Davie says he plans to return sometime this season
ALBUQUERQUE — The first time Bob Davie watched a Notre Dame football game after he parted ways with the school was in a State College, Pa., hotel room on Aug. 31, 2002.
He’d just called his first game as an analyst for ESPN and had retreated to the solitude of his room to watch the Fighting Irish play Maryland. He’d just been forced out as the team’s head coach following five less-than-spectacular years as Lou Holtz’s replacement and was taking up a new career in the broadcast booth.
“It’s one of the toughest things I ever had to do,” Davie said.
Seventeen years to the day later, the University of New Mexico’s football coach found himself in another kind of room, this one at UNM Hospital lying on a gurney under fluorescent lights, a team of medical staff trying to save his life. The Lobos had just beaten Sam Houston State in their season opener, and the 64-yearold Davie was about to discuss it in a postgame news conference when he collapsed in what has been described as a serious medical incident.
Late last week, he cited his recovery as the reason he would not attend the Lobos’ game Saturday at Notre Dame, leaving the team in the hands of acting head coach Saga Tuitele. Davie admitted in his first public comments Tuesday that it was not an easy decision to forgo a trip to South Bend, Ind.
He will instead watch the game at home with his wife of 41 years, JoAnne.
“It’s a lot better than the alternative,” Davie said. “There’s a lot more football to watch and, you know, it’s one game. It’s one game in a long career and, again, I don’t want to be selfish. This game, quite honestly, never was just about me and me coming back to Notre Dame. There’s a bigger picture with all this.”
Davie spoke for 14 minutes during UNM’s weekly media luncheon at Dreamstyle Stadium. It was the first time since Aug. 31 that he’d spoken with the media, although he has been shown meeting with his team in various social media accounts run by the school.
At times Tuesday, his voice wavered as he spoke about the medical staff whom he credits with saving his life. Without saying it directly, he made it sound as though his incident was possibly heart-related. He never actually used those words and he danced around the issue when asked about it directly.
He did say he’d never dealt with high blood pressure or high cholesterol at an point in his nearly 65 years of life.
“I’ve never taken as much as an aspirin, quite honestly,” he said. “This came out of nowhere.”
Davie has had minimal contact with the team since he was discharged from the hospital one week ago. He has had
some discussions with his coaching staff about the Notre Dame game plan and his long-range goal is to come back to coach before the end of the season — assuming his doctors and his wife give him the green light.
“JoAnne’s opinion goes a long way,” he said. “I’m going to take this slow and do this right. But definitely I feel like hopefully there’s a lot of football left and there’s a lot of good life left.”
He did say he has been given a positive outlook by his doctors.
“The problem has been alleviated with no setbacks,” Davie said. “I should expect, from what I’ve heard from the doctors, a full recovery. And there was no permanent damage.”
He quickly added: “Absolutely I expect to coach again. None of us have a crystal ball.”
Davie took time to thank the numerous doctors and technicians who came to his aid immediately after he collapsed.
Among them were UNM’s head trainer, Bob Waller, and football trainer Craig Hendrickson, as well as training room clinic nurse Sonrisa Garcia.
“Unbelievable,” Davie said. “You know, I’m not being too dramatic by saying they saved my life and my family will forever be appreciative.”
Garcia is a former star athlete who graduated from Pojoaque Valley and is the twin sister of former UNM women’s basketball player Cristal Garcia.
“I think I absolutely saw the very best of UNM, the very, very best,” Davie said.
He added that he felt bad and almost embarrassed for his players after he collapsed.
“It’s been humbling to see the response and I’m very, very appreciative of that,” he said.
NOTES
It was 24 years ago Wednesday that Davie stepped in as interim coach for Holtz at Notre Dame. Hotlz had just undergone spinal surgery, leaving Davie in charge during a 41-0 win over Vanderbilt. He would take over for Holtz full time two years later. … Lobos defensive leader Aaron Blackwell is out for the season with a torn ACL. He will undergo surgery later this month.