BERKELEY – Rex "Stan" Dzura, a legendary football and rugby player at California who returned to Hawaii after receiving his degree and recently retired from a 40-year career in education, has included in his estate plan a significant gift to benefit the Golden Bears rugby program.
 
"I wanted a college education. I didn't have a lot of money and athletics was my opportunity," said Dzura ("ZU-RA") about his journey to Cal as he spoke from his home in Discovery Harbour on Hawaii's Big Island. "Cal gave me that opportunity and now I want to give back."
 


Named a 1965 Playboy All-American following a stellar season on the gridiron in 1964, Dzura was a 6-5, 249-pound defensive end for Cal who wreaked havoc on opposing offenses and dominated the opposition on the rugby pitch. Decades later, Dzura is shining light on the Cal rugby program with his gift, made in his own name as a profound demonstration of how alumni can impact the programs they love. "Having my name attached to it, I don't want any of the attention personally," Dzura said of the estate planning to benefit rugby and, by extension, the University. "But it is good to bring this kind of opportunity to more people's attention."
 
Head coach Jack Clark said that the Cal rugby community has once again been awed by the commitment between Dzura and the team, a bond that has long been part of the program's lore.
 
"Stan's teammates have never stopped speaking of him with reverence with regard to his athleticism on the field of play and resolve off it," Clark said. "He is once again giving himself to the greater good of our team. Our gratitude will be as permanent as his generosity."
 
Dzura's journey took him at an early age him from his birth state of Wyoming to Hawaii, where he played basketball, ran the 440 meters and high-jumped in addition to a very brief commitment to football en route to graduating from Punahou High School in 1959. Over the ensuring years, after a failed attempt to enter Church College of Hawaii, Dzura moved from the Big Island, where he worked for the Census Bureau and surfed; to California, where he entered Basic Training at Camp Pendleton as a United States Marine Reserve; and back to Honolulu, where, after duties with his Reserve Unit, he began to paddle for the Lanikai Canoe Club, earning accolades that got him chosen as an all-star in the summer of 1961 for the Catalina Classic race from Santa Monica.
 
Dzura still dreamed of a college education and eventually regained enough traction as a prospective student-athlete to enroll back in California in the fall of 1962 at Hartnell College in Salinas, where he played football on the scout team in addition to maintaining his roster spot on the basketball and track teams.
 
By the fall of 1963, despite never having played football in a sustained manner, Dzura had earned a scholarship opportunity at Cal, where he entered as a sophomore. He started slowly but steadily that season on the gridiron, playing special teams and demonstrating the resolve to be named Most Improved Linemen by his coaches, one of whom was future head coach and Cal Hall of Famer Mike White. "Stan Dzura was a heck of an athlete and Cal turned out to be a perfect fit," White said. "He really is one of a kind and what's he's doing with his donation is great." 
 
In the spring, following the conclusion of football season, rugby was a natural progression for many Cal football student-athletes, including Dzura. He had played rugby before as a high schooler in Hawaii, where he debuted amid a fierce battle between two teams of Tongans and Samoans, and his transition as a Bear from football to rugby appeared seamless. He played for the legendary Miles "Doc" Hudson before returning to gridiron at the end of the summer for football training camp.
 
Dzura blossomed in the fall of '64 to become one of the Bears' best football players. One of his teammate that season was Craig Morton, who quarterbacked the Bears before becoming the No. 5 overall pick in the 1965 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. "I'm really happy that he's doing this," said Morton of Dzura's gift. "There are so many things about Stanley that I love. He's the nicest guy I've ever known. He's always loved to laugh. As a player he was great. He only had one speed. He could have been a great defensive end in the NFL. The life he's lived and the step he's taking now, I'm very proud of him."
 
Like Morton, Dzura was also taken in the 1965 NFL Draft, chosen in the eighth round by the Los Angeles Rams, and was also selected in the AFL Draft's second round by the San Diego Chargers. Unlike Morton, however, Dzura had further college eligibility remaining, and he intended to fulfill it and attain his degree. He returned to Berkeley for spring football in '65 and then joined his Cal rugby teammates that summer on their 1965 tour of Australia and New Zealand, where he was excited to help Cal succeed against highly skilled competition in the Southern Hemisphere.
 
"Stanley was something special, the fastest big guy I've ever seen in my life," said Tom Brown, Dzura's teammate in both football and rugby. "On kickoffs, he was 10 yards ahead of everyone else. You just loved to play with him. His laughter could be heard all over the place. But he would never be defeated and he made us raise our game."
 
Brown recalled that when coach Hudson would put the rugby team through sprint elimination drills, the only man left standing with Dzura would be Jerry Bradley, who was a world-class sprinter in high school.
 
On July 8 in Brisbane, hours after an epic 8-8 draw against Queensland during which he scored a try for the Bears to start the tour, Dzura suffered a serious leg injury in an auto accident. He was hospitalized in Australia until September, then flown back to the United States, where he began a long rehabilitation at Cowell Hospital in Berkeley. That injury spelled the end of his playing careers on the rugby pitch and the professional gridiron, but although it had changed his life unexpectedly, Dzura's experience solidified his gratitude for the University, which stuck with him through his injury and enabled him to successfully earn his degree in Rhetoric in 1967.
 
Dzura, who came into Cal with a pedigree of perseverance but found a foundation in Berkeley, went on to enjoy a long career as an educator in the classroom, on the football field and in academic administration, spending much of his tenure at Konawaena High School and Kau High School on the Big Island. With an easy-going demeanor and a worldview that entails toughness, Dzura is quick to praise the breadth of the Cal experience and its capacity to support diverse pathways toward success, a quality he wants to ensure for future generations. 
 
"Cal lets your flower in your own way. It helped me out at a time when I didn't have much going for me," Dzura explained. "I thought it'd be important to give back after what the University gave me."
 
The Rugby Bears join everyone at Cal Athletics to salute Stan Dzura for his leadership and generosity. To learn more about estate planning and ways to bequeath gifts to Cal Athletics, contact the Office of Gift Planning by calling 510-642-6300 or emailing ogp@berkeley.edu.