Note: Every week, a different Arizona player or coach shares his first memory of being on a football field. This week, we chatted with cornerbacks coach David Lockwood.
David Lockwood did what most college football players dream of — play for a national championship. The UA’s cornerbacks coach was a member of the 1988 West Virginia team that lost to Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl for the national title.
A reserve cornerback who had 58 tackles and two interceptions in his four-year career, Lockwood reached the pinnacle of college football, playing the Fighting Irish at Sun Devil Stadium for the national title.
But it wasn’t always like that. When he began his playing career as a 7th grader in Pop Warner, Lockwood’s team didn’t win a game all season.
Here’s his story:
People are also reading…
“I played for the Rose Tree Colts, just outside of Philly. It’s funny, it’s the first year I played football, and we lost every game. So I went from losing every game my first year of football to winning them all and playing for a national championship my last year. But that first year was one of my best years. We had so much fun.
“Even though we didn’t win, we had a great organization. We had a bunch of good coaches that taught us the game. They cared about us, but more important, they taught us the game. My last two years of that, Pop Warner, we were 29-0-1. We just kept getting better. I played tailback, and had a blast.
“Back then, growing up, you played all three sports. That was the thing to do. In football season, you played football. When it got cold, you played basketball, and in the spring, you played baseball. Either that or you ran track. Back then, that’s just what you did. This day in age, kids are in the house all the time. We weren’t allowed to be in the house. They used to tell us, ‘You ain’t staying in this house all day. You get out and do something.’ We were out in the streets playing ball in the yard, ball in the parking lot, whatever. That’s just what you did.
“We found a way to do something, and that’s what we did. It’s totally different now. We didn’t have the cell phones and stuff. We had Atari and Duck Hunt, and TV, you had channels 3, 6 and 10. There was nothing else on TV. Now you got so many channels, it’s unbelievable. Growing up back then, it was a big difference.”
