Al Davis - Early Coaching Career

Early Coaching Career

Upon graduation in May 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Davis sought a position on a college football coaching staff while pursuing a master's degree, hoping that this would provide him both with a start on a career and protection from the draft. In job hunting, he would introduce himself as "Davis from Syracuse", likely intentionally from confusion with George Davis, star halfback for the school's football team. Turned down at Hofstra University and by Bill Altenberg athletic director at Adelphi University (both on Long Island), he approached Adelphi's president. What went on between the two men is not known—his biographer Mark Ribowsky suggests Davis used a combination of "bluff and con", but a half hour after Altenberg dismissed Davis from his office, he received a call from the president that he had a new freshman football coach.

In 1952, with his student deferral ended upon receipt of his master's degree, Davis was inducted into the Army. He quickly secured a place attached to a public relations unit near Syracuse, and set about obtaining a place on one of the coaching staff for the military's football teams. General Stanley Scott of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, obtained Davis's services in 1953 as football coach for his base's football squad. Davis coached Fort Belvoir to a record of eight wins, two losses, and one tie (8–2–1), missing a chance to play in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego because of a final-game loss to the nearby Quantico Marine Base. Near the end of 1952, he was called to testify before a congressional committee investigating whether athletes were being coddled in the military. Although most of Davis's team was sent to Korea, he remained at Fort Belvoir until his discharge from the Army in 1954. While coaching in the Army, Davis sold scouting information about his players to National Football League (NFL) teams. One NFL executive who contacted Davis was the Los Angeles Rams's Pete Rozelle, but as Rozelle had been allocated no money, Davis gave him no information.

After leaving the Army, Davis married his fiancee, Carol Sagal, in a Brooklyn synagogue; the couple established a first home in Atlantic Beach, near Al Davis's parents. Davis worked for a year as a free lance scout for the Baltimore Colts of the NFL. He had considerable knowledge of the players he had had on his roster or coached against, and advised the Colts which players to offer contracts to or draft as they returned to civilian life. Davis cultivated the Colts' head coach, Weeb Ewbank, hoping Ewbank's connections would lead to a coaching job for Davis, and these efforts paid off in January 1955, when Davis was hired by The Citadel as an assistant to newly-hired head coach John Sauer. In contrast to the glory won by its alumni in war, the South Carolina military academy's football team had lost every game the previous season, and the coach was dismissed in Sauer's favor. Davis stated, in his interview, that he would be able to persuade small-town boys from the Northeast to attend The Citidel, which often had difficulty in recruiting star players because of its regimented lifestyle. He was successful in his recruiting, though not all remained past the first training camp, at South Carolina's Parris Island Marine base.

During games, Davis was stationed in the press box, calling plays which were generally run by Sauer without modification. The Citadel unexpectedly began the season by winning five of its first six games, though it lost the next three to end the season 5–4. Davis received much credit for his role in The Citadel's success, though losing Sauer's regard through too-aggressive self-promotion. The 1956 season was less successful, as the team finished 3–5–1. Sauer resigned at the end of the season; Davis sought the head coaching position, did not receive it, and resigned himself; Ribowsky records that there were allegations of payments and other benefits to players in violation of NCAA rules; he also states that Davis pressured professors to change grades to keep student-athletes eligible to play football. By the time he left The Citadel, Davis had already arranged his next job, at the University of Southern California (USC).

Davis was an effective recruiter as a USC assistant coach, bringing one prospect, Angelo Coia to the Los Angeles Coliseum at night, and as the lights were slowly turned off, asked the student to imagine himself playing there before 100,000 people. Coia played for USC and later worked for the Raider front office.. When Davis arrived, USC was on NCAA probation for allowing alumni to surreptitiously give money to players, and had not been permitted to play in a bowl game after the 1956 season; these sanctions hampered Davis's first two seasons at USC, 1957 and 1958, during which the team posted mediocre record. The head coach, Don Clark, came to rely heavily on Davis. Clark and Davis hoped that 1959 would bring a conference championship and the chance to play in the Rose Bowl, but in April 1959 USC was sanctioned by the NCAA again, this time for inducing recruits signed by other schools into breaking their letters of intent. Not allowed to play on television, USC won its first eight games before losing to UCLA and Notre Dame. Despite the defeats, the team was Pacific Coast Conference champions., but because of the sanctions could not play in the Rose Bowl. Clark resigned after the season; although Davis put in for the position, it went to another assistant, John McKay, who did not keep Davis on his staff.

Davis had met Los Angeles Rams coach Sid Gillman in Atlantic City at a coaching clinic; the NFL coach had been impressed that Davis had sat in the front row, taken copious notes, and had asked many questions afterwards. Gillman was fired after the 1959 season, but was quickly hired by the Los Angeles Chargers of the startup American Football League. He hired Davis as backfield coach on a coaching staff which included future Hall of Famer Chuck Noll as well as future AFL head coach and NFL general manager Jack Faulkner. Gillman later stated that he hired Davis for his success both as a coach and as a recruiter, and because "Al had that knack of telling people what they wanted to hear. He was very persuasive." One player whom Davis recommended to the Chargers, and then secured, was wide receiver Lance Alworth. Unwilling to give the NFL San Francisco 49ers, who had also drafted Alworth, a chance to sign him, Davis raced out onto the field at Alworth's final college game and signed Alworth to a contract under the goalpost as 49ers head coach Red Hickey watched helplessly from the stands. Davis later stated, "I knew it wasn't safe to let Alworth go to the dressing room." In 1978, Davis was selected by Alworth to introduce him at his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.