Release 3/16/2007 A Legend Returns: Mouse Davis Named Offensive Coordinator
Mouse Davis, former head coach at Portland State, returns to be offensive coordinator.
Mouse Davis in the 1970s as Portland State's Head Coach A legend will return to the Park Blocks for the 2007 football season as Darrel “Mouse” Davis has been named the Portland State Vikings’ offensive coordinator. Davis, a former Viking Head Coach from 1975 to 1980 will bring his unique brand of offensive football back to the place he made it famous: Portland State University. Davis joins new Head Coach Jerry Glanville at PSU after working with Glanville at Hawai’i the past two seasons.
“We’ve worked together long enough that we have a great comfort level in our relationship,” Davis said of Glanville. “He has the defense, I have the offense. It works out well.
“Both of us are football junkies and strongly desirous of putting wins on the board. That’s the name of the game. Because of the relationship we already have, there is a built-in feeling of ‘let’s get it done.’”
Davis is the man who made the “Run-and- Shoot” offense famous, revolutionizing football back in the 1970s. At that time, he led a Portland State program that went 42-24 over six seasons, averaged 38 points and nearly 500 yards of offense per game. PSU led the nation in scoring three times. The unique passing game made stars out of Davis’ two main quarterbacks, June Jones and Neil Lomax.
“It gives me great comfort that if I miss an offensive meeting, I know that what’s going on, I never even have to think about it. Mouse makes my job half as tough as what it should be,” said Glanville.
After his previous coaching tenure at Portland State, Davis went on to coach in the Canadian Football League, the now-defunct USFL, the NFL and the Arena Football League. The past three seasons, Davis has been an assistant coach for Jones with the University of Hawai’i. The Warriors have employed the Run-and-Shoot to great success, averaging 559.2 yards of total offense, 46.9 points and producing a 10-3 record in 2006. Hawai’i led the nation in passing offense (441.3), total offense, scoring offense and pass efficiency (185.95).
Originally from the northwest, the 74-year-old Davis claims Independence, Oregon as his hometown, and he is a 1955 graduate of Western Oregon University (then Oregon College of Education). Davis spent 15 seasons coaching high school football in Oregon, culminating in a 1973 state championship at Hillsboro High School. Davis also was head coach at Sunset and Milwaukie High Schools, building a combined 79-29 record among those three.
Mouse gained his nickname from older brother Don while a freshman shortstop on the Central High School team in Monmouth, OR. Despite his 4’10” stature at the time, Mouse already excelled at sports. He played quarterback and halfback on three straight championship teams from 1952-54 under Coach Bill McArthur at OCE (WOU). Davis also played basketball and baseball in college.
In developing his Run-and-Shoot offense, Davis espoused the theories of Middletown (Ohio) High School coach Glenn "Tiger" Ellison, who wrote the book Run-and-Shoot Football: Offense of the Future. Ellison was a mentor during Davis' tenure at Hillsboro High. Davis avidly read Ellison's manual, eventually modifying and polishing it into the "Run-and-Shoot" that has terrorized defenses, amassed yardage and scoring records and turned quarterbacks into supermen at every level of football.
In 1975, his quarterback, current UH head coach June Jones, threw for a Division II - record 3,518 yards. Davis' next quarterback, Neil Lomax, set NCAA records of 13,220 yards and 106 touchdowns in 42 games. Under Davis' direction, Portland State set 20 NCAA Division I-AA offensive records in addition to the Vikings being named the NCAA's all-time point producers in 1980, scoring 541 points in 11 games for 49.2 points per game, along with 434.9 yards passing and 504.3 yards of total offense per game.
Davis was an inaugural member of the Portland State Athletics Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 1997.
DAVIS FILEHometown: Independence, ORAlma Mater: Western Oregon, 1955Playing Experience: Quarterback, Halfback, Cornerback, Western Oregon, 1951-54Portland State Head Coaching Record: 42-24 (1975-80) Date of Birth: Sept. 6, 1932
Coaching ExperienceHawai`i (Special Teams/Running Backs), 2005-06Hawai`i (Special Teams), 2004San Diego Riptide (Head Coach), 2003Detriot Fury (Head Coach), 2001-02Atlanta Falcons (Quarterbacks), 1994-95New York/New Jersey Knights (Head Coach), 1991-92Detroit Lions (Offensive Coordinator), 1988-90Arena League (Director of Football Operations), 1986-88Denver Gold (Head Coach), 1985Houston Gamblers (Offensive Coordinator), 1984Toronto Argonauts (Head Coach), 1982-83Portland State (Head Coach), 1975-80
