113 | The Life, Lessons, and Legacy of Dick Tomey Part 2: Beginnings with Mike Flores

About the Guest

Mike Flores is a seasoned executive leadership coach and former assistant football coach. Throughout his impressive career, Flores has worked at institutions such as UCLA, the University of Hawaii, San Jose State, and the University of Arizona under distinguished figures like Dick Tomey and Dick Vermeil. Currently, he is the founder and president of Inner Champion Consulting, where he provides executive coaching and leadership training to upper-level executives and sports professionals. 

Episode Summary

In this captivating episode of "Becoming UnDone," host Toby Brooks takes listeners through the inspiring journey of legendary football coach Dick Tomey, focusing on his lesser-known early years. The episode opens with a powerful story about how one small act of kindness can lead to monumental change, ultimately setting the stage for a series of discussions on the cascading effects of positive mentorship and leadership. Brooks passionately narrates the lineage of renowned coaches and athletes whose lives were touched by these moments, emphasizing the ripple effects of effective leadership. 

As the episode progresses, Brooks delves deeper into Tomey's journey, reflecting on the early days of his coaching career before joining the University of Hawaii's program. Notable guest Mike Flores shares firsthand insights into Tomey's remarkable ability to unite diverse staff and athletes, bringing them together under a single vision. Enriched by the narratives of Tomey's contemporaries and protégés, this episode provides an introspective look at how Tomey's leadership style transformed various athletic programs and impacted the lives of countless individuals. Integral themes explored include the importance of people-centric leadership, fostering respect and unity among a diverse team, and the enduring influence of a beloved mentor. 

Key Takeaways

• Mentorship's Impact: The influence of early mentors like Edward Kimball and Hank Johnson had massive ripple effects, akin to that of Dick Tomey's in the athletic world.
• Leadership Style: Dick Tomey's unique ability to unite diverse individuals and instill respect and a sense of community is underscored. His people-first approach was pivotal in his transformative leadership journey.
• Challenges and Triumphs: Tomey's transition to Hawaii is a testament to his resolve in overcoming initial obstacles to build a respected program and culture.
• Enduring Legacy: His ability to push individuals to their limits while deeply investing in their personal development is highlighted as a hallmark of his career.
• Personal Memories: Insightful anecdotes from Mike Flores reflect personal and professional experiences with Coach Tomey, painting a vivid picture of a coach who led with intensity intertwined with compassion.

Notable Quotes

• "Football is easy. People are complicated." - Dick Tomey
• "Dick was the toughest…most intense person I've ever been around. His intensity was contagious." - Mike Flores
• "He believed in Dick Tomey and that belief helped shape the foundation of a coaching career." - Toby Brooks
• "Just think about it,

Transcript

0:00:04 - (A): This is becoming undone.

0:00:14 - (Toby Brooks): All right, let's play a game. Word association. Edward Kimball. Nothing. You've got nothing for Edward Kimball? All right, let me give you some clues. Quiet, unassuming, volunteer Sunday school teacher in the 1850s, committed to helping teach and mentor young men in his hometown of Raleigh, Massachusetts. Still nothing. Me neither. Fair enough. Okay, now promise me. Stick with me. I promise. I swear.

0:00:47 - (Toby Brooks): Pull up a chair. This is a good one, kids. This has something to do with Dick. Tell me. During one of his regular Sunday school classes that he taught, often filled with teenage boys, Edward Kimball asked the class to turn to the Book of John. One of the young men he probably didn't even know yet, was new to church and new to the Bible. Sheepishly, he didn't know where to turn when he looked toward the front of his borrowed scriptures.

0:01:13 - (Toby Brooks): The rest of the class laughed at him. And if you didn't already know, there's not much shame like the shame church kid regulars can give if they see you looking for a book of the Bible in the table of contents. Perceptive and recognizing the young man's embarrassment, Kimball gently handed the young man his Bible, open to the correct passage with what I'll presume was a reassuring nod. I don't know for sure, but it made a difference.

0:01:43 - (Toby Brooks): The young man was deeply impacted by this act of kindness that this gentle teacher had given him. So he decided to keep coming back. After more than a year in his class, Kimball had been wrestling with the idea of approaching the young man outside of church to talk to him about his faith in a more personal setting. Initially, he hesitated. I've done it. You've probably done it. A feeling in your heart that you need to have a conversation.

0:02:12 - (Toby Brooks): But it's a hard conversation. Lots of times I chickened out. And although Kimball would later recount doubting himself, ultimately he went through with it. He pressed on. He did it. Eventually, he walked into a small shoe store where that embarrassed teen from a year ago was working. Kimball stepped into the back room where that young man was stocking shelves nervously. Kimball placed a hand on his student's shoulder, and he shared a simple message of love and of faith.

0:02:44 - (Toby Brooks): He'd later retell it. It wasn't a grand sermon. There was no crowd, no spotlight, no choir. Sure as heck no smoke machines, no band. Just a quiet, heartfelt conversation between a caring teacher and his listening pupil. That day, that young man gave his life to Christ. That young man was Dwight L. Moody. Maybe you've heard of him today. The impact of Moody's work is all but immeasurable. My office at Baylor is in Moody Memorial Library.

0:03:20 - (Toby Brooks): Many Christian college campuses have buildings with the same or similar names. Moody's later impact as an evangelist and a publisher eventually led to tremendous impact and success, but maybe more importantly, changed lives. Because that encounter, that one conversation that Kimball almost didn't have changed history. Because Moody went on to personally share the gospel with millions. But even if you haven't heard of Moody, the ripple effects didn't stop there.

0:03:51 - (Toby Brooks): Moody mentored J. Wilbur Chapman, who then influenced Billy Sunday. Sunday reached Mordecai Ham, who would later preach at a revival in North Carolina, where a fiery teenage farm boy came specifically to pick a fight and take issue with what he'd been hearing about Ham. Instead, that night, that farm boy made a decision that set him on a path to becoming the most influential evangelist in modern history, one who would preach to more people than any human being in the history of mankind.

0:04:28 - (Toby Brooks): An estimated 2.2 billion people, billion with a B, billion, have heard the gospel come from Billy Graham's mouth. And if you look at that path, that history, that lineage, it can all be traced back to Edward Kimball, the Sunday school teacher who did his best to teach, who wrestled with his doubts, but eventually just simply showed up and spoke to a single young man. I looked. I haven't seen any other records in history of anyone else that Edward Kimball led to the Lord other than Dwight Moody.

0:05:10 - (Toby Brooks): We often think about legacies as this crown jewel, this pinnacle work of great men and women standing alone in the spotlight. But legacies are built in moments of impact. Quietness. Back rooms of shoe stores, quiet conversations in an office, in relationships that are forged far from the spotlight. And sometimes they're forged in a quiet conversation between a young aspiring coach and his mentor at School 86 outside of Indianapolis.

0:05:44 - (Toby Brooks): Before he was a coach, before he was the architect of some of the most tenacious football teams and especially defenses of his era. Before his name was revered in many college football circles, Dick Tomey was just a kid from Indiana with potential. Born June 20, 1938 in Elnora, Indiana, he wasn't even really a football player. And despite being a three year varsity catcher for DePaul University in Greencastle, Indiana, he wouldn't even describe himself as an athlete.

0:06:14 - (Toby Brooks): But don't just take my word for it. Let's listen in on this speech I found on YouTube from the Pima County Sports hall of fame class of 2017 induction in coach Tomi's words himself.

0:06:29 - (Dick Tomey): I wanted to be an athlete, and I really wasn't One. And I was a young, I was a fat little kid that my nickname was Tubby and it was well deserved. But I really wanted to be an athlete. I tried real hard to be an athlete. I tried so hard that I played until I was 69 years old. I played baseball, but I never was one.

0:06:54 - (Toby Brooks): So let me get this straight. A baseball player from basketball, Crazy Indiana would go on to become one of the most prolific defensive minds to ever lead a college football team. That Dick Tomey. Yep, that Dick Thomy. Except it almost never happened. Just like Dwight L. Moody had Edward Kimball, Dick Tomey had Hank Johnson.

0:07:21 - (Dick Tomey): I started out as a junior high coach and really had it not been for a young man, a guy named, some of you know, named Hank Johnson, who used to live in Tucson, he walked across the street, right across the street from Butler University when I was a young junior high coach at School 86, which is a very glamorous name in Indianapolis, Indiana. And Hank just asked me when I was in my second year, what are you going to do with your life? What are you going to do? And I said, I want to be a coach.

0:07:55 - (Toby Brooks): Hank Johnson wasn't and still isn't a household name. He wasn't a legendary coach or an award winning athlete, or someone whose impact could be measured in championships, at least, not that the Internet in 2025 can tell me. But what he was mattered even more. He was a mentor, a guide, a man who saw something in that young junior high coach by the name of Dick Tomi that Dick Tomi himself might not have even recognized yet.

0:08:25 - (Toby Brooks): And friend, if you're listening and your life has been impacted by Dick Tomy, then your life has been impacted by Hank Johnson.

0:08:36 - (Dick Tomey): And he said, I know that, but what's the next step? And I said, well, and long term planning obviously wasn't my specialty at that point because I said, well, maybe I could go to Short Ridge High School, because that's down the street. And he said, no, no, I don't mean that. I mean, do you want to move on in coaching? And I said, yeah, well, like how would I do that? And he said, well, how about if you went to be a graduate assistant someplace?

0:09:04 - (Dick Tomey): And I said, well, where would that be? And he said, well, I would start and I would look at Miami of Ohio, which was, I was in Indianapolis, that was in Oxford, Ohio, not far. So that's how it all started because I started at Miami, Ohio.

0:09:23 - (Toby Brooks): Johnson didn't need a massive stage to change a life. His influence was found in the lessons he instilled the standards he upheld and the encouragement that he provided. He believed in Dick. Tell me. And that belief helped shape the foundation of a coaching career that would go on to impact countless players, coaches, staffers and fans. Until recently, I didn't realize just how far the echoes of his impact could reach.

0:09:52 - (Toby Brooks): If you've stuck around this long, I guess it's worth mentioning that I'm Toby Brooks. In addition to being a professor, a speaker, and a podcaster back in the late 90s and early 2000s, I spent three years at the University of Arizona as a grad assistant athletic trainer. I didn't know it at the time, but I was part of the staff for coach Dick Thomey's final season with the Wildcats in 2000. And time is a funny thing, because at that time I was just trying to survive.

0:10:20 - (Toby Brooks): I was working with athletes, sometimes 60, even 70 hours a week, just going to class. I was learning to be an adult. And it's been said that the only way we can really appreciate having been in the midst of greatness is to leave it friend. Back then, I didn't realize I was witnessing the final chapter of a legendary career at Arizona. But as time has passed, I've started to realize that my time at Arizona was about more than just survival.

0:10:49 - (Toby Brooks): That the people there were incredibly special and that Coach Tomi wasn't like most other coaches. The day after episode one in this new series dropped last week, I got a message from the first head coach I worked with at Arizona, Bill Ryden. In 1998, at a time when I was just learning what it meant to be an athletic trainer for the Wildcat gymnastics team. Bill was also taking a new role as the head coach for the team after a successful tenure as Bill Galt's assistant, and Gault left some pretty big shoes to fill.

0:11:22 - (Toby Brooks): Coach Galt was an Arizona legend in his own right, but Bill Bill handled that transition incredibly well, and I got a front row seat to watch him inspire, encourage, and pour his heart, soul and life into young student athletes who, whether they realized it or not at the time, needed him even more than he needed them. I had Bill on as a guest of Becoming Undone very early in the show, Episode seven.

0:11:51 - (Toby Brooks): If you haven't listened to it yet, you should. I'll drop a link in the show description. Bill is an incredible story himself. He's a literal rocket scientist who decided that instead of chasing dollars and building propulsion systems for nuclear warheads, he would devote his life instead to building up to serving the world by speaking life into young gymnasts and more than a few assistant coaches and even a graduate assistant athletic trainer or two along the way.

0:12:20 - (Toby Brooks): All that to say, in my mind, Bill stands at the top with very few other people as a leader and a shaper and a molder of others. Which is why his words and a realization I hadn't had until just that moment hit me so hard. In a Facebook message that he sent me last week, he writes, quote, toby, I'm loving this new miniseries you're doing on Dick. Tell me. Brings back many memories for me when I first started at Arizona and witnessing Dick and his philosophies.

0:12:52 - (Toby Brooks): With every topic you bring up, I'm reminded of things I hadn't thought of in years, end quote. In the years that have passed since I was at the U of A, I followed Coach Tomi's career. I cheered for his underdog San Jose State teams, even became a San Francisco 49ers fan for a minute early. Apologies to my upcoming guest Jesse Sapolu for that one. I didn't know you yet, brother, but I knew that that long list of student athletes that Coach Tomi had impacted was incredible.

0:13:22 - (Toby Brooks): These were highly touted recruits like Jesse Sapolu, Lance Briggs, many others who he convinced to come play for him, and even more so, the often overlooked Scrappy the Chip on Their Shoulder walk ons that coach not only attracted, but genuinely loved guys like Dave Phipp, who we'll hear from later in this series. Episode 87's guest, Brad Brennan, Barrett Baker, countless others who flourished when they found not just a place to play, but a coach who believed in them.

0:13:54 - (Toby Brooks): And of course, that coaching tree he sprouted is impressive, too. I'm still working on the details to get coach Dwayne Aquina, coach Dino Babers, and I've already spoken with Arizona's current head coach Brent Brennan. Those will all appear hopefully in future episodes of this series. You know, I knew this. Players, football coaches, staff members from equipment manager Wendell Neal to athletic trainer Sue Hillman, Maggie Lacombra, others on the operations side of the football enterprise. I get it. I got it. I understood.

0:14:26 - (Toby Brooks): But until Bill's message, it never crossed my mind. That coach wasn't just impacting the Arizona Wildcat football team, and those immediately are surrounding it. He was impacting the Dick Tomey cinematic universe. Other coaches were learning and applying his lessons of toughness, of grit and an unwavering, fierce love for student athletes that trickled down to every interaction and every sport and every athlete.

0:14:58 - (Toby Brooks): More recently, I had former Arizona gymnast Mary Reese on in episode 111 Mary had a highly successful collegiate career and she opened a gym of her own in Tucson, renowned for her love and care and commitment to her young athletes. Mary's brand of gymnastics coaching is different from what a lot of young gymnasts have experienced and it's a blessing. Mary had had tremendous coaches herself growing up, including Bill, who she had wanted to compete for from the age of 13.

0:15:33 - (Toby Brooks): A friend. Bill's message made me realize Coach Tomi had directly influenced Bill. Bill had directly impacted Mary. And somewhere right now in Tucson, Arizona there are a bunch of young girls who Mary coached who benefited from that same fierce commitment and care and compassion and love that Coach Tony had for his own athletes. And all that was because of Hank Johnson.

0:16:05 - (Dick Tomey): I ran into John Pot and Bo Schembechler, who became just the most influential person in my coaching career. He and Tony Robbins, who's a behavioral scientist extraordinaire, which is what I believe coaching really is, trying to influence people's behavior. And Tony Robbins is the one that made me understand how important it is to connect with people and build relationships.

0:16:36 - (Toby Brooks): In 1962, with the encouragement of his mentor, Coach Tomey headed to Miami of Ohio to take a job as a graduate assistant under legendary coach Bo Schembechler, where he would serve for two seasons. Schembechler would eventually go on to be the head coach and athletic director at the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1989. Schembechler himself had been coached by Ohio State legend Woody Hayes, one of the all time greats of college football coaching, arguably all of athletics for that matter.

0:17:09 - (Toby Brooks): In 1964, coach would go to northern Illinois, then spend two years at Davidson. But before joining Pepper Rogers staff at Kansas for three years in 1967, he headed west with Rogers to become the O line and DB coach at ucla where he would eventually serve as a defensive coordinator under future super bowl champion head coach Dick Vermeil. Still hoping to get Coach Vermeil on the show soon, so stay tuned for that.

0:17:35 - (Toby Brooks): But all that is to say, by 1976, Dick Thomey had served directly under some of the most impactful coaches the game of football had ever known. But he didn't just learn winning, he learned people. Because famously coach would say, football is easy, people are complicated. You know what's crossed my mind? We rarely understand how unique a new job is when we're in the middle of it, because we don't have anything to compare it to.

0:18:08 - (Toby Brooks): When I was at U of a from 1998 to 2001, we had regular all staff meetings. The entire athletics department would assemble to share info, celebrate victories together, recognize new hires, sadly, even say goodbye to those that were headed elsewhere. That's just the nature of college sport. We would all pile into the main football meeting room as the biggest space we had in the belly of McHale Center. Literally everybody, the whole staff, everybody that could come, did come.

0:18:38 - (Toby Brooks): Frequently. It was standing room only, and the lovely GA I was usually one of those standing in the very back of the room. Now, I won't lie to you, at the time, all I could think of was the fact that I probably had worked 60 hours the week before. I was probably worried about whether Christy and I would even have the money to make rent, and I was stressed about a paper or a project that I needed to be working on for grad school.

0:19:03 - (Toby Brooks): Dutifully, though, I begrudgingly went to the meetings just so I wouldn't get in trouble from a boss. But looking back, I now realize two things. First, what an incredible opportunity these meetings were. I mean, if I were able to wave a magic wand and organize a motivational conference with a confirmed speaker lineup that included all only Dick Tomy, Lud Olson, and Mike Kandrea, just those three alone, I could probably charge four figures at the worst for the worst seats in the house.

0:19:36 - (Toby Brooks): And they weren't it. We had other incredible coaches and staff members, too. To quote Hamilton, simply to be in the room where it happened is, in retrospect, a highlight of my life. I didn't adequately respect it in the moment, but with time and distance, I realized what a blessing it was to have been there at that time. And secondly, I've also come to realize that it just isn't like that everywhere else.

0:20:03 - (Toby Brooks): Well, it hasn't been like that anywhere else for me. One hour a month where everybody comes together. It's a scheduling nightmare for most organizations, let alone an intercollegiate athletics department. It represented a huge commitment. If you do it poorly, it's just one more thing you have to do. But done well. It's how culture gets built and maintained and celebrated. Coach Tomi didn't just teach football.

0:20:30 - (Toby Brooks): He taught life. And last week I said, he didn't just build teams, he built men. But after thinking about it some more, I realized that that even stopped short doesn't tell the whole story. He built people, all types and shapes and sizes and genders and ages and races and backgrounds of people in a profession dominated by wins and losses. Dick Thomey created a legacy that endures decades after he coached his last game you know, it's that legacy that I've been thinking about ever since.

0:21:07 - (Toby Brooks): How did he do it? How did he inspire so many to follow him, to believe in him and to carry his lessons forward, not just into their careers, but into their lives? These are questions I just can't shake. So I decided to do something about it. I decided to dive deep into the stories of one of the most transformational leaders I ever got the chance to serve. And with you joining me in the journey, we'll get to hear from more people who knew him best.

0:21:36 - (Toby Brooks): His players, his staff, his family will explore the moments said to find him, the values he instilled in others and the lasting impact he left on the game, everyone he led. Today we're going to walk with him through those early years in Indiana, all the way to ucla. In the future, we'll dig deep, examining his first head coaching job at Hawaii, his time at Arizona and his legendary Desert Swarm days.

0:22:04 - (Toby Brooks): Finally, his return to the sidelines at San Jose State. Even in his work supporting and mentoring young coaches in his retirement and in the process, I think we'll both not only get a refreshing chance to remember a legend, but my hope is we'll also learn what it takes to lead and love and serve our people better. You're listening to Becoming Undone and this, this is the life lessons and legacy of coach Dick Tomey, a Toby Brooks passion project.

0:22:58 - (Toby Brooks): Joining me today is the founder and president, head coach of Inner Champion Consulting, Mike Flores. In addition to providing executive coaching and leadership training to upper level execs in sports corporate nonprofit sectors, including strategy consultant to two D1 athletic directors, Coach Flores worked in university sports for 15 years as an assistant football coach and recruiting coordinator at ucla, University of Hawaii, San Jose State and the University of Arizona.

0:23:28 - (Toby Brooks): He's joining me today because he sent me an email to tell me he enjoyed episode one and he had some stuff to share with us about that early transition to Hawaii. I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Mike Flores in episode 113.

0:23:43 - (Mike Flores): Mike, I can't tell you how happy I was to read your email. So I'm really thankful for you to reach out and really excited to dig into the history before the history. So thanks for joining me tonight.

0:23:55 - (A): Well, I'm excited to be here. I have to let you know, Toby, that I really felt that what you're putting together has been done. I know you're at the initial parts of it, but it's been done so professionally. So that's why I actually reached out to you and felt confident about being able to communicate with you and know it's going to be a first class episode and a curse. First, first class experience for myself. So anytime I can talk about Coach Tomi, who I think about every day and has affected my life outside of my dad more than anybody else in the world, I'm happy to do that.

0:24:35 - (Mike Flores): That's fantastic. Well, I thank you for those kind words. And your message came at the perfect time because I actually had just finished my interview with Jesse Sapolu. But I was thinking I really didn't have much about Coach Tomi before Hawaii. I thought I don't know who to reach out to. I was really struggling to try to find some connections and the nature of this podcast thing, unlike a book where you would do all the work and.

0:25:00 - (Toby Brooks): Then you release it, the podcast kind.

0:25:01 - (Mike Flores): Of gets released in pieces along the way. So not only am I thankful that you contacted me, I'm thankful you contacted me so quickly. Well, let's start at the beginning for you. You are QB at UCLA when your path crossed with Dick Tomey. So tell me a little bit about the person and athlete you were growing.

0:25:18 - (Toby Brooks): Up and how you ended up a Bruin.

0:25:21 - (A): Well, I, I grew up in Venice, California. I went to high school, lived through the bowl about eight times a game and I really felt strongly that the only way I could go to college and pay for it was getting an athletic scholarship to my original, My original goal was to get a scholarship to San Diego State that time Don Coriel, Eric Coryell was at Sandal over State and that was my goal. Yeah. And after I got done with high school, I, I went to Santa Monica College and Santa Monica was known for producing All American JC quarterbacks.

0:25:59 - (A): And I was lucky enough for my second year to be named JC All American and got a scholarship to ucla. And actually Dick Vermeil, who I understand will be on a later podcast, was a coach who recruited me and I went to UCLA and Coach Protho at that time was a head coach and Coach Protho as soon as like in, I think it was like in middle or late December, he was offered to be the head coach at Rams. So he along with coach Emil left and coach Pippa Rogers was hired. Coach Rogers was here in 1966 Rose bowl team. He was the offensive coordinator and coach Gary Beavan, the Eisenhower winner for ucla and he came back, was named head coach and Dick Tolby was his offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. So I still remember vividly the first time I met Dick.

0:27:06 - (A): We were at the UCLA basketball Game. That's where the recruits were normally put right behind one of the one the post. And Dick was in a blue blazer, white shirt, khaki pants. And that was like what he wore de rigueur until he went to Hawaii. He went. He. He had that look in his eye that you knew he was really a very serious man. And at the same time so warm, warming. So it was good. And then he was my quarterback coach. He used airline. You know, I started my. What will be my junior year.

0:27:55 - (A): I led us to a very good 271 season.

0:28:00 - (Mike Flores): By some standards two seven and one is an okay by UCLA.

0:28:04 - (A): But it wasn't UCLA's. No. And so they actually. But Dick was my coach. He and I became very close. That was really the start of our liking relationship.

0:28:19 - (Mike Flores): That's wonderful. I was actually born in Fontana in 1975 and my parents moved in 76 and so I had no idea.

0:28:27 - (Toby Brooks): But.

0:28:28 - (Mike Flores): But there's a picture of me at a UCLA Bruins game and I'm like. I was in the stadium with coach Tomy before I could even walk. It's kind of a cool thing. Probably the only boarding event my parents ever took me to. So Coach Comey had been at UCLA as an assistant, as you mentioned, 71 through 76 and eventually he was and. And famously a defensive mind. So interesting to hear that he was your QB coach, but he. Your path first crossed when you were a student athlete, but then he took you to Hawaii when he got the head job.

0:29:00 - (Mike Flores): So talk me through how he shared that news with you and offered you to be one of the two people he was going to take with him.

0:29:08 - (A): Well, he and I worked together. I became a student coach because the Next year in 1972 Mark Carmen came in and he questioned the wishbone. So I was the opposite of a wishbone quarterback. I was a passing quarterback and I started coaching and I under the very. Under the tutelage at that time of Homer Smith, he kind of took me under his wings. And Dick then became defensive back coach. But at the author was the head freshman coach and I ran the offense and coached quarterbacks for UCLA freshman team.

0:29:49 - (A): And then Dick Vermeer came in in 1974. Pepper Rogers left to go to Georgia Tech and coach Emil came. And as I indicated to you, Coach Emil was one of the one coaches that recruited me to ucla. He was my main recruiter. And I was sitting up in the offices up at the J.D. morgan hall and Coach Emil walked by and he said Mike, I want to talk to you because I Wanted to speak with him. He says, why don't you be my staff and I want you to be my full time grad assistant.

0:30:25 - (A): There's only going to be one of you. You'll be in all my meetings, you'll be in all my staff pictures I shared with you. I think one of the staff pictures that I held with him. And Dick told me he was on that staff. Dick was our defensive back coach Terry Donney, who was on that staff, former, you know, who became head coach at ucla. Jim Moore was on that staff. Born next old coach at the New Orleans Saints.

0:30:54 - (A): Carl Peterson was on that staff who later became the president of the Kansas City Chiefs. Rod Dahauer was our offensive coordinator who later became head coach of the Stanford Cardinal and at that time Stanford Indians and also Indianapolis Colts. It was unbelievable staff to be under right and and I have to say this about Dick. As an assistant, he was in charge of the defensive backs and they were without a doubt like he was. And I want to talk about this in terms of his personality.

0:31:39 - (A): They were the toughest group on our team. They took on his personality when they were tough. They were just intense. They gave great effort every play, whether it's in practice or in the game. And that really was what Dick was all about. And then I went up to costume left to go to the Philadelphia Eagles. I went up and coached a year at San Jose State under Lynn Stiles, who was also on the Rose bowl staff.

0:32:14 - (A): Dick stayed and was a defensive coordinator for Terry Donahue's first August LA team. And then it was probably late June, early July, I think 1977 that Dick was hired on. And I, as you indicated in your previous one of your previous podcast where told the story of how that all came about and he could only bring two coaches and he called me up and I was coaching quarterbacks and wide receivers at San Jose State and said Mike, I I want you to come and joined me at the University of Hawaii.

0:33:01 - (A): And obviously when Dick says I want you to follow me, it was a very easy decision just for me to make.

0:33:14 - (Toby Brooks): I love the admiration and the respect that you can hear in Mike's voice here. Coach tell me was hired late in the game in Hawaii and most of the staff returned from Larry Price's 3 and 8 squad from 1976. Even with a nearly full complement of coaches. Coach told me had the chance to bring in only two of his own and Mike was one of those two he called having been a student athlete under coach Tomi and then as an assistant at UCLA Already Mike knew what would be expected of him.

0:33:44 - (Toby Brooks): And the decision to join Coach Tomy was a simple one. But that transition and the growth process of building a program nearly from scratch, but with inherited coaches, staff and players, once he finally got Honolulu would prove to be anything but.

0:34:00 - (A): I went there right away and we stayed there our first month. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at the airport. Myself, Bob Burt, who was the other coach he could bring in, and Dick, we stayed in one room and Dick, of course, always got to bed. There were two beds and a rollaway and Bob and I always had to flip coins for the rollaway. Dick, go to bed. And that's how we started our coaching career. And then we were at Hawaii in Quonset huts.

0:34:33 - (A): We still had Quonset huts from World War II at uh just right outside the field. And it was, it was skeletal, you know, facilities at best. But what a unique time to be at with Dick and to be at the beginning of really a great saga at football tradition at UH that they still have it up to today.

0:35:03 - (Mike Flores): Yeah, and that really took me by surprise how late he was hired. And so the timing seemed poor on one hand, but in the grand scheme of things, the timing was perfect. Hawaii has just moved to D1, they're moving to the WAC. They've got a fantastic new stadium. I mean, everything about the program is in growth mode and so you got a chance to be there. But famously, as you mentioned, the prior staff had been signed to extensions. And so you and Bob Burt coming in with this new coach, on paper that's kind of a recipe for division.

0:35:41 - (Mike Flores): And it would be very easy to see my guys versus not my guys and things like that. But that's not how Coach Tomy's wired. That brokenness or dysfunction I assume didn't have a lot of chance to root. What was that first season like with that staff and what did you see him do to bring unity to that staff?

0:36:00 - (A): Well, I, I, I think that you're exactly right. How hard it must have been for the guys that were there knowing that really they were all on one year contracts because they had to prove themselves a dick. And fortunately there was a very good staff there in place. Rip Shear, who, who I took over. I, I came in and rose there. It was the first offensive coordinator and organizer and coach quarterbacks and receivers. I took his place. So he was bumped down to running backs coach.

0:36:43 - (A): He had been with Joe Paterno. He was a GA for Joe Paterno in Penn State. He, Tom Freeman. They were just a Group of guys that were somehow bought in immediately to decade because it was so easy to buy into what he was saying because they understood that he was a people person first. Football was not the most important thing to him.

0:37:14 - (Toby Brooks): I want to jump in right here and point something out that you couldn't possibly know just yet, but I think it tells a story about how Coach Thomey was able to come in and orchestrate some healing to a coaching staff that would have logically been pretty fractured. Coach was allowed to bring in just two guys. One of them is Mike on the offensive side. Fair enough. But Mike isn't just brought in to help out the offense.

0:37:39 - (Toby Brooks): He's given the keys to it. Meaning he's replacing last year's offensive corner coordinator, Rip Shear. Now, I'm sure you know this, but football's competitive. Football coaches more competitive still. I don't know of any coach that I've worked with who would be happy to be demoted from a coordinator role, let alone have to work essentially for the guy who took your job. But that wasn't the mentality here.

0:38:07 - (Toby Brooks): And I'm sure of it because shortly after my conversation with Mike, he sent me an email with Rip Shearer's contact info. Quote, talk to Rip. He'd love to talk to you for the show. Here you go. Rip's contact info, signed Mike Flores. End quote. This tells me two things. First, nearly 50 years later, Mike and Rip are friends with each other's cell phone number. There's no hard feelings there. And secondly, Rip certainly doesn't seem to be resentful towards Coach Tomy anyway because he's still willing to come on this show and talk about it.

0:38:49 - (Toby Brooks): These two facts alone, to me, are remarkable. In my jobs over the years, I've taken over some teams composed of existing talent. Sometimes I've even got to bring in my own people. But I can tell you, never once have I handled the transition a fraction of as well as all the evidence tells us Dick Tomy did in Hawaii in 1977. Question is, how? And how can we learn from him? I'm glad you asked.

0:39:18 - (A): Giving your best was. And every day, that was more important. But also being with your family, it was a unique change from the staffs I'd been on before. Dick really felt that having time with your family, consistently having the families come out to practice, having come out pre game, it was very. Nico Hannah was very, very big. And it started and continued with Dick. Yeah, yeah.

0:39:53 - (Mike Flores): I've always loved that, and I've grown to appreciate it even more. Having my first guest Lance Tomonaga and then Jesse Sapolu, you know, even Brent Brennan that I just spoke with. That word family keeps coming up. And I think it's important to point out, yes, he brought unity to a staff that was divided, but he also had to essentially re recruit the entire roster right away because these were players that didn't sign to go to uh, to play for Dick Thome.

0:40:18 - (Mike Flores): They'd gone to play for Larry Price. So I loved in the book where you quipped that your arrival in Hawaii doubled the Hispanic population. He was a uniter of people from all different backgrounds and he embraced the culture in Hawaii in a way that is worthy of mention in 2025. I can't imagine how revolutionary that was in the 70s. So how would you say his approach to respecting all cultures and integrating teams behind this common purpose while also keeping respect and identity impacted you as a member of the staff?

0:40:58 - (A): I think first of all, Dick was the best recruiter I've ever been around. I've been around some great recruiters, I mean, just some fantastic recruiters as an assistant and as a head coach. He was the best recruiter he, I ever been around. And the reason for that is because when he entered Rome, you just felt so comfortable. You felt like he was part of your family. And that's what he was able to do with the Polynesians people there in Hawaii, with the African American communities, all races, creeds. He would like.

0:41:40 - (A): First thing he would, he would do when he'd go down to a, on a recruiting visit and I was on hundreds of recruiting visits with him, he would like sit there and talk to the mother. He wouldn't even talk to the recruit. He sit there and talk to the mother. Then he talked to the father. He talked to the brother or sister because he felt that that was really important. That was a way to make sure that if you're going to go ahead and let me coach your son, I want you as the parent and the brother and sister to make sure you feel good about me as a coach, but not only as a coach, but as their mentor and leader.

0:42:23 - (A): And that's what he was, that's what he did. He, he was very unique in that area. And till the day he died, you know, he, he had that influence on people. That sticks with you. Yeah. That just, he's just part of you. It's hard to explain. Yeah.

0:42:42 - (Mike Flores): I think it's interesting that you had a perspective that was probably different from anyone else. You had been a student athlete on a team that he coached and then you're with him at the beginning in Hawaii and then you join him again in Arizona. How did you see him and or his coaching approach change or grow or was he consistent that whole time? How did you see him change as a coach over the years?

0:43:06 - (A): I think as a coach, I think he basically was the same guy that he was the day I met him at UCLA as when I was in quarterback. I mean he, that's just who he was. He didn't change. His philosophy was still the same to bought people first like he, like. I'm sure other people will say that. He always said, you know, football isn't complicated, people are.

0:43:34 - (Toby Brooks): And.

0:43:36 - (A): That'S what he felt. So he, he wanted to make things, make sure that the people felt good about themselves, that they were supported, that they received, as we say in Spanish, carinho, which is support and love and affection that you need in order to be your best. Yeah, and, and that's what he was about. And, and again, in spite and with all this, please know that Dick was the most intense person I've ever been around.

0:44:13 - (A): Yeah, his, his intensity was contagious. And that's what you saw on his great team and all his teams, but certainly in Desert Swarm was Dick Chomey. That was his personality, that intensity that he brought on the defensive side. That's who he was.

0:44:34 - (Mike Flores): And now he's acting at scale of the same thing you saw with the DBs at UCLA when he's an assistant. So those teams take on the personality of their leader.

0:44:45 - (A): It'd back on.

0:44:48 - (Mike Flores): So I recognize that things weren't always, you know, undefeated seasons or, or national championships. That, that really wasn't his legacy. It was connecting and it was his ability to walk a very fine line. Another tell me ism, I love the one you shared, but another one that, that has stuck with me all these years is you're either coaching it or you're allowing it to happen. He was fiercely competitive, but he would also fiercely defend his players.

0:45:19 - (Mike Flores): And that's a tough line to walk because if you've got a player who is underperforming or not going to class or making poor decisions and you're fiercely defendant of them, you can enable. At the same time, if you're a competitor, you can crush them. But I feel like he had an ability that I haven't seen in many leaders to expect the world of you, but love you hard enough and well enough that you recognize that this guy is not crushing me.

0:45:48 - (Mike Flores): I'm curious with, with your work in executive coaching and with Leaders put that in perspective for us. How does Dick tell me his approach and his ability to walk that fine line compared to what you've seen in Fortune 500 companies and ads and high powered executives?

0:46:07 - (A): I think there's a great correlation. I think as someone who coaches leaders, whether they're in athletics or in business, your first goal is to encourage them to be their best in every facet of their life. And that's what Dick did. And that's what, you know, hopefully I try to do with the people that I work with, is I want them to be their best. And so that also means pushing beyond our limits. And that's what Dig did to us as assistants.

0:46:46 - (A): That's what he did to me as a player, and that's what he did to his players that he coached. He pushed us to our limits, he believed in us, but he made sure that we were doing the best we could. And going back to what you were saying earlier, Toby, in terms of the fact that he didn't win national championships and all that stuff, but to put into context, he was at two, two places. University of Hawaii, where of course at uh, you're not going to get a chance to win national champion.

0:47:23 - (A): And then he was at Arizona, and at Arizona he ran sc, ucla, Danford at that time, Washington, all these schools that had Arizona State, that all had better facilities at the time that he was there and still do to stronger football tradition. And so automatically you're like middle of the pack. And, and, and what Dick was able to do was he'd get the most out of the Teddy Bruskies. Teddy Brusky had one scholarship.

0:48:04 - (A): He had two scholarships. He had University Pacific and University of Arizona. Those are the two scholarships he had. That's a perfect example of the type of person molded and maximized in terms of their potential.

0:48:25 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, yeah.

0:48:27 - (Mike Flores): I've, I've been consistently amazed at what he was able to do with lesser facilities and on paper, what recruiting rankings would say were lesser classes, you know, but, but they were, they were, they were quality people that would buy into the culture and he would turn that two or three star into a Teddy Bruschi or a Marcus Bell or any of a countless list of active athletes who were just tremendous under his tutelage.

0:48:57 - (Mike Flores): And I think it's just a testament to the fact that he didn't give up on you. He, he invested and he was more interested in the student athlete that he sent away from campus than the one he got as a freshman or as a transfer.

0:49:11 - (A): Yeah. Yeah.

0:49:13 - (Mike Flores): Hey, is there A particular game or interaction, maybe that stands out in your memory from your time coaching with coach Tomi.

0:49:23 - (A): There's a couple, I would say his first victory was against University of Idaho at University of Hawaii. And after, when, when I was in Hawaii, I was very close to Guy and his then wife married. And after the games the three of us would go back to Dick's place in Kahala and just sit after. Sit outside in a little lanai and, and talk about the game. And he, after his first victory, he didn't like, think this was the beginning of something great.

0:50:09 - (A): This was something that he expected for many years. I think he had dreamt about that moment for so long and he knew how it was going to pan out in his life.

0:50:22 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah.

0:50:24 - (A): And then the other time is, is after he got done coaching again, I, I would go up on, see a lot of his games to San Jose State. And whenever I was with him pregame, even when he was at Arizona and I got out of coaching, I would speak with him before games. I would sit and he and I would be into hotel together pregame, every time we were. Whether it was home or white and if I was there. And I remember one time he was at San Jose and I, I've been dying to ask Dick this question because I, at that time, I already been out of coaching for like maybe 10 years.

0:51:06 - (A): And I, as I look back on, I said, God, what a pressure cooker coaching is, especially being a head coach. I mean, just like, God, you, you have so much pressure on you. And so Aztec. It was, it was. I forget what game it was, but again, it was, it was in Seventh Day. I said, coach, I think do you ever get nervous before the game? Just think about it. Do you ever get nervous and this is a big game you got coming up here.

0:51:34 - (A): He said, no, never have. That's what they were. Exact words, I'm thinking, you know, I. And my, I would be like in an upset stomach. I'd be nauseous and all that. He would be sitting there, you know, having a piece of popcorn or whatever and be talking. I said, nah, I'm not nervous. Because he had so much faith in the fact he was doing the best he could and his players gonna be prepared as best he could.

0:52:05 - (A): He was just gonna just know that kids are gonna play hard and whatever happened, happened. And that was the most important thing to him.

0:52:13 - (Mike Flores): Yeah, the tougher gets, the harder they play, right?

0:52:16 - (A): Yeah. Yeah.

0:52:18 - (Mike Flores): Well, sadly, in 2019, we lost him after a brief back out with cancer gone too soon. If you Had a chance to pull up a chair and have a conversation with Dick Tomi today. What would you say and what would you want to ask him that maybe you never got the chance to ask?

0:52:35 - (A): Well, let me just backtrack a second and tell you again, as I share with you throughout this, how close I was to Dick. He was diagnosed in 2019 and 2018. We had a reunion, UCLA that he came to. I picked him up at the airport, I took him to the hotel and was with him. And he had had a cough at that time. This was like in the middle of summer. So it was right before the season started. And I said, coach, I said, dick, I said, you got a cough there, you get that checked out? He says, yeah, you know, my doctor says, you know, I got a little thumped in.

0:53:15 - (A): They don't know what it is, cruise, but you know, I'm okay. And then come that next January, of course, we find out that it was lung cancer. And I went to go see him. He passed away in May. I saw him in February, I believe went to see him. And he was about 75% in terms of his, his mental capacity. I think he was, he was on a lot of medications, a lot of chemo. It was just kind of shut down. But it was great to see him and, and then, and then sadly we lost him.

0:54:00 - (A): And if I had a chance to, to visit with Dick today, I would just thank him so much for teaching me so much of what it is to be your best. How important it is to love harder than you think possible. The people that you need to love to every person that you come in contact with. Find a way to make them better after you leave them. And in that, I'm still pissed off that he and I used to play one on 1 basketball at UCLA.

0:54:45 - (A): I'm still pissed off that he's ahead 11 to 7. I'm still pissed off about that. I tell him that because he loved to compete. Man, what a compound. He loved to compete. Yeah, but wow.

0:55:02 - (Mike Flores): I don't know if you all camped at Camp Cochise when you were at Arizona, but. Oh yeah, okay. Famously I was just a ga, so I wasn't invited. But the basketball games in the, in the college there in Douglas and then the swim Olympics, he was a competitor. And then I've seen footage of him playing baseball. He wasn't going to play just to have fun.

0:55:24 - (Toby Brooks): He was playing to win.

0:55:26 - (A): No, no pen. And. And later after he got done at University of Arizona, he played on local baseball team. And I used to go see him play just a little. Principally. I think he had more fun doing that than anything ever did in the fights. You know, he loved, loved baseball. That was his first sport. That was his first love.

0:55:53 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, for sure.

0:55:56 - (Mike Flores): Well, Mike, obviously your career has taken a different path. You kind of got out of the grind of college athletics and coaching and administration, and now you're a successful coach of executives. How do you think Coach Tomi's legacy continues to serve you?

0:56:12 - (A): Today I'm sitting here in my office. I counted five pitches of him. That shows your water. I have five pictures of gift right now. You know, in terms of the. He and I as a staff, he and I at Hawaii and I at UCLA together, he and I at Arizona. His book, it just is. I'm surrounded by Dick Tomey, and I appreciate that, and I love the fact that I am. And I know you're going to speak to some people that feel the same way I do about Dick. I know you talk to Brent.

0:56:52 - (A): You're going to talk to Coach Emile. You can have talks to see Rich, his son, who I'm very, very close to you and some other people that I'm sure they all feel the same way. We all walk with Dick as part of us every day.

0:57:11 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah.

0:57:12 - (Mike Flores): And I can't imagine a better legacy than that.

0:57:16 - (A): Sure.

0:57:16 - (Mike Flores): Mike, thank you so much for your time. It's really been insightful. I sincerely appreciate it. Thank you for reaching out and for volunteering to do this. It's been insightful. Shine a bright light on a season of his life. Let's face it, like, the Internet doesn't reach real deep into the Nether regions of 60s and 70s college football. Not at this level. So I thank you so much for your insights.

0:57:41 - (A): Toby is my pleasure. And I look forward to hearing the rest of your podcast. And please stay in touch. My name is Mike Flores, an executive leadership coach, been a assistant football coach for Dick Thomey and Dick Vermeil at ucla, University of Hawaii, and University of Arizona, and this has been undone.

0:58:05 - (Toby Brooks): Awesome.

0:58:06 - (Mike Flores): Thank you so much.

0:58:08 - (Toby Brooks): And that is a wrap on today's conversation with Mike Flores. If there's one thing that stands out, it's that leadership. Real leadership is about more than X's and O's. It's about people, about investing in them, pushing them, believing in them. And as Coach Tomey showed us time and time again, loving them hard enough to demand their best. Mike's journey from being coached by Tomi at UCLA to standing alongside him as a trusted assistant at Hawaii and Arizona gives us a rare first hand. Look at what made Coach Thomey's impact so powerful, and what's clear is that his legacy isn't just in the wins or the championships.

0:58:46 - (Toby Brooks): It's in the people he shaped and lessons he passed down. I'm thankful to Mike for dropping in, and I hope you enjoyed our conversation. For more info on today's episode, be sure to check it out on the web. Simply go to undonepodcast.com ep113 to see the notes, links and images related to today's guest, Mike Flores. Coming up, you will not want to miss what's ahead for the show. Know I've already got a fantastic interview in the bag with four time super bowl champion Jesse Sapolu talking about all those years in Hawaii.

0:59:28 - (Toby Brooks): But before I get too far down that path, I've also managed to connect with hall of Fame and Super Bowl Champion coach Dick Vermeil, who I'm working hard to sit down with and talk about Coach Tomi's years as a bright young assistant at ucla. And as much fun as all this pre Arizona stuff has been, I gotta be honest, I can't wait wait to get to the Wildcat years, including the Desert Swarm era and that 1998 holiday world champion squad.

0:59:53 - (Toby Brooks): I've already gotten interviews with Walk on turned team Heartbeat and eventually GA Coach Dave Phipp, who's now a special teams coach with the Detroit Lions as well as the Wildcats current head coach Brent Brennan, who served as a GA an assistant, eventually head coach at San Jose State and now as the head coach at U of A. This and more. Coming up on the life lessons and legacy of Dick Tomy, a Toby Brooks Passion Project.

1:00:28 - (Toby Brooks): Becoming Undone is a nitrohype creative production written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. Do me a favor. Tell a friend about the show. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn a Becoming Undone pod and follow me at tobyjbrooks on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out my link tree at linktr.ee. tobyjbrooks Listen, subscribe and leave a glowing five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:00:56 - (Toby Brooks): Till next time. Keep getting better.

1:01:04 - (A): It.