Like so many great coaches do, Mike Bellotti is quick to give credit to those around him for any personal success he may have achieved.

"The good thing about what I've been able to accomplish, it has all been in a team setting," says the College Football Hall of Famer who becomes the seventh recipient of the Aggie Legacy Award at UC Davis ceremonies on Friday night. "That's what I learned growing up; that's what I enjoy. It's just more about making the team work."

Bellotti, a record-setting Aggie wide receiver in the early 1970s, coached at Davis upon graduation before heading to Cal State Hayward, Chico State and, ultimately, Oregon.

Bellotti will be honored at the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremonies featuring the enshrinement of volleyball's Betsy Sedlak, former UC Davis AD Greg Warzecka, baseball player Jason Shapiro, track and field's Ashley Hearn, football player Charley Enos and water polo's Mike DeJong.

Born in Sacramento, Bellotti attended Ygnacio Valley High (Concord). After a prep career in baseball, basketball and football, Bellotti figured he was headed for Cal.

"I was all set to go to Berkeley," the winningest coach in Ducks history remembers. "Growing up in the Concord area, I had gone to games (at Cal) and applied and got accepted. Then all the riots broke out (1968-69). The culture had changed a lot and I wasn't totally comfortable with that."

Bellotti had relatives in Lincoln whom he visited frequently, and he was well aware of UC Davis: "I thought, I'll go to Davis for a year, then I'll transfer back to Berkeley when things quiet down.

"It turned out when I got to Davis that I loved it, got to play varsity football as a freshman … by then I had no reason to leave. I liked the academics, the environment."

Bellotti broke in as a tight end on the freshman team, but by the time that first season ended, he found himself playing varsity football for then-coach Herb Schmalenberger.

That was 1969, a year in which the Aggies went 3-7 and 0-5 in the Far Western Conference.

"Our team was that successful at first," Bellotti explains. "I remember a road trip that year, sitting next to a coach named Jim Sochor.

"Jim was small in stature, not loud. Then I found out later on that he was the new head coach. I was sort of shocked. Herb was a laid-back guy. His pre-game speech was 'The hay's in the barn. Let's go out and get this done.'

"Jim was not a lot more emotional, but a lot more detail-oriented. It was something I learned to appreciate over time … it wasn't something that you first said to yourself 'OK, this guy is going to change the world.' "

Although Sochor did, at least as far as Aggie football was concerned. He went on to win 156 games in 19 seasons and, like Sochor did with so many other coaches, provided Bellotti with a blueprint for subsequent success:

"Jim taught me the value of detailed preparation: thorough, repetitive stuff to where it became rote memory — never conceding anything, always believing that your preparation and your will to win was going to be the difference in the game."

It was that "never concede anything" spirit that provided Aggie fans with its game-for-the-ages, now remembered as The Miracle Game.

On Nov. 6, 1971, UC Davis trailed Hayward, 29-14 with 20 seconds left. It was Bellotti's catch that kept an improbable touchdown drive going. UCD then recovered an onside kick that led to a Bellotti scoring catch with 0:04 left. A two-point conversion beat Hayward, 30-29.

The quarterback was Bob Biggs, who would later coach the Aggies for two decades. The takeaway for Bellotti? A lifelong friendship with Biggs.

"It was fun: the teammates, the success we had … Bob Biggs, Bruce Groefesema remain two of my closest friends today."

And over the years, it was easy for Bellotti to make friends; they're people, he says, who taught him most of what he knows. He says the Legacy Award is something to be shared...

"To me? It means that you've obviously accomplished some things and never forgot where you came from. I owe a great deal … to my introduction to college football at UC Davis — and the people: guys like Jim Sochor, Joe Singleton and Bob Foster and John Pappa. There are a lot of people. Neal Zoumboukos, Nick Aliotti, Lou Bronzan. These guys all coached with me. I enjoyed the lifestyle."

For most of the 1970s, Bellotti owned the school record for receiving yards in a game (204 versus Humboldt State in a 1971 conference-clinching victory).

He gravitated from Chico State to Oregon when former teammate Aliotti called and said the Ducks' offensive coordinator position was open.

"Should I? Nick said he thought so," Bellotti says. "It was my wife Colleen who said 'Mike, I think you should try it because I don't want you to wake in up 10 years and regret that you didn't give the Pac-10 level a try."

The Yellow-and-Green rejoiced in Bellotti's decision to move even farther north. After his 20 years in Eugene, Oregon was on the national map. In 14 seasons as head coach, Bellotti went 116-55, winning a couple of Pac-10 titles and six bowl games.

So what has been the best part of this Bellotti Football Life? ESPN color man? Assistant coach? Athletic department boss? Player?

"Honestly, it would be as an offensive coordinator. It wouldn't be as a head coach. Oh, I enjoyed being a head coach, I enjoyed being a commentator —I did not enjoy being an (athletic director)," Bellotti says with a laugh.

"The most fun time, the greatest experiences of my life, were when I was closest to the players. You have a group as a position coach that affects the outcome of a game and you can take great pride in that."

But what about doing ESPN games?

"The problem with being an analyst is there's no feeling of winning," reports the 68-year-old who still does a weekly radio show. "Sure, there's a feeling of satisfaction that you've done a good job, but there's no connection to the players, no connections to the feelings that go into the locker room."

— Former Davis Enterprise sports editor Bruce Gallaudet writes Inside Aggie Nation each Wednesday. He also authors Aggie Corner on Fridays or Sundays in The Enterprise.