Chris Yingling | Echo
Winning a championship is a gigantic accomplishment for any collegiate coach. For a whole year, his champion squad is considered the best in its conference and he holds bragging rights over his closest rival coaches.
But in 1962, 1963 and 1964, Taylor's head football coach Bob Davenport held those rights through three conference championships in a row.
Under Davenport's leadership, those years' teams played a dominating style of game that focused on strong football while respecting their opponents.
"I had it in my head when I came in: we would be a Christian football team," Davenport said. "But we would be the meanest Christian football team in the game. We saw other teams straying away from the conservative Christian principles that our team held, so we always wanted to smack them in a way to say that Christians can play football."
Davenport, a former All-American from UCLA, played football professionally in Canada after his collegiate days. After sustaining a career-ending knee injury, Davenport was forced to retire from the game he loved-though his hiatus would be short-lived.
Davenport spoke to Taylor basketball coaching icon Don Odle about the coaching vacancy. Under Odle's persuasion, he took the head coaching position, becoming the youngest college coach in America at the time.
He started coaching the Trojan football team in 1956 and immediately brought in a new philosophy of discipline, self-control, decision-making and teamwork. In addition to the things that the sport taught students, Davenport strived to lead a team grounded in Christian ethics.
"We played rough-and-tough football at Taylor, but we also wanted to spread the ministering side of it too," Davenport said. "Some teams and coaches didn't provide the same politeness and courtesy to us. And when they acted that way, it was always the final nail in the casket. Rough and tumble on Saturdays, nice on Sundays."
The championship teams posted records of 7-2, 5-2-1 and 5-3 respectively. Davenport's play-calling was versatile and morphed to fit the type of team he had recruited.
He developed a high-powered aerial attack around his great quarterbacks and a punishing run offense around his star running backs. The defense consistently pursued the ball and forced turnovers against rival teams.
But Davenport's biggest accomplishment does not lie in the trophies and accolades. The former coach considers his greatest achievement to be the development of young Christian football players.After a game, Davenport led his men to Youth for Christ rallies where he spoke, players gave their testimonies and the group sang a special song about how God blessed them to be football players. He discouraged the atmosphere of lewdness and vulgarity that comes with the sport of football and taught his "boys" to be men of God before football players.
"He brought an aura to Taylor that we haven't had since," recalls former player and current Regional Director of Development Nelson Rediger. "Players came from all over because they wanted to play for Davenport. And he'd never sit on the sidelines. He'd be out there in shorts doing the drills with guys."
In 1964, Davenport led the first Wandering Wheels bicycle trip, which included several students from his football team, soon following it with a cross-country bike tour. Davenport retired from football and pursued Wandering Wheels as a full-time job. His bike tour business and ministry remains in Upland today.
Davenport left Taylor as one of the most successful football coaches in the program's history. His three-time championship football squads set an incredible precedent for future teams. Finding talented players was one of his greatest gifts as a coach, and he always knew how to get a win.
Yet Davenport's legacy will not be in his trophies, but in the ethical standards, he established in every member on his football team.
"I wasn't there to just coach football," Davenport said. "I was there to train young men to be men of God. It was my ministry."Photograph by Shannon Smagala
