, including Simpson College in Indianola, Ind., where he was a three-sport star. “But since he spent almost his entire adult working life … at Davis High School, he would probably be the proudest of this honor than any of the others,” Allan said.

Over almost 30 years (Halden retired in 1956), the popular coach’s teams won more than 100 league and regional championships. In addition to athletics, Halden taught history and biology, eventually becaming a special-education teacher.

“He was the only (coach) — at least for 20 to 25 years,” remembers lifelong Davis resident Betty Lewis. “He coached everything. In spring we could only have track — we didn’t have enough kids for both baseball and track — and track covered more areas for them to be involved in.”

Lewis said the Blue Devils “were always champions in all our sports, and had the banners in the gym to prove it. But more important than winning to Dewey was sportsmanship. And we had those banners to prove that, too.”

After graduation, Lewis and her late husband Dick (a veteran at DHS and UC Davis) became friends with Carol and Dewey Halden.

Lewis, once a Blue Devil cheerleader, remembers her uncle telling her how Halden would help students in and out of the classroom:

“It was The Depression … and some kids couldn’t afford both school shoes and gym shoes. On several occasions, real gym shoes showed up in these kids’ lockers. My uncle said he was one of those kids.”

Former DHS coach/teacher Bob Johnson (Class of 1963) got to play for an “unretired” Halden briefly as a member of the 1960 Blue Devil freshman football team. Johnson had heard the legend of Halden as a wide-eyed ninth-grader and remembers what people had told him about his new coach.

“He was known to help students in need of equipment, food, clothing, a job or a place to say,” Johnson said in a note to the Hall of Fame selection committee. “He opened the high school gym on weekends for kids to have a place to hang out and participate in sports activities. He was a tireless friend to students and faculty.”

And a role model.

Lewis remembers one time her pep squad had learned a new cheer from a Stanford visit. The crew tried it out at football rally. Lewis said she thought it was “a great yell.”

“Dewey, who had been there at the rally, listened to us, but didn’t say a word until after we had finished. The cheer was simple: something about ‘Give ’em the ax.’

“He then got up and told us all, ‘If you give that yell, I’ll forfeit the game,’ ” Lewis said. “He said, ‘You root for your team, but never say anything derogatory about the other.”

Lewis said she and the DHS pepsters learned a valuable lesson.

Johnson remembers Halden — after retiring a second time — cruising around town on his bicycle or in his old red pickup truck. There was always a wave or a “Hello! How are you?” for anyone who looked his way.

Allan Halden graduated from Davis High in 1956 — the last year his father coached varsity sports and taught at the school. Dewey’s son was among his pupils.

“I believe that my father was different from some coaches, teachers and administrators in that he truly cared for his athletes and did not consider teaching and coaching as just a daytime job,” Allan said. “He did many extra things which have probably by now been forgotten.”

One of which was taking teams to San Quentin to tour the prison…

“The tour (would end) with a close-up look at the gas chamber and the gallows,” Allan said. “This was always a very impressive experience. This was to show the boys what it was like to be inside a real, hard-core prison — and, as far as I know, not one of his athletes ever ended up in jail.”

Most, the records indicate, went on to lead full lives in which Old School values nurtured intelligence and grew character and compassion.

Notes: Halden played semi-pro football (just after World War I) for a coach named George Halas. Yes, THAT George Halas, who in 1922 formed the old NFL Chicago Staleys — forerunners of Da’ Bears. …Halden was also a builder, which he did full-time upon retirement. He was always quick to hire DHS graduates. …In 1961, when DHS unveiled its multipurpose stadium, it was named Halden Field, which remains the name of the playing surface at the renovated Ron & Mary Brown Stadium. …Allan Halden says many family members, including his sister Alice Jean Halden McReynolds of Sacramento, will be attendance at next month’s induction ceremony.

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at [email protected] or (530) 747-8047.

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Dewey Halden. Courtesy photo

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Dewey Halden, left, sporting his traditional bow tie, proudly shows off his Davis High School basketball team, circa 1930. B Street is behind them. This photo was published in “Davis California 1910s-1940s” by John Lofland and Phyllis Haig, published in April 2000 by Arcadia Publishing. Isabel Sparks/Courtesy photo

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Legendary Davis High School coach Dewey Halden, at right in back row, poses with his 1929 DHS championship football team. This photo was published in “Davis California 1910s-1940s” by John Lofland and Phyllis Haig, published in April 2000. Hattie Weber Museum/Courtesy photo

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