Rhett Tucker, Millennium Hall of Fame

Having grown up around the coaching staff and been raised by the

head coach, Rhett Tucker could understand what was expected upon arriving

at Orange Coast College from Corona del Mar High.

As a ball boy for many of OCC’s football teams in the 1960s, Tucker

watched his father, Dick, guide the Pirates during some of the school’s

most exciting autumns.

Then, following a standout prep career, Tucker went on to play for his

father on Orange Coast’s 1975 national championship team and earn

honorable mention JC All-American honors as an inside linebacker the next

season, setting school records for tackles in a season (179) and career

(213).

“Our defense got to play a lot that year (‘76). I was just out there

all the time,” Tucker said of his records for tackles, of which the

single-season mark still stands.

The Pirates finished 6-4 that season, played (and defeated) Saddleback

for the first time, 26-0, and Tucker received the Bill Jenkins Award as

the team’s top hitter, then signed with Montana.

But Tucker’s freshman season, when he mostly backed up sophomore

‘backers T.A. Brown and Al Korn, will always be his brightest athletic

moment.

“It was fun to watch my father,” Tucker said of the jubilation after

the 1975 Avocado Bowl victory over Rio Hondo, 38-14, to secure the

school’s second championship, according to the national J.C. Grid-Wire.

“We had our moment in the sun,” added Tucker, who was also close to

assistant coaches George Mattias, Dale Wonacott and Jack Fair, who were

there when he was scooping up loose footballs and cleaning them on the

sidelines.

OCC, 100-44-2 in legendary former coach Dick Tucker’s first 15 years,

featured players like Jenkins, Alvin White, Pat Sweetland and Craig

Zaltosky when Rhett was hearing the helmet crack from the sidelines as a

budding player himself.

“It was a great place to grow up, watching all those great players,”

he said. “I’m not saying it’s any different now, but back then there was

a lot of community interest. When we played at Orange Coast, we packed

that stadium.”

Tucker, whose OCC career record for tackles was broken by Chris

Clayton in 1997-98 with 235, was a three-sport star at CdM (football,

wrestling and baseball).

In the black-and-blue years of the early 70s when CdM’s enrollment

pushed beyond 2,500 students and the school competed against gridiron

giants such as Edison and Fountain Valley in the old Irvine League,

Tucker (6-foot, 195 pounds) was a rare three-year varsity starter, after

transferring from Brea Olinda.

The team most valuable player, Tucker started at center and linebacker

his senior year, earning first-team all-league and second-team All-Orange

Coast area honors by the Daily Pilot for his defensive prowess under

Coach Dave Holland.

In wrestling, Tucker was 33-4 his senior year, won the Century League

title at 191 pounds and did not lose a dual match. But a dislocated

shoulder prevented Tucker, who had placed earlier in the season at the

prestigious Five Counties Invitational, from moving on in the postseason.

Tucker, who also had a knee operation following the wrestling season,

came out late for baseball in 1975, but still flirted with a .400 batting

average and made first-team all-league as a first baseman under Coach Tom

Trager. Tucker was also the team MVP in baseball.

Following his OCC career, Tucker joined several Pirate teammates in

accepting a scholarship to Montana, but the Big Sky experience was mostly

overcast and he turned around after one semester.

“It just wasn’t for me,” said Tucker, who retired from football and

joined the working force, then moved to Hawaii in 1980 and remained there

for six years as a boat captain. He also started the first parasailing

business on Maui.

Tucker, today’s honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

celebrating the millennium, returned to the area and now works as a

project manager for Reuters general contracting and is building homes in

Newport Beach.

Tucker, 42, lives in Newport Beach with his wife, Donna, and daughter

Hanna, 3.