Ninety-nine league championships, 14 state titles, 19 state runner-up finishes and three national banners. That is what City College athletics was able to accomplish during Richard “Dick” Pierucci’s 31-year tenure as City College athletic director.
Because of those accomplishments and Pierucci’s work for women’s rights in athletics, he was inducted into the California Community College Hall of Fame March 13.
Pierucci started his time at City College in 1960 as the baseball and football coach. He soon worked his way up and became the athletic director. As athletic director, Pierucci desired to keep a successful athletics program on track and continue its winning tradition. He says he intended to do this by surrounding himself with winning coaches.
“That’s where the key is, to be successful in a program of the magnitude you have here at Sacramento City College, leadership is really, really important,” Pierucci says. “That’s where the success lies. It lies in the staff that you have.”
Pierucci was able to hire strong coaches because of his diligent observations and scouting of coaches around California. Pierucci says he would look for four main attributes: the success factor, the ability to recruit and grow, a great work ethic and, most importantly, the ability to work well with others.
Pierucci says he felt that it was important that his staff would be able to work well with each other. With this effect, he was able to build a family-like system of coaches until 1993, when he retired.
“We had a family, there was no question about that,” Pierucci says. “We fought. We had our arguments and our differences. The one thing we had in unison is, if we were attacked from the so-called outside, we busted together as a real family. I thought that was important and it saw us through our ups and downs.”
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“He worked hard and expected those around him to also work hard and be loyal,” says physical education professor and former track and field coach Lisa Bauduin, who was originally hired by Pierucci. “What I appreciated is that he would listen to your points if you disagreed and would really think about it. I appreciate that very much, in that he wanted to do what was right, not just what he thought was right.”
Pierucci says he was willing to listen because all he wanted to do was win, which is what he expected of his coaches. If a coach was not doing the job correctly, he would not be afraid to tell the coach.
“If you were not doing your job teaching or coaching, he let you know that you needed to shape up or get out,” says physical education professor Karen Kunimura, who worked under Pierucci.
Not only did Pierucci want to win, but he also wanted to fix problems in the system, including the lack of women’s sports. He fixed many issues that surrounded college athletics before Title IX, the federal law that enforces equal opportunities based on sex, was enacted in 1972.
“Dick Pierucci was the division dean and men’s athletics director when I was hired in 1976,” Kunimura says. “This was a time when Title IX and women’s rights were an issue. During this time, Dick worked with Jan High, women’s athletic director, to work on these issues.”
It was Pierucci’s dynasty of winning and women’s rights that got him into the California Community College Hall of Fame. Pierucci traveled to Visalia for the induction with his family and says he enjoyed the ceremonies very much.
“It was a little bit of a surprise, but it was very enjoyable,” Pierucci says. “One part that I enjoyed was, not so much the recognition of my peers, but the enjoyable part of this was that I got to enjoy a lot of this with my grandkids. And not too often do you have that. And that for me was a real highlight.”
