Richard “Dick” Young, whose career in collegiate athletics spanned more than 40 years including 19 years with Bowling Green State University’s Athletics Department, passed away June 27, 2023, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Dick, a native of Columbus, Ohio, began his career in sports as a football player at Upper Arlington High School. His high school coach was Doyt Perry, who would eventually recruit him to work at BGSU.
After high school, he enrolled at Dennison College where he played football, baseball and basketball. At the height of the Korean conflict, he transferred to Ohio State to join the ROTC program. He earned a degree in education from Ohio State, but also earned two varsity letters as a defensive back playing for Woody Hayes. The Buckeyes won the 1954 Big Ten Championship, 1955 Rose Bowl and an NCAA championship during his senior year.
Following his graduation, Dick served in the Navy for three years, becoming a naval aviator. After the service, he returned to Ohio State as a graduate assistant coach for Hayes, which led to him earning a master’s degree in education in 1959.
Soon after, a chance meeting with Doyt Perry led to an offer to become BGSU’s head baseball coach and an assistant football coach. In 12 seasons as the baseball coach, he compiled a record of 182-146-6. He compiled a 31-7 record in eight seasons as coach of the university’s freshman football team, and he was the defensive backfield coach for the 1959 NCAA Small College Championship team under Perry. He was named BGSU director of athletics in 1971. During the seven years he served in that position, he oversaw the merger of the men’s and women’s athletics programs in 1976-77.
After BGSU, Dick left to become athletics director at Oklahoma State in 1978 and served there for five years before joining Washington State University as athletics director in 1983. He also was athletics director at Florida International University and Lynn University. After retiring from Lynn University in 2002, he was interim athletics director for one year at Florida Atlantic University.
In addition to being inducted into the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Lynn University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003, he was awarded the United States Sports Academy’s Distinguished Service Award in 2003.
Dick had the diverse experiences of playing for the legendary Woody Hayes, engineering institutions through crisis periods and instilling a student-focused philosophy for college sports across the nation.
In an early 2000s interview, Dick said he learned more from Woody Hayes than how to place x’s and o’s. He earned a reputation as a person with tremendous insight into what it takes to win. He was responsible for discovering some of the most brilliant talent in NCAA football history including Jimmy Johnson who he hired to revive the Oklahoma State program, and Dennis Erickson, who was football coach at Washington State. Both men went on to successful coaching careers at the University of Miami.
Dick was preceded in death by a son, Tim, and his wife, Sandy. He is survived by two daughters, Pam and Alyson.
