Rick Davis

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For the professional basketball player, see Ricky Davis.
Rick Davis
Personal information
Full name Richard Dean Davis
Date of birth November 24, 1958 (1958-11-24) (age 49)
Place of birth    Denver, Colorado, United States
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position Midfield
Youth clubs
1977 Santa Clara University
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1978-1984
1983-1986
1986-1987
1987-1990
1989		 New York Cosmos
St. Louis Steamers (indoor)
New York Express (indoor)
Tacoma Stars (indoor)
Seattle Storm		 129 (15)
123 (89)
023 0(7)
098 (31)
   
National team
1977-1988 United States 036 0(7)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Richard Dean (Rick or Ricky) Davis (born November 24, 1958 in Denver, Colorado and grew up in Claremont, California) is a retired American soccer midfielder, and former captain of the U.S. National Team for much of the 1980s. He is considered by many the best U.S.-born player of the North American Soccer League era.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Davis began playing soccer at the age of 7 for an AYSO soccer team in Claremont, California. He was an All American high school player at Damien High School in La Verne, California. In 1977, he played a single season of college soccer at Santa Clara University before going pro with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. While at Santa Clara, he was a member of the Broncos team which took the U-19 National Open Championship (McGuire Cup). An American on a team of international superstars with the Cosmos, he helped the team to three league titles in 1978, 1980 and 1982. He began playing with the team during the 1978 season and was selected as the 1979 North American Player of the Year in his second season.

In 1983, the St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League signed Davis away from the Cosmos. Davis moved just in time to avoid the collapse of the Cosmos in 1985. Despite numerous nagging injuries, Davis led the Steamers in scoring and was an integral part of the team's run to the MISL championship series which it lost to the Baltimore Blast. He played one more season with the Steamers before moving to the New York Express, an MISL expansion team heavily staffed by former Cosmos players in 1986. The team lasted until the the 1986-1987 All-Star break, when it folded. Davis then moved to the Tacoma Stars for the remainder of the 1986-1987 season. In January 1989, Davis injured his knee, requiring multiple surgeries. He was on the roster for the 1989 Seattle Storm of the Western Soccer Alliance.[1] In 1990, he retired from playing professional soccer.

Davis became an integral part of the U.S. national team in 1977, first with the U.S. Olympic team and U20 teams, then the senior national team. Between September 11 and October 4, 1976, the U.S. U-20 national team played the qualifying games for the 1977 FIFA World U-20 Championship. While the team went 5-2, it failed to qualify for the games. Davis led the team scoring with 8 goals. When he was 17 years old, he made his senior national team debut in a September 15, 1977 match against El Salvador. Even more, he scored his first international goal in that game. He became a regular on the team, playing in all 8 U.S. matches in 1977. Davis would continue to play for the Olympic team which qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics. However, President Carter's boycott of those games, held in Moscow, stopped the team from competing. Davis played for the U.S. in the 1984 Olympics where he scored 2 goals in the U.S. victory over Costa Rica. In 1984, he was also named the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, the first year of the award. He played again at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Davis' experience and leadership led him to being named captain of the U.S. national team. In this capacity, he led the team during 1988 and was looking forward to the 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifying games in 1989. However, he suffered a serious knee injury in January 1989. Although he tried to work himself back into shape in order to make the World Cup roster, U.S. coach Bob Gansler never called him back to the team. Davis therefore retired from playing. Overall, he earned 36 caps (a record at the time), scoring seven goals for the senior national team.

After his retirement from playing, Davis became the head coach and general manager of the Los Angeles Salsa of the American Professional Soccer League. In 2004, he was named Director of Programs for AYSO, and in 2006, he was named its National Executive Director.

Davis has also had a long career in soccer broadcasting. In 1989, he and JP Dellacamera provided live commentary for the match pitting the champions of the Western Soccer Alliance and the American Soccer League. He would provide television commentary at both the 1990 and 1994 World Cups for ABC. He continues to work as a commentator for Los Angeles Galaxy games.

Davis was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2001.

[edit] Statistics

[edit] NASL

Year Team GP G A PTS
1978 NY Cosmos 11 0 1 1
1979 NY Cosmos 29 6 13 25
1980 NY Cosmos 14 1 8 10
1981 NY Cosmos 17 1 1 3
1982 NY Cosmos 21 0 4 4
1983 NY Cosmos 29 5 12 22
1984 NY Cosmos 8 2 2 6
TOTAL NASL 129 15 41 71

[edit] MISL

Year Team GP G A PTS PIM
1983/84 St. Louis 43 36 21 57 16
1984/85 St. Louis 40 27 31 58 4
1985/86 St. Louis 40 26 29 55 12
1986/87 New York 23 7 6 13 2
Tacoma 20 5 5 10 2
1987/88 Tacoma 53 22 29 51 12
1989/90 Tacoma 25 4 3 7 6
TOTAL MISL 244 127 124 251 54
Preceded by
None		 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year
1984		 Succeeded by
Perry Van der Beck