To say Dave Guidugli was an original, a one-of-a-kind guy, is to not do justice to that description.
He was that and more, much more. A schoolteacher for 35 years, coach, motivator, politician, boxer, fitness guru, Special Olympics coordinator, multiple hall of famer, winner of the first National Tough Man Contest and friend of the famous, from high school buddy Dave Cowens to the likes of other Basketball Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Bill Walton and an NFL Hall of Famer, Anthony Munoz.
But his son Gino, one of proud father Dave’s four sons and a former Highlands star, University of Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame quarterback and coach, now the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator at Notre Dame, said it best.
“Thank you for the sacrifices, the laughs, the tough love, for the lives you made better along the way and most of all, for being our father. We are going to miss you every single day,” Gino tweeted out Saturday to let everyone know that his dad had passed away.
I met Dave for the first time more than 40 years ago after he’d won that Tough Man Contest and had him with me for life after naming him the “Guru of Fitness.” Through my days in Philadelphia, Chicago and LA, you never knew when you were going to hear from Dave. Like the time in Charlotte, N.C., when I was there for an NFL game and there, big as life in the hotel lobby, was Dave.
What are you doing here, I asked him. “Working with the Celtics’ big man,” Dave said of the NBA game, also in town. Just one of his many enterprises, working on quickness, fitness and toughness for all sorts of NBA big men over the years. Just the way he did with young boys and girls – and their parents – here in Northern Kentucky.
I remember running into the legendary Walton at USC in LA when that equally one-of-a-kind character was in town to broadcast a game. I introduced myself. “I’m from Northern Kentucky and a friend of Dave Guidugli,” I began. But that’s all the farther I got because Walton broke into the biggest grin and started telling stories about his good buddy, Dave. They were two of a kind.
Before Walton, who died two years ago, became a national treasure, Dave had made it clear to anyone he talked to what a special guy Walton was. All you had to do was get to know him.
Dave got to know lots of people, from watching a UC basketball game at courtside sitting next to Oscar Robertson, to helping high school athletes get ready for college or teaching grade school kids how to develop the confidence and toughness it takes to play sports.
Boone County High’s NFL MVP as a Seattle Seahawk, Shaun Alexander, was one of those. Dave had lots of names you would know in his phone. One was mine.
I was sitting in the Dodger Stadium parking lot one day when Dave called to tell me Gino was playing for Green Bay in the Arena League. And another time when he was moving on to his first college coaching job at Central Michigan. And then when he was coming back home to UC and last of all, off to Notre Dame after a brief stop at Wisconsin, with Dave already getting his Notre Dame gear for the trips to South Bend.
Northern Kentucky won’t see Dave’s like again. Nor hear a dad as proud as Dave was of his sons – Gino, Ben, Bay and Tony, who all played football for Highlands. Ben also played for UC and in the NFL. Bay played for Southeastern Louisiana. And Tony for Georgia Military College.
A Newport Central Catholic grad, Dave won that first-ever National Tough Man Contest, in Bay City, Mich., in 1979. It was created for boxer/brawlers without a pro record in the ring, to show what they could do. Dave did. And it may have previewed his life a bit. It wasn’t always smooth. There was that time when politician Dave was forced to punch out an attacking dog as he was canvassing door-to-door.
When he was running for Campbell County jailer, Dave made this case for himself in summing up his life’s work: ”I love people and most people love me. I am a positive influence on people’s lives. I like to help people become successful and become the best version of themselves.”
“He was truly the Godfather of Fitness,” Clif Marshall, longtime director of athletic performance at Indiana University posted on X, “a pioneer who trained thousands of athletes including legends like Larry Bird.”
And had the time of his – and our – lives doing it. He will be missed.
Visitation will be from 9:30 to 11 Thursday morning at Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church, 825 Washington Ave., Newport, with Mass of the Christian Burial from 11-12 with burial at St. Stephen’s Cemetery, 1523 Alexandria Pike, Ft. Thomas at 12:30 p.m. Also at 12:30 will be a Celebration of Life at the gymnasium of St. Stephen’s/Holy Spirit Parish across the street from the church.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.