DAVIS, Calif. -- At the time, Michael Go focused on tending to his pregame duties. As team manager for the UC Davis men's basketball team, he had work to do during the minutes leading up to tip-off, and did not hear as sports information director and public address announcer Jim Doan called his name. 

This was March 2, 1968. The Aggies hosted Sacramento State for their Far Western Conference finale, less than a week away from making a return trip to the NCAA College Division Regional. It was also Senior Night. But the first name called was not John Frost, who set school scoring records that lasted almost a decade. Nor was it Alan Budde, who remains the program's all-time leading rebounder. No, this moment was reserved for Go, who did not realize what was happening until head athletic trainer Dick Lewis urged him toward the center of Hickey Gym's basketball court.

As Go headed toward the free-throw line, he saw the crowd stand in appreciation. He saw a youngster help his grandmother rise from her feet to join in the ovation. An unassuming man who does not seek attention, Go wanted to be anywhere else – that is, until he looked up and saw Joe Carlson, the previous Aggie head men's basketball coach, who was now standing on the top row with his family. Next to the Carlsons were Go's roommates and their girlfriends, each enjoying the moment to its fullest.

"It seemed like everyone in the place was standing and clapping. I look over at the team bench, and half the guys are crying," Go recalls. "I even remember the Sac State team applauding. I think I gave the peace sign because it was the Vietnam War time, and I didn't know what else to do. I just wanted them to announce Frosty or Budde so we could get on with it."

UC Davis won the game, 99-74, wrapping up the second of what would become three straight FWC championships. After the contest, athletics director Bill Lakie sought out Go in the locker room to shake his hand. Lakie had been around collegiate athletics for decades, but had never seen a team manager honored in that way. More than a half-century later, Go's one regret is that his parents were not on hand to see the presentation, although in fairness, he did not know it would happen and thus could not possibly have thought to invite them. 

"I knew right then and there that I made the right choice to stay at UC Davis. It had been a great experience," says Go. "That solidified my heartfelt thanks to UC Davis, and I always knew that at some point, I would try to give back."

In the years since, Go remained a man of his word: he launched scholarship funds in memory of both Lewis and Carlson, then continued to donate to those funds until they reached the $50,000 requirement to become university endowments. When he retired in 2014 after a successful career as owner of Embarcadero Physical Therapy in San Francisco, he donated almost all of his equipment to the UC Davis athletics training room. 

And most recently, Go pledged a major gift to secure the naming opportunity for the head athletics trainer's office at the new Edwards Family Athletic Center. When that facility opens for the 2022-23 school year, the main office in the EFAC's southeast wing will be known as the Michael P. Go Head Athletic Trainer's Office. Both selfless and humble, Go actually was reluctant to name the office after himself, but ultimately agreed, hoping that it might inspire other alumni to follow in his example.

"We've been looking at different opportunities and planned gifts, and I knew Michael had a passion for Dick Lewis, athletic training and physical therapy," said Lorie Lindsey, the UC Davis director of development who oversees alumni giving. "I thought this was a perfect match for him in the new center. It matches his passion for UC Davis and what he has done."

"I also wanted to give back because of my era, the 1960s," said Go. "I was a product of that era. It's a perfect way to give back, to represent some of the people I went to school with. I think they have a soft spot for UC Davis."

Go grew up in Oakland, where he was a childhood friend of future UC Davis basketball player and Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. They had met while playing in the same trumpet section of an all-city band. Perhaps not coincidentally, Baranco later married another of Go's close friends, Barbara Gee, who knew Go through the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Oakland.

Go initially assumed he would stay close to home and attend Cal, but his aunt in Sacramento suggested that he give UC Davis a look. Like Baranco a year later, part of the decision stemmed from a desire to get away from home. Despite previous visits to the campus, Go remembers his arrival in the fall of 1964 as a "rude awakening." The university and the surrounding community had a starkly different demographic from Oakland. As a result, Go struggled academically and considered moving home, where he could attend UC Berkeley. However, Scot Eustis, a friend on the Aggie freshman basketball team, suggested that he speak to Coach Carlson about becoming a team manager.

Carlson was a breath of fresh air. He was so hospitable and inviting that it actually got Go off guard at first. "From the very moment I met him, I felt like I was talking to a used car salesman," Go said. "I had never met him before, yet he automatically welcomed me to be the manager for the basketball team."

Go accepted the opportunity, and began his job as manager in the 1965-66 season. This new role also placed him alongside another man who equally shaped his life: the department's head athletic trainer. Lewis had joined the UC Davis physical education staff back in 1949, and had become one of the most universally loved and respected people in the community. 

So revered was Lewis that in 1968-69, when UC Davis won its third straight FWC title, the team voted its athletic trainer as its MVP. Five years later, he became the first university staff member to be selected as grand marshal for the annual Picnic Day parade. To put that into persective, this was an honor traditionally bestowed upon such dignitaries as the university Chancellor (James Meyer and Emil Mrak each held it twice), veteran faculty members (e.g. Edwin C. Voorhies in 1963), the California governor (Pat Brown in 1962) and even the recently retired Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (Earl Warren in 1970).

"If you want to name a couple who best represented UC Davis, you start with Dick and Betty Lewis, without a doubt," said Go.

Suffice to say, any reservations Go once felt about choosing UC Davis vanished during his three years as the basketball manager. His old friend Baranco joined the varsity squad in 1966-67. The Aggies enjoyed success during those years, too. The 21 wins during Go's junior year remained the school record until 1995-96. The team's average of 81.3 points per game in 1967-68 still stands as a UC Davis benchmark for scoring offense, despite the advent of the three-point shot almost two decades later.

For Go, the experience of being part of a team helped shape his future, while the association with Carlson and Lewis proved beyond impactful on the manner in which he carries himself.

"I came under the tutelage of Dick Lewis, who I always tell people is how I learned the value of caring and compassion; and Joe Carlson, who I learned the gift of gab from and how I developed a silly sense of humor," Go says. "Those two men became my adopted fathers in college. I don't think there is a month that goes by when I don't think of those two gentlemen because they had a profound influence on me."

Still, Go took a relatively circuitous path in emulating Lewis toward a career in sports medicine. He first earned a master in public health from Berkeley, with intentions of a career in hospital administration. Go even secured one of the more impressive letters of recommendation in his application to Cal, that of Chancellor Mrak. He had become well-acquainted with the campus's chief executive officer while serving as team manager, so much so that he felt completely at ease in walking across Russell Boulevard, knocking on the door of the Residence, and asking the noted food scientist for the letter. 

"I had to be comfortable doing that, but that's how he was and how he acted with other people," said Go about Mrak. "That was the wonderful spirit of Davis, that you could talk to people. Looking back on it now, that was special."

Just as he followed the advice of one relative in choosing UC Davis in the first place, Go heeded the example of a cousin in pursuing physical therapy, and completed his degree at UC San Francisco. While the MPH had not borne fruit on his career path, the combination of a PT degree and certification as an athletic trainer opened up a wealth of opportunities. He worked for Sportcare in Berkeley, Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, then served on the Stanford athletic training staff before opening his own private practice, Embarcadero Physical Therapy. At every stop, he considered himself as part of a team – just as he experienced with UC Davis basketball in the late 1960s – either as a member or later, as the leader. Even Go's master's thesis at Berkeley was on team nursing.

In 2014, years before he made his pledge for the EFAC sports medicine center, Go retired from physical therapy, but not before donating his equipment, such as training tables and ultrasounds, as gifts-in-kind to the UC Davis athletic training room. However, he did keep one table for himself, allowing him to convert the garage of his Carmel home into a treatment center. Lewis had done exactly this following his own retirement in 1979. Go now provides pro bono services to a handful of senior citizens, all of whom have responded well to his care. Consider this Go's latest version of a team environment.

"It's one way to still give back because I still have some skills," he said. "It feels good to do something similar to the way Dick gave back to the community. You see people getting better because you can teach them to do things to help themselves, and you do some things they can't do themselves. It helps them get better and become more functional human beings."

When it comes to his philanthropic side, Go draws from two other key influences. For starters, he remembers how hard his father worked as a butcher, six days a week, trying desperately to compete against the bigger chain stores. Nevertheless, the elder Go routinely packaged up some of the lunch meats, or extra pork and lamb chops, then gave them to the children of his regular customers. This was a valuable lesson that stuck with the future Aggie. "Sometimes you can give in that fashion, not necessarily with money," Go said. "Give back in a way that benefits others and helps them move forward."

Furthermore, Go thinks back to his childhood and sitting with his uncle, Dan Chan, as the two watched college football every Saturday. It cultivated young Michael's interest in sports and provided a bonding moment with his uncle. More crucially, when it came to choosing a college years later, it was this same Uncle Dan who stepped up to help Go's parents finance their son's education at UC Davis. At the time, the university only cost $234 per year in fees, with room and board adding up to what would today be a year's worth of textbooks. But to Go, this one gesture opened up every door. Without it, there would have been no Aggie basketball. He never would have met Dick Lewis nor Joe Carlson, and certainly, would not have experienced that Senior Night ceremony in Hickey Gym.

To this day, Go feels a tremendous gratitude for this generosity, and now devotes his life to being his own version of Uncle Dan to other future college students. Like his friend Baranco, he also cites the rising cost of education for spurring his interest in funding scholarships.

"I don't have children. If I can pay back the university by endowing scholarships in some form or fashion, I want to help," said Go. "Hopefully, the efforts are able to help some young people go to college. And maybe if they're the first in their family, it will lessen the burden. That's my way of paying it forward. I had such a great experience at UC Davis that I try to give back in any way I can."

Go endowed a scholarship at UCSF and watched with delight as a first-generation student was among the inaugural recipients. He still can picture that student's grandmother, who traveled from El Salvador to witness the presentation. She spoke no English, but communicated across the room to Go with a smile and nod of gratitude for the financial aid he bestowed up on her grandson. Go also has established similar scholarships at Cal, and of course, the endowments in honor of Lewis and Carlson at UC Davis. 

At UC Davis specifically, naming scholarships for his two mentors will help preserve their memories.

"It was very important that Dick Lewis and Joe Carlson be remembered by future people who come to UC Davis. Those two men made a huge impact on my life. They gave me encouragement, advice and guidance, and they didn't need to," Go said. "I've learned many valuable lessons from them, and I've never forgotten it. I kept my friendships with them well past when I left Davis. In fact, both men came to my wedding when I got married in 1993. So when they both passed, I thought it was the right thing to do.

"I wish we could get more people in this country to give more, to help others. Maybe it would be a step forward in reunited people in this country, instead of dividing us in the way we are. If you're capable of giving back, whether in small amounts or large amounts, and it doesn't hurt you, then why not?"

Today, the Joe Carlson Scholarship Fund supports a deserved member of the golf program, a sport Carlson guided to an NCAA championship in 1979. The Betty and Dick Lewis Memorial Fund provides support for the athletic training room. For more information on these funds or on the Edwards Family Athletics Center, including additional naming opportunities, visit the links above.

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