Bio

Character shows as much in defeat as in victory, so it is not surprising that Tucker, the most successful football coach in Orange Coast College history, left an indelible impression on one of his players from his 1981 team that finished 3-7.

"Sometimes, even in defeat, we left the locker room feeling like we had won," the player was quoted.

Tucker, whose optimism and calmness during competition was his hallmark trait, compiled a 129-105-5 record during 24 seasons at Orange Coast. His teams won two national championships, including an undefeated 1963 season in which the Pirates capped a perfect 10-0 record with a 21-0 win over Northeastern Oklahoma A&M before an estimated 44,000 people in the Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tucker added another national title in 1975 when Orange Coast went 11-0 and outscored its opponents an average of 27 points per game.

Tucker, a World War II Navy veteran, was a highly successful football coach at Brea-Olinda High School where he won 97 games in 11 seasons, as well as eight league titles and two section championships. He began his long OCC tenure in 1962 and had the privilege of coaching two of his sons: Clay, a quarterback on the 1981 and 1982 teams, and Rhett, a linebacker who set a still-standing single-season record for tackles with 179 as a sophomore in 1976.