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Remembering an Aggie Legend

By Mark Honbo, Athletics Communications
With contributions from Mike Robles, Athletics Communications

A campus celebration of Coach Sochor's life will be held on Saturday, April 30, 2016. Click here for details.

While 156 career victories, 18 conference championships and eight NCAA postseason appearances would rate as points of pride by any measure, Hall of Fame coach Jim Sochor's finest contribution to UC Davis athletics took the form of a belief system later dubbed "Aggie Pride." A legendary mentor, a beloved father and husband, and a treasured friend, Sochor died on Tuesday, November 24 after a long illness. He was 77.

In 1967, a former San Francisco State All-American quarterback with a doctorate in education arrived at UC Davis to serve as an assistant coach for football and baseball. In an era when the abrasive Woody Hayes or the authoritarian Vince Lombardi characterized the profession, the soft-spoken and cerebral James Lee Sochor carried himself in a manner more similar to UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

When physical education director Chuck Kovacic appointed Sochor to the football helm in 1970, the Aggies had come off a last-place, 0-5 record in the Far Western Conference race. The team had not won an outright league championship since 1951. It was not for lack of talent - in fact, UC Davis had no fewer than three NFL draft picks that previous January. Rather, Sochor felt it was a shift in culture that would transform the program into a winner.

"When I first established the values of the program, we knew that everybody we played would be bigger, stronger, faster and more talented than we were," said Sochor, in a 2007 interview. "We had to find a way. And that way was that no one would be closer as a team than we would be. Our central values became trust, unity and togetherness."

Make no mistake: while Sochor espoused praise, respect and encouragement, he was also strict. Players were not to let their helmets touch the ground when not on their heads. They were not permitted to address coaches by their first names. Coaches, in turn, shall not yell or swear at a player, nor put them down. When the Aggies secured a winning season in that first year, Sochor decided his team could have a banquet, but only a low-key, spaghetti dinner on the second floor of the Memorial Union. "No parents, no trophies," he later recalled. "We weren't going to have a big banquet until we earned it."

In 1971, UC Davis improved to 9-1 overall and captured the FWC title thanks to dramatic victories over Cal State Hayward and Chico State. It was the first of what became 20 consecutive conference championships, of which Sochor won 18; and the second of what eventually stretched to 37 straight winning seasons. Sochor went 156-41-5 during that span, with a glittering 92-5 conference record.

In Sochor's tenure, the Aggies advanced to the NCAA playoffs eight times, with five straight appearances from 1982 through 1986. The 1982 squad, led by future NFL standout Ken O'Brien, reached the NCAA title game in McAllen, Texas. In 1983, UC Davis finished atop the final national poll despite a heart-breaking upset to North Dakota State in the national semifinal. For his part, Sochor was selected as the Division II Coach of the Year. One year later, he earned the first of two appointments to the East-West Shrine Game coaching staff.

Ten of his players were drafted into the NFL, including O'Brien and second-round picks Bo Eason and Mike Wise. Eleven won first-team All-America honors. Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the Sochor "coaching tree" - that is, the disciples who later went on to coach collegiate or professional football. Mike Bellotti (Chico State, Oregon), Chris Petersen (Boise State, Washington), Dan Hawkins (Willamette, Boise State, Colorado), Frank Scalercio (Sonoma State) and Bob Biggs (UC Davis) each played for Sochor before one day becoming collegiate head coaches. Paul Hackett (Pitt, USC), Gary Patterson (TCU), Bob Foster (UC Davis) and Steve DaPrato (New Mexico Highlands) served as Sochor assistants before eventually assuming the helm of an NCAA program.

Impressively, the entirety of Sochor's coaching career took place during a time when UC Davis operated as a non-scholarship College Division or Division II program. The Aggies played in modest Toomey Field, built in 1949 and not much larger than many high school facilities. Every program Sochor faced, particularly in his earlier years, seemed to have more resources, better facilities, and players more blessed with size, speed and athleticism.

Sochor did not complain; in fact, he harnessed these supposed shortcomings. "What we didn't have became our strength," he said. "Just like Ralph Waldo Emerson said, `Our strength grows out of our weakness.' We didn't have anything and we loved it. We loved going in as the underdog because then we could show people what we can do."

Sochor relished that underdog role. In 1971, his Aggies overcame a 29-14 deficit with less than a minute to go, defeating then-powerhouse Cal State Hayward in what later became known as "The Miracle Game." Sochor also prevailed in each of his last three meetings with Division I-A Pacific: 31-14 in 1978, 23-22 in 1982 and 45-41 in 1986. Before UC Davis' 2005 shocker at Stanford - which Sochor chalked up to the Aggie Pride belief system - those consecutive wins over the Tigers rated as the program's most significant upsets.

"The great thing about Coach Sochor was, even early on, if he didn't know something, he wanted to go out and he wanted to innovate and he wanted to learn," said Biggs, who is second to Sochor on the Aggies' all-time list with 144 wins. "I remember in the early years, we were doing things that the Dallas Cowboys were doing. I was a player at the time but the staff was visiting the Cowboys' (preseason camp) and he would bring back different ideas from there. He was always interested in trying to stay one step ahead of the competition to give us an advantage."

Even referencing a 19th-century essayist and poet like Emerson was par for the course for Sochor. He based his Aggie Pride philosophy on sources perhaps unusual for a football coach. In speaking of his methods, Sochor invoked the Chinese Tao ("Find the natural order, and the universe will decide. Accept the situation that's in front of you without wanting it to be anything other than what it is.") and the Japanese concept of shibumi ("The essence of beauty underlying a commonplace appearance. That was our football program."). Later in his career, he cited figures like Deepak Chopra ("With self-referral, the power is within you, and you can be relaxed because you have nothing to worry about.") and David E. Hawkins ("Through muscular contractions in the body, words literally give you powers and words can take power away from you.").

"It's interesting because a lot of folks think that Coach Sochor kind of had this Zen philosophy with coaching," said Biggs. "From my perspective, I don't think that really came until later. I think that, as he mentioned many times, that it wasn't until about 1986 when he was really introduced to some of the teachings of the Eastern philosophers. But like anybody, when he looked back on his career, I think he found in those teachings a lot of the principles that he'd been practicing, unbeknownst that they were part of a philosophy about being who you are, understanding that it's not always going to be perfect (and) you're not always going to have everything that you want. But if you understand the speciaty of the place that you're at, appreciate the things that you do have and you treat each other with a lot of class, dignity and respect, you find that you're all in this thing for the same reasons. I think that was the message."

Sochor retired from his football coaching post in 1988, served as UC Davis' director of athletics for a few years, then finished out his Aggie career as the head men's golf coach until the 1996-97 season. He ceded the men's golf post to assistant coach Cy Williams when the WLAF's Scottish Claymores named him as their offensive coordinator. Sochor helped guide the Claymores to the World Bowl '96 championship. Through the years, he continued to be an active member of the Aggie Family, attending fundraisers, campus events and many Aggie competitions, particularly basketball where he was a constant presence.

Sochor also mentored many coaches and staff at UC Davis, providing insight on how to be successful in all facets of life. His contributions took many forms but they were always underscored with his Aggie Pride philosophy.

"Coach Sochor meant a lot to UC Davis, not only as the most successful football coach in Aggie history, but as a trusted colleague and friend to many fellow coaches, student-athletes, faculty and staff members," said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. "He was well-known and admired for what he did on the sidelines, but he is remembered just as warmly for the impact he had across this campus and on so many members of the UC Davis community."

Current Aggie men's golf coach Cy Williams was one of Coach Sochor's closest friends. He served as assistant coach to Sochor in the mid-1990s before taking over on an interim basis when Sochor went to coach football in Europe.

"He meant the world to me," said Williams. "He was my mentor. He got me really serious about coaching and made me think about it as a profession rather than just a job at the time. I think I was really lucky because I got him when he was done with his coaching and moving into the next phase of his life, which was really mentoring people, working with people and teaching people. Obviously, he was my very close friend but just to have the opportunity to talk coaching with him, you just don't get any luckier than that."

An enshrinee of both the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta and UC Davis' own Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame, Sochor's presence is still felt around the athletics program. The playing field at Aggie Stadium bears his name. The words "Trust, unity, togetherness" adorn numerous department posters and apparel. Even non-athletics organizations have adopted his legacy: the campus's student-run philanthropic group calls itself "We Are Aggie Pride."

The notions of an athlete being a student first, and a coach being a teacher first, both predated Sochor's arrival at UC Davis, both went hand-in-hand with his way of thinking, and both remain important core principles into the university's Division I era. However, he insisted that the university was represented by his football program in the same way that it has become represented in the fields of medicine, law, sciences and engineering.

"There is a real legacy in Aggie Pride," he said. "When you play here, coaches won't walk you to class. There's no spoon-feeding. If you have a flat tire, you fix it. You learn to be your own person. People came in as freshmen and a few years later, you'd see a whole different person. When they graduate, they were ready to go out and attack the world."

Sochor earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education from San Francisco State, then added his Ed.D from Utah in 1968. He earned All-FWC and Little All-America accolades as a quarterback, helping the Gators capture three straight conference titles. Sochor entered the SFSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976.

He is survived by his wife, Donna, and daughters, Terri and Holly.