Former UH head coach Dick Tomey returns to the Aloha Stadium sidelines as special teams coach for the Warriors in 2011.
Tomey coached Hawai‘i for 10 seasons from 1977-86 and is a member of the school’s Sports Circle of Honor.
At UH, Tomey led the Rainbow Warriors into the Western Athletic Conference in 1979 and the program’s first national ranking in 1981. In just his second season, he nearly led UH to an upset of eventual national champion USC in the 1978 regular season finale. Tomey guided the Rainbow Warriors to a pair of runner-up finishes in the WAC and four seven-plus win seasons.
During his tenure, Tomey was instrumental in scheduling the likes of Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Michigan, and South Carolina. His 1981 squad, finished the year with a 9-2 record and second place WAC finish. He also coached UH’s only Associated Press first-team All-American in Al Noga in 1986, his final year with Hawai‘i.
In addition to UH, Tomey was head coach at the University of Arizona from 1987-2000 and San Jose State from 2005-09. He compiled a 183-145-7 all-time record in 29 seasons as a Division I head coach, including a 63-46-3 mark in 10 seasons with Hawai‘i.
Tomey left Hawai‘i for the Pac-10’s Arizona Wildcats in 1987 and led the program to seven bowl
appearances in 14 seasons and a No. 4 national ranking in 1998 after a 12-1 season. At Arizona, Tomey’s “Desert Swarm” defense of the mid-1990s helped the Wildcats to their only two 10-win seasons in school history. The winningest coach in UA history, Tomey coached five NFL first round picks, 20 All-Americans, and 43 first-team Pac-10 players and was picked as Pac-10 Coach of the Year in 1992.
He later coached San Jose State for five seasons and led the Spartans to a 9-4 record in his second year in 2006 and a win in the New Mexico Bowl. The Spartans finished third in the WAC standings, behind Boise State and Hawai‘i, and defeated New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl, which snapped a 16-year bowl drought. Against UH, Tomey was 1-4, however, four of the five games were decided by a touchdown or less including two in overtime.
In 2009, Tomey was named the president of the 10,000-plus member American Football Coaches Association. More than 35 of his coaching protegees are either in the National Football League or coaching at the NCAA FBS level. Rich Ellerson (Army), Pat Hill (Fresno State), June Jones (SMU), Ron McBride (Weber State) and Tom Williams (Yale) are head coaches at FBS programs.
Tomey’s coaching career began in 1962, when he was a graduate assistant at Miami (Ohio). He later was an assistant coach at Northern Illinois, Davidson, Kansas, and UCLA before taking the head coaching job at UH.
Following his 13-year tenure at Arizona, Tomey took the next two seasons off before returning to coaching with the San Francisco 49ers in 2003 and as assistant head coach and defensive ends coach at Texas in 2004.
Tomey and his wife Nanci have four children and five grandchildren.
