Pacific Athletics honored distinguished alumni Bob Gaughran ('57), Luci Lagrimas ('86) and Mark Nordquist ('68) at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award of Merit Recognition Luncheon on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014 at Grace Covell Hall on the Pacific campus. Tickets are available by contacting Pam Nogare at 209-946-3945 or at
[email protected].
The Amos Alonzo Stagg Award of Merit was established in 1981 by former Graduate Manager of Athletics Bob Breeden, Pacific Alumni Director Kara Brewer, and Director of Athletics Elkin Isaac. The award recognizes alumni who participated in athletics at Pacific and achieved distinction in their professional lives through the notable examples of integrity, dedication, idealism, and team spirit that Mr. Stagg personified and to which Pacific is dedicated.
Bob Gaughran ‘57
Bob Gaughran was born and raised in San Francisco, before moving to Redwood City where he attended Sequoia High School and had a Hall of Fame career in both swimming and water polo.
After leading Stockton College to Northern California championships in swimming and water polo, Bob was awarded a swimming/water polo scholarship to University of the Pacific, where he proceeded to break all game, season and career water polo scoring records. His Pacific career total of 340 goals remains the school record. Bob was named to the Nor Cal Water Polo All-Star Team 3 years, named MVP swimmer 3 times and was twice named team captain. He was the first aquatic athlete inducted into the Pacific Athletics Hall of Fame (1992).
After graduation from Pacific, Bob was hired to teach Physical Education and coach swimming and water polo at Menlo-Atherton High School (1958-65); winning 18 swimming and water polo crowns, producing 24 swimming All-Americans and 8 water polo All-Americans, and winning 2 CIF swimming and 2 CIF water polo championships. His swimmers set 8 National Interscholastic Swimming Records and were named by UPI as the 1965 National High School Swimming Team Champions. Two of his high school swimmers went on to win Olympic medals; one while still in high school. He is a member of the Menlo-Atherton High School Hall of Fame.
Bob moved to Santa Ana College (1965-96) as a PE professor and aquatics coach. As a coach, he won numerous water polo championships, highlighted by two Southern California Team Titles and having 28 of his players named to the Community College All-American Water Polo Team. One of his players was selected to two USA Olympic Water Polo Teams. Bob was twice named Southern California Coach of the Year, and was selected as a charter member of the California Community College Water Polo Coaches Association Hall of Fame (1992). In 1971, he coached the first USA National Water Polo Team into the USSR. He served as the Athletic Director for Santa Ana College from 1967 to 1974. In 1969, he co-authored The Technique of Water Polo, one of the sports best-selling books and winner of the Athlon Prize. Bob was elected to the Santa Ana College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.
In addition to his coaching, Bob coordinated water safety instruction classes for the American Red Cross at Santa Ana College for 25 years. He served as the Venue Director at the 1984 Olympic Games and as Venue Director at the 1983 FINA World Championships. He was Chairman of USA Olympic Water Polo, Chairman of the National and International AAU Water Polo Committee, and Director of the Hawaiian Aquatic Forum for Swimming/Water Polo in Honolulu, Hawaii. He also served 12 years on the Pacific Alumni Association Board of Directors (1987-98).
For 43 years (1970 to 2012), Bob founded and produced the National Coaches Clinics, which brought together America’s finest coaches to address coaches at educational seminars. Clinics were conducted for the sports of Football, Baseball, Basketball, Fitness/Nutrition, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Track & Field, Volleyball and Water Polo. The clinics, which were held in various cities in northern California, southern California, Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia, attracted in excess of 50,000 coaches.
Bob and his wife Barbara, Pacific class of 1960, live in Newport Beach, CA. They have two children and two grandchildren.
Luci Lagrimas, ‘86
A four-time Pacific field hockey MVP, Luci Lagrimas is one of the most heralded and decorated players in that sport’s history at Pacific.
Lagrimas was a three-time All-American from 1982-84, and was twice the Tigers’ team captain and leading scorer. The NorPac Conference 1984 Athlete of the Year, she annually participated on Junior Olympics and National Sports Festival teams, and was a two-time member of the U.S. National Field Hockey Team after her graduation.
She returned to Pacific for three years as an assistant coach from 1985-87, and she remained active in the sport including a post as west regional director of a development program for junior and senior high school players. She is a past president, and currently treasurer, of the Northern California Field Hockey Association.
Lagrimas continues to remain fit through mountain climbing, biking and skiing, and running triathlons and road races. Luci graduated from Pacific in 1986 with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
Luci lives in Palo Alto and is a Senior Engineering Manager at Cisco Systems. She is also an NCAA field hockey official.
Mark Nordquist, ‘68
Mark Nordquist was born in Long Beach, Calif. and discovered a love of nature early in life, earning Eagle Scout designation at the young age of 13. Nordquist attended high school at Reseda High School in the San Fernando Valley before attending junior college at Pierce College in Los Angeles.
After transferring to Pacific in time for the 1966 season, Nordquist played on the Tigers' offensive line for two seasons. He was one of the top tackles on the West Coast in a time when the team was competing as an independent. After graduation from Pacific with a BS in Business Administration in 1968, Mark was drafted in the fifth round of the 1968 NFL Draft by the Philadephia Eagles, Nordquist embarked on a nine year career in professional football, playing in 96 games for the Eagles between 1968-1974 while serving as offensive line captain for a period. He finished his career with the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers, playing in a total of 15 games in 1975 and 1976.
After his football playing career, Nordquist went into the world of entrepreneurship, co-founding DonJoy, today the world's largest manufacturer of knee braces, in a Carlsbad, Calif. garage in 1978. The company, now known as DJ Ortho, employs over five thousand people in more than a dozen facilities throughout the world. In addition to founding DonJoy, Nordquist also was a successful real estate builder and developer in the San Diego area, specializing in ocean view homes.
Today, he is an accomplished sculptor, founding Mark Nordquist Studio after initially taking up sculpting as a hobby. His pieces include many inspired by moments in his life and his love of nature and animals. He also provides private coaching to aspiring youth and high school linemen in the San Diego area in his spare time. Mark lives in Carlsbad, Calif. with his wife Joy and their Labrador.