Davidson returning to role in athletics
Joe Davidson is moving back into collegiate athletics, an area where he has a wealth of experience.
Effective April 1, he takes over as the assistant athletics director for facilities, operation and equipment at Samford University.
He will add a notch to an already extensive resume, as he has worked with some of the top names in college sports over the years.
Current Samford Athletics Director Martin Newton presented the idea to Davidson about the position as an opportunity to move back into sports, as Davidson worked as the university’s facility and safety coordinator since 2012.
The goal is to work with the athletic facilities at Samford and maintain and improve what Davidson believes to be “some of the best in the country.”
As one chapter begins, another one ends for Davidson, as this spring’s semester will be his last teaching at UAB, where he will wrap up a 35-year run of teaching a golf class at the school.
The concept of the course is and always has been simple: to introduce average students to the game of golf. He fills each of the 25 slots in the class each semester with ease, and has had all types of students, from doctors, to Rhodes scholars, to football players in the course.
“I love the game,” he said.
He played on the first golf teams at UAB, in a newly formed athletic department, and transitioned into the head golf coach in 1981 upon graduation, a position he held through 1988.
Legendary coach Gene Bartow created the men’s basketball program in 1978, and Davidson worked closely with the program for many years. One of his fondest memories of a man he considers a mentor came in 1982, when UAB upset Virginia to advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.
“From opening up the first box of basketballs to almost seeing them go to the Final Four, that was incredible,” he said.
Kevin Tubbs, the current athletic director at Homewood High School, worked with Davidson as a student at UAB in the late 1980s.
“Joe has been a valued mentor and advisor during my coaching and administrative career,” Tubbs said.
He added, “Joe will definitely add to an already talented and first-class athletic department.”
He rose up the athletic department at UAB before taking the role as director of athletics at Jacksonville State University in 1998. During a two-year span there, he hired football coach Jack Crowe and men’s basketball coach Mark Turgeon — now the head coach at the University of Maryland.
Davidson can always be spotted at Mountain Brook High School athletic events, keeping close tabs on the school his children attended in his spare time.
Now his day job is back in the sports world as well.