Time took its toll on Pat Lovell’s body, turning the former football lineman and Olympic heavyweight wrestler into a shadow of his former self. But his charming, light-hearted personality remained larger than life until the end.
Lovell, 81, who spent nearly three-quarters of his life contributing to high school athletics, died Thursday after battling a myriad of health issues.
Ailing health forced the former longtime teacher, coach and sports official to retire as commissioner of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League last year after nearly three decades at the helm.
“I saw it coming and I didn’t believe it,” Lovell told the Sentinel of his health issues in May.
A date for his memorial hasn’t yet been set. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Joy; son, Bobby; and two daughters, Sarah and Allison, the latter of whom is a swim coach at Soquel.
Word of his passing spread quickly throughout the greater Bay Area.
“He knew everybody and everybody knew him,” said Duane Morgan, commissioner of the Central Coast Section and a former wrestling official with Lovell. “He knew how to connect with people and keep everything light. He was one of those people you don’t want to forget. He was a mentor to a lot of people, too, not just in Santa Cruz County, but Santa Clara County. He impacted quite a few lives.”
A former three-sport standout at Sequoia High in Redwood City and a two-sport star at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo — he was inducted into both schools’ Hall of Fame — the ex-lineman and wrestler always had the athletes’ best interests at heart, those who knew him said.
Even after he retired as SCCAL commissioner, he met with his successor, Bob Kittle, a dozen times to help ease the transition and offer insight.
“The guy was a giver till the end,” Kittle said. “But his sense of humor is what stands out. He was the best. He had some great stories.”
Kittle specifically recalled tales Lovell would tell him involving Lovell’s college roommate John Madden, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
In addition to overseeing SCCAL Board of Manager meetings and representing the league at CCS meetings, Lovell had a laundry list of tasks as commissioner. Among his duties: fundraising for the league, creating league schedules for the majority of its sports and serving as a liaison with local officiating organizations for a multitude of sports.
Lovell always fought to keep the SCCAL in good shape. Many of the league’s jamborees and postseason tournaments served as fundraisers. He and his wife and daughter Allison often worked the gates at the annual football jamboree at Cabrillo College.
Lovell loved supporting high school athletics. After all, he was a kid at heart.
“He never grew up,” Morgan said. “He saw happiness in everything. He loved the kids. What a great life that is.”
At Cal Poly, Lovell was a four-year wrestler and earned the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate heavyweight title in 1958 and ’60. He played three years of football, competing at right tackle, and was linemates with Madden, the left tackle.
“We were two big guys in a small room,” Madden said. “To live with me, one guy had to be special. I was a mess.”
They did everything together in college and when they didn’t, Lovell would always be there in a pinch. “We were more like brothers,” Madden said. “I’d borrow cars and forget where I put them. And we have to go and find them.”
Madden said he was Lovell’s biggest fan, He was impressed by his year-round commitment to being a two-sport athlete.
Lovell used his wrestling skills to his advantage on the football field.
“He has a lot of finesse,” said Lynn Dyche, Lovell’s wrestling teammate at Cal Poly and a former high school wrestling coach and referee in the Bay Area. “He didn’t try to outmuscle opponents. He used his arms real well and was a very effective tackle. And if he wanted to be mean, he could be mean.”
Lovell remained close friends with Madden. He was Madden’s best man at his wedding in 1959 and traveled in the famous John Madden Cruiser — Madden hates to fly — when Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 2006.
Madden, despite hanging out with his friend monthly in recent years, knew Lovell was in poor health, but was shocked when he heard the news Friday morning from a college friend.
“Dammit, you’re still not ready for this,” Madden said. “You always wish you had a chance to say goodbye, a last chance. I wish I had one more chance. There was no goodbye. Just being with Pat made the difference in life when you were there.”
Lovell was easily distinguishable on the wrestling mat. He was the only one on his team who wore black leather, calf-high shoes, like a boxer. He also often had his hand raised in victory.
He had the full support of his football teammates when he competed in wrestle-offs on the top floor of San Luis Obispo’s Crandall Gymnasium, which wasn’t large enough to fit an official wrestling mat. His football teammates lined the stairwell leading to the wrestling room and passed along highlights — like, “he got a takedown” — so those out of view could keep up to date, Dyche said. Lovell was a big deal.
He placed in 13 national freestyle and Greco-Roman championships and was a member of the Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team in 1964.
Dyche, already a teacher, helped get Lovell his first teaching job in San Jose. He called James Lick principal George House, who was in need of a wrestling coach.
When House asked of Lovell’s experience, Dyche responded, “Well, he just got out of the Olympics. … He was pretty much hired sight unseen. And that’s where he met his wife, Joy.”
Joy, who worked in Lick’s office, was on her way to lunch and Lovell was working parking lot duty when they first met.
After some brief dialogue, Lovell offered Joy to take his car to lunch. She wasn’t impressed with the car he was standing near. “No, that car,” he said, pointing to his 1964 Mustang in the distance.
“I loved cars, too,” she said. “The Mustang did it.”
Two years later, they were in the parking lot again. She was planning to take a mini vacation, Thursday through Sunday.
“Why don’t you take Monday and Tuesday off, too?” Lovell said. “We can go to Las Vegas and get married.”
That was Lovell’s proposal. She accepted.
“I had to buy my own wedding ring,” Joy said. “He was too busy coaching football or something.”
“He was a fantastic person,” Joy said. “Fifty-one fantastic years. He was a great father, funny. Everyone just loved him.”
Lovell coached future NFLers Jim Plunkett and Daniel Lloyd on Lick’s wrestling mat.
Lovell later coached at Monta Vista in Cupertino and Cabrillo College, a window that spanned 24 years. In addition to wrestling, he coached football and softball.
He was a football referee for 35 years and a wrestling official for 45 years, working 17 NCAA and 17 U.S. National Championships.
He was USA Wrestling’s Official of the Year in 1974 and ’75, a 2000 inductee into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame and a 2018 inductee into Cabrillo’s Hall of Fame.
Lovell’s name will also forever be attached to the county’s heralded wrestling tournament. Formerly the Coast Classic and later the California Coast Classic, the event, hosted by Aptos, was named the Pat Lovell Holiday Wrestling Classic last year.
Lovell was a character while officiating wrestling matches. Sometimes, he’d moon-walk to the center of the mat. He and Dyche also cut up spare zebra-striped officiating shirts into little squares and gave them to overly outspoken coaches after a match, calling them “honorary officials.”
Lovell and his antics were in high demand. Several college coaches in the area often requested him for their tournaments.
“The reason he could get away with that stuff,” Morgan said, “was because he was such a great official.”
Morgan remembers sitting with Lovell near the edge of the mat at one of the area’s larger high school tournaments. The spectators were going bonkers.
“Watch this,” said Lovell, nudging Morgan. “Nobody is paying attention.”
Lovell got up and started jumping, yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. Or as Morgan put it, “shrieking.”
Lovell was right. Nobody paid attention. So he got up and did it again.
“I was like, ‘What, are you crazy?’” Morgan recalled.
No, he was just darn good at making people smile. “He was a comedian. He really was,” Dyche said. “He always had us in stitches.” And over his lifetime, people took notice. Not just for the jokes, for everything.
“I don’t think there’s enough thank yous out there that we can give him for what he’s done,” Reggie Roberts, Aptos’ former wrestling coach, told the Sentinel in May. “We’re talking about an entire lifetime of giving to others. He’s given up his life to help others learn about life through sports.”
Said Dyche: “I love the man. It’s tough to realize he’s gone. I’ll miss him.”
The Lovell File
- Pat Lovell honorsSequoia High Sports Hall of Fame, 1958USA Wrestling Official of the Year in 1974 and ’75Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Athletic Hall of Fame, 1989U.S. Wrestling Hall of Fame (official), 1995California Wrestling Hall of Fame, 2000San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame, 2005Central Coast Section Distinguished Service Award, 2016Cabrillo College Hall of Fame, 2018
