By Justin Alsman
By Justin Alsman
The man walks into the press box and everyone turns to greet him. They know him and he knows them. The man has a presence, there is no question. He walks calmly over to the seat labeled RCC Announcer, opens his book and rifles around the table for the game’s starting lineups.
Daddy Cool is the nickname he has sported for years and it is obvious where it came from, the man owns the room, everyone knows it and he couldn’t be more humble about it, stopping to talk to everyone who comes up to him.
“There used to be water, they always gave us water,” he mumbles to no one in particular. Minutes later water is at his side. People respect the man.
The man is Richard Hobart, and he began this football season celebrating 26 years. The first four were just basketball, but for the past 22 he has had the routine of driving down from his Perris home on Saturdays taking a break from “watching as much ESPN as I can.” He still continues to do women’s basketball, after football is over.
In between quarters as the RCC band begins to play, Daddy Cool sits in his seat dancing to the music.
“The band is what I look forward to most during the games,” he said, going on to reminisce about the teams of old. “It just hasn’t been the same since the championship,” he said, referring to RCC’s 1989 National championship title.
“Mostly I still do this to stay around young people; it keeps me young,” he said. That’s something he has done his entire life. He got a degree in counseling, then put that to use becoming a counselor at Perris High School.
Before he came to RCC to announce in 1978, he was a football coach himself, leading Perris High School to a state championship in 1975. He has always had a love for sports and football particular, playing for Thomas Jefferson High in Los Angeles in 1949 as a fullback.
He is also a man with great love for his family, smiling as he talks about his 12 kids, his two boys and 10 daughters. Of his six grandchildren, only one plays sports, his 6-5′ grandson plays basketball in high school.
When asked how old he is, he smiled and quietly says, “Older than I should be.”
He now plans for retirement he figures he’ll be around here “as long as they keep asking me back,” and doesn’t know how long that will be. So for now, he’s just having fun dancing in his chair and looking forward to what the Tiger’s do in their next game.
