The memories are endless for Dave Hixon, too many to count, really.
There was the time Amherst College upset No. 1 ranked Franklin and Marshall in the 1994 NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament.
There was one April weekend in 2013 that included a national championship and a road trip to Augusta National Golf Club with his father, Wil.
There were countless wins over rival Williams, including one that included a hot dog hanging over his head.
Hixon’s coaching career spanned 42 seasons, every one of them in LeFrak Gymnasium at Amherst. He left the sidelines following the 2018-19 season. He took a sabbatical to spend more time with his father and connect with former players.
Time away gave Hixon time to reflect, and on Monday, Amherst College announced Hixon, 67, will retire from coaching.
“This has been an unbelievable ride,” Hixon said in a phone interview with the Gazette. “I wish everyone could have a ride like it. I’m forever thankful and grateful that I could pull this off at my alma mater. I’ve survived.”
Hixon made the decision last week. He spoke with his former players last Wednesday, then informed Amherst College.
“I immediately felt comfortable,” Hixon said. “It doesn’t mean don’t I waver back and forth a touch, but I felt comfortable and when that happens you’ve done what you want to do and I’m at peace with it as they say. And that’s cool.”
Hixon graduated from Amherst in 1975 and took over the basketball program in 1978.
“Dave has done so much for Amherst during his time here as a student, coach, teacher, recruiter, mentor, administrator, adviser and admired colleague and friend,” Director of Athletics Donald Faulstick said in a statement. “But in addition to his many accomplishments, what stands out to me is the love and admiration current and past student-athletes have for Dave and the impact he’s made in those people’s lives. He certainly leaves big shoes to fill. I wish Dave and (wife) Mandy the best with the next chapter of their lives.”
Aaron Toomey, who won a national championship as a player under Hixon, was interim coach for the 2019-20 season.
“I have been extremely fortunate to be able to spend the majority of the past decade playing for and coaching with Coach Hixon,” Toomey said in a statement. “I couldn’t have envisioned having a better four-year playing career, and that’s because of Coach Hixon. In one of the toughest times in my life, he was the one who gave me a chance. He believed in me not just as a coach but as a person who could contribute to making the Amherst basketball program better.”
Hixon said there will be a national search for the next Amherst coach, but the Andover native backed Toomey.
“It’s time. It’s time for a younger guy to step in,” Hixon said. “I thought Aaron did a great job this year. There’s going to be a national search, but Aaron would be great candidate.”
Hixon said his sabbatical was not a prelude to retirement. He attended only three games, but he watched them all and refrained from rehashing every game with Toomey.
“Retrospectively it gave me a different perspective,” he said. “It allowed me a different perspective, a perspective where I have half a foot in but mostly out, and I tried to stay away to let the team jell on its own without me being a distraction.”
Hixon still had a desk with a computer in the basketball office during the season. Toomey had a desk as well, just in a more prominent place. The walls are covered with accolades from 42 successful years of coaching.
“There’s not a single space for anything else so I guess that’s a good time to retire,” Hixon said.
Hixon won national titles in 2007 and 2013, and finished with a career mark of 826-293.
Amherst qualified for the NCAA Tournament 20 times and went 43-20 in postseason play. For nearly half of Hixon’s career, his team was ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. That was until 1994, the first year the New England Small Conference Athletic Conference (NESCAC) allowed its teams to compete in postseason tournaments.
Amherst and Colby both qualified for the national tournament that year. Making its NCAA debut, Amherst beat Colby in the second round to match up with No. 1 Franklin and Marshall.
Lebanon Valley beat UMass-Dartmouth prior to Amherst’s second game, and Lebanon head coach Pat Flannery left the gym to return to the hotel. Flannery had been winless in his last four games against Franklin and Marshall, and wanted extra time to prepare. An assistant stayed behind to watch Amherst.
“His assistant called him on a pay phone to say ‘Pat, you’re never going to believe this but Amherst just upset Franklin and Marshall,’” Hixon said. “I remember Pat saying ‘What the hell do we have on Amherst?’”
Lebanon Valley beat Amherst and went on to win the national title, but that Amherst team did more than just beat a No. 1 ranked foe.
Earlier in the season, the then-Lord Jeffs faced Williams, which had won seven straight basketball games and four straight football games against Amherst.
The football program had 32 recruits on campus and they attended to the Amherst-Williams game. Heavy underdogs to Williams, Amherst won by 29.
“I have film of the crowd. It was packed. It was unbelievable. All 32 kids signed the next morning. That was the beginning of a new football era at Amherst and a new athletic era at Amherst. Then we went on a great run,” Hixon said. “That game had so much to do with the change in attitude on the Amherst campus about athletics.”
Games against Williams were always memorable.
In 1983, Amherst won four straight at Williams when the Ephs played in “a bowling alley with a track at the top” as Hixon described it.
“That was crazy because they would dump stuff from above,” Hixon said. “I had tobacco dumped on me once. I had a hot dog hung over my head. Crazy crazy antics.”
One time the Lord Jeff mascot pulled his sword and chased a student outside.
“Needless to say when he got home he got his sword taken away,” Hixon laughed.
Hixon finished his career winning 17 out of 21 games against Williams.
“People today might not quite understand how important that is to me, because they don’t understand the rivalry like I do,” Hixon said.
Hixon’s final season was as memorable as any because of the rivalry. Amherst beat Williams down the stretch of the regular season, then rallied to beat Middlebury to tie for the NESCAC title.
In the NESCAC Tournament, Amherst opened with a win over Wesleyan, then beat Williams for a third time. The Mammoths upset Hamilton for the title.
“I almost stood up in the middle of the court and put my hands up and said ‘OK guys, that’s it.’ It was such a wonderful moment to see a bunch of kids just really come together,” Hixon said. “That team, to be a bookend, to be my last season, was just really special.”
Hixon lives in Amherst with his wife Mandy, a longtime successful diving coach at UMass. They have two children, Matthew and Michael. For three weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire family was together in Amherst, the girlfriends of Matthew and Michael included.
“All of a sudden my house seemed really small,” Hixon said. “And two showers weren’t enough. But it was awesome and great fun. I cherished those three weeks we had.”
Hixon is close with his father, Wil, a former coach and administrator at Andover High School. Wil and Dave were both inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. Dave’s mother, Dawn, who was married to Wil for 68 years, died in January 2019.
In 2013, the NCAA held the Division I, II and III Final Fours in Atlanta. Following Amherst’s championship win on Sunday, Hixon and his father drove to Augusta and the pair took in a practice round for the Masters.
“It was the only time he and I have every been to Augusta. It was like heaven,” Hixon said. “I had to be back that night for the Division I championship, but it was an amazing weekend. You couldn’t describe a better weekend: to win the national championship and then go to the Masters with your dad. That was special, special, special moment.”
Since Wednesday, word of Hixon’s retirement spread through the Amherst basketball community. Hixon said he spent four days responding to the various messages he’s received. It’s hasn’t been easy.
“I’ve gotten some replies that have brought me to tears. And that’s cool, that’s great,” Hixon said. “Believe it or not I don’t take praise well. I have a hard time. I get emotional because I don’t really think I’ve done what people say I’ve done. I’ve coached basketball.”
Northampton High School graduate Willy Workman was a senior captain for the Mammoths in 2013.
“Hix introduced me to a level of basketball thinking I hadn’t experienced before,” Workman said in an email from Israel where he plays professionally. “His offensive and defensive concepts are embedded in my hoops DNA. And more importantly he set an example of the acute attention necessary to succeed. I mean he would take the time to push our bench so it was perfectly parallel to the sideline … he was just obsessed with things being in their proper place.”
Hixon isn’t sure what his future holds, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he was back in a gym at some point.
“I love the game,” he said. “Once a coach always a coach and it will never be out of my blood. I’m also ready to do other things.”
Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com. Follow on Twitter @mikemoranDHG.