Mack Calvin, the former USC basketball star who
coached the Clippers briefly during the 1991-92
season, apparently has been hired to coach the
Compton Dominguez High boys' basketball team,
according to a school district board member.
Calvin, 54, has been added to the teachers'
schedule at Dominguez, an indication he is the
Dons' new boys' basketball coach, said Saul
Lankster II, a member of the Compton Unified
School District board of trustees.
"You don't plug a teacher into a schedule unless he has the job," said Lankster,
adding that Calvin was scheduled to teach the same classes taught by former
coach Russell Otis. Otis was dismissed after being charged in November with
sexually molesting a player. He was acquitted of all charges in April. Last
month, Otis submitted a request to the school district to be reinstated as coach
and physical education instructor.
Calvin could not be reached, and Dominguez Principal Kelcey Richardson
declined to comment.
Randolph Ward, state administrator for the Compton school district, said he
had been traveling this week and was unaware of any hiring.
Calvin would inherit a team that has won three consecutive state Division II
championships.
August 11, 2001
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Calvin Has a Lot Going On
Basketball: He takes Dominguez coaching job in part so he can continue caring for two
elderly friends.
By BEN BOLCH, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Mack Calvin has found a new calling--two,
actually.
The former USC basketball player, who for three
decades was a pro basketball journeyman and
coach, will coach boys' basketball at Compton
Dominguez High while fulfilling a promise to care
for an elderly View Park widow and her brother,
who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Calvin said he declined two NBA offers--one as an assistant coach, the other
as a scout--that would have taken him away from Southern California. "It's
amazing how everything changes when there's someone important in your life,"
said Calvin, 53. "For the first time, I realize that doing things for other people
and supporting other people is more important than money."
Calvin befriended Ruth Smith, 88, and her brother, James Brooks, 86, several
years ago, around the time that Smith's husband died. Calvin visits from his
Marina del Rey home several times a week.
About a dozen teenagers have also become integral parts of Calvin's life after
his hiring at Dominguez, which he confirmed Friday. But Calvin conceded he
has work to do before the Dons attempt to win their fourth consecutive state
Division II title. Bobby Jones, the team's top returning player, and several
others have told Calvin they are considering transfers. Calvin is having lunch
with Jones and his father today in an attempt to persuade him to stay.Calvin
replaces Russell Otis, who was dismissed after being charged in November
with sexually molesting a player. He was acquitted in April.
Last month, Otis asked to be reinstated as coach and physical education
instructor. R. Keith Beeman, an associate superintendent with the Compton
Unified School District, declined to comment on whether the district gave Otis'
request serious consideration.
Article appeared in the Long Beach Press Telegram, 09/29/1996
AFTER NBA SNUB, CALVIN TURNS TO DOMINGUEZ HILLS
By Jim McCurdie of the Long Beach Press-Telegram
Head coach Mack Calvin. Yeah, he likes the sound of that. True, he would rather have hung that nameplate somewhere in an NBA arena (the one next door to the Coliseum comes to mind). But that opportunity never knocked. So Cal State Dominguez Hills it is.
The Toros, an NCAA Division II program with a limited budget and just a handful of scholarships, were in no position to woo Calvin with a lucrative contract. But they could offer him the one fringe benefit he craved most.
"They wanted me," he said.
Dave Yanai, coach at Dominguez Hills for 19 years, bolted for conference rival Cal State Los Angeles in July, leaving his former employers a matter of weeks to hire his successor. The man they turned to was Calvin, who had begun to think that the basketball world had no record of all the dues he had paid as an NBA assistant coach.
Calvin said his failure to land an NBA head coaching job after coming this close with the Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets "really brought me to my knees." The former Poly High, Long Beach City College and USC star said the rejections and disappointments of the past few years have changed him, and forced him to rethink his priorities.
"I had always felt that if you work hard in life and reach a certain point, you should be granted those opportunities," Calvin said. "It didn't happen for me. I worked hard, I was recognized in my profession, and it didn't happen. I had to question myself, and learn to accept life and it's challenges one day at a time."
As for why it didn't happen for him in the NBA...
"I think timing - the right place at the right time," he said. "And there are probably some mistakes I made. I didn't get the Clipper head coaching job (in 1992, when the club hired Larry Brown), and I may have said some things that probably didn't get the approval of management. I had to really learn from that.
"I had to mature and grow up. I can say today that I'm a very grateful and humble person. I take life one day at a time, and try to do the best I can. Where I've been gives me perspective. Getting knocked on your ass makes you humble."
The past few years have been humbling, indeed. Besides being passed over for NBA jobs, he and his wife have separated (they remain good friends, Calvin said), she has undergone a kidney transplant, and he has felt the burden of "financial pressures" and career gridlock.
His last basketball job was in 1994-95, as coach and general manager of the Mexico City Aztecas of the Continental Basketball Association. As part of its plan to take over the world as we know it, the NBA has been eyeing Mexico City as a potential expansion market. Calvin figured he could carve himself a niche and be a part of an NBA franchise there when one arrived.
"Of course, it just fell on its face," Calvin said. The Mexican peso went belly-up, and so did the Aztecas.
So, the Dominguez Hills job is a chance at a fresh start. Toros athletic director Ron Prettyman can't provide answers as to why Calvin didn't get his big break in the NBA. He can only say how pleased he was to be able to land a "high profile" coach in a frantic, late-summer search.
"He's bitten off a big bite here, following Dave Yanai," Prettyman said. "But we really believe Mack is going to write a new chapter for Dominguez Hills basketball."
Prettyman said a check of Calvin's references put him in touch with such basketball illuminaries as Laker coach Del Harris, for whom Calvin worked as an assistant for four years with the Milwaukee Bucks, Laker vice president Jerry West, former Virginia coach and current Davidson athletic director Terry Holland, and Wake Forest coach Dave Odom.
Mack Calvin perhaps best known as the type of player who created havoc with his speed and tenacity in a long college and professional playng career. Affectionaly known as "The Bug", the 6'-0" guard ranks 8th in all-time scoring in ABA history with 10,620 points in a career which lasted from 1969 through the end of the league in 1976, and a professional playing career that lasted until the 1983 season, Mack began his major college career as a star for USC's Trojans under head coach Bob Boyd. Prior to that he was a junior college standout at Long Beach City College. The Texas native, while at USC was a two-time winner of the Ernie Holbrook Memorial Award (Most Inspirational Trojan player) in 1968 and 1969, was named to the First Team on what was then the "All-Pac-8" Conference Basketball Team in 1969, and helped lead the Trojans in his final season to a third place finish in the conference. (Of interest is that that USC team also featured Nike Grassroots' Don Crenshaw, who has long been associated with securing the Nike contract for Russell Otis at Dominguez. Crenshaw won the Harold Jones Memorial Award for the most improved player in 1969).
Calvin holds a couple of other interesting records both in the ABA and the NBA. He is among only 9 other players in the history of the sport to play professionally in the U.S. for 9 different franchises in his. (If you're really interested in who holds the all-time record for most teams in a career, it's Chucky Brown, who played for 11 different teams).
1969 through 1981, after a distinguished career at USC, Calvin was drafted in the NBA (in the 14th round by the LA Lakers) but would have to wait 9 more years before becoming a Laker). Instead, he was drafted by and signed with the old ABA. Of the 9 teams he played for during his professional career, 5 of them were in the ABA. After leading the Stars
played for the LA Stars of the old ABA, the Florida of the ABA, the Larry Brown-coached Carolina Cougars of the old ABA, the Denver Rockets, the Virginia Squires, the LA Lakers, San Antonio, Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers. Prior to his USC career, Mack played for Long Beach City College
Out of USC, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 14th round, but ultimately signed instead with the LA Stars of the old ABA for the 1969-70 season. In 1971, the team moved to Utah and became the Utah Stars. Calvin Mack was traded shortly after the move to the Florida Floridians for Donnie Freeman.
In 1970-71 and 71-72, he was with the Florida Floridians .
In 1972-73 he signed with the Carolina Cougars, playing with them through 1973-74.
In 1974-75 he was with the Denver Nuggets
In 1975-76 (the last season of the old ABA) he was with the Virginia Squires (along with UCLA's Sven Nater and Jan Van Breda Kolff). Of course, he not only played with the Squires, but also coached them that season: In 1975, they employed Al Bianchi, Mack Calvin, Willie Wise, Bill Musselman, Jack Ankerson and Zelmo Beaty as head coaches...by the time the Squires got around to hiring Beaty, they had compiled a 6-35 record. Clearly it was time for the Squires to call it a day and it's little wonder they didn't make the move to the NBA.
After the ABA folded, Mack signed with the LA Lakers during the 1976-77 season and played in 12 games with the team. Laker fans will remember that the Lakers that year featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Cazzie Russell, Lucius Allen, Kermit Washington, Earl Tatum, Don Ford, Dwight Lamar, Tom Abernathy, Don Chaney, and Johnny Neumann. Mack averaged 7.9 ppg, and was second best free throw shooter (.854); the leading free-throw shooter was Cazzie Russell. That same year, Mack also played for the San Antonio Spurs briefly, before moving back to Denver for the 1977-78 season. That same year, 1977, he was inducted into the Long Beach City College Alumni Hall of Fame. In 1980, he played for Utah, appearing in 48 games (averaging 6.4 ppg) and then finished out his NBA career as a player with the Cleveland Cavaliers for whom he played from 1981-1983.
1983-84--Post playing career
1984-85
1985-86
1986-87
1987-88
1988-89--served as an assistant to the NBA Bucks under coach Del Harris--team had perhaps it's finest hour when Paul Mokeski (another SoCal product) helped the Bucks defeat Atlanta and Terry Cummings in the decisive 5th game of the first round series that year.
1989-90 Assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks (along with Head Coach Del Harris, Assistant Coaches Frank Hamblen, and Mike Dunleavy). Players on that team included Fred Roberts, Greg Anderson, Jack Sikma, Ricky Pierce.
Calvin also holds another record, although it's probably not a huge distinction. Among all the head coaches and interim coaches the Clippers have had over the life of the franchise (there have been a total of 21 head coaches--including those who have repeated--since the 1970 inaugural season), he holds the lowest win record total and the lowest loss record total, and he's also quite obviously coached the fewest games among all those coaches. In the 1991-92 season he was named interim head coach of the LA Clippers midway through the season, replacing Mike Shuler who had coached the team for 43 games of the season. Calvin coached just two games as head coach for the Clippers, achieving a 1-1 record before being replaced by his old Carolina Cougars coach Larry Brown who stuck around with the Clippers for the remainder of the year, plus one more season before he too jumped from the Donald Sterling ship.
1992-93
1993-94
1994-95--CBA coach and general manager of the Mexico City Aztecas
1995-96
1996-97--Calvin became the head coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Prior to that he was the director of Upward Bound at Long Beach City College for six months and in 1994-95 was general manager and head coach for the Mexico City Aztecas of the Continental Basketball Association. He was fired after the season and replaced in the summer of 1997 for the 1997-98 season by Larry Hauser (who had been an assistant at Santa Clara University for 14 years).
1997-98
1998-99
19992000
2000-2001
2001-2002--named Compton Dominguez head coach for the season of 2001-2002