The title unofficially belongs to Cal coach Jack Clark, whose rugby 15s recently wrapped their first undefeated season since 2011 with a 36-22 win over Navy. The championship marked Clark’s 31st in 43 seasons leading the Bears’ 15-a-side and 7-a-side men’s teams.

Despite an unmatched track record, winning isn’t his primary obsession. 

“I’m not sure that shiny goblins in the showcase are my motivation at this point,” Clark told The Standard. “It’s more about doing my part to put the players in a position where they can be successful.”

Clark will be enshrined in the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (opens in new tab) on Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. The four other members of the 2026 class — Missy Franklin, Jesse Sapolu, Eddie Hart, and Brandon Crawford — are retired, but Clark has more lessons to impart.

“I’ve always kidded around that our players are getting a Ph.D. in ‘team,’” said Clark, 70. “I suppose there’s probably a few professors on campus that don’t appreciate me saying that, and I don’t blame them, actually. But I do think that our players are developing a very acute understanding of team.”

Most players or coaches are inducted after their careers. Clark has never signaled a plan to stop working, so the institutions planning to honor him stopped waiting around.

The USA Rugby Hall of Fame was first to call, in 2014. Two years later, Clark went into the Orange Coast College Hall of Fame, which honored the two-time junior college All-American left tackle for his role leading the football program to a 1975 national title.

“As I get older, when I think back on Orange Coast, that wasn’t a coaching award,” Clark said. “A lot of things now are about longevity, and I’ve been a coach for four decades, but I think back about that kid who played at Orange Coast, and it’s nice for that kid to be recognized.”

In November 2016, Clark became the first active coach to enter the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame. A year later, he entered the Edison High Hall of Fame, where he was a member of the first graduating class at the Huntington Beach school. In 2021, he was enshrined in the California State Junior College Football Hall of Fame. Now he’s been elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

I asked Clark about what made each honor memorable, and he spoke mostly in generalities, describing the acknowledgments as “special,” saying he is “appreciative,” and seeming particularly fond of the ceremonies at which someone else spoke on his behalf.

When I asked about coaching, Clark had a lot more to say. Perhaps that’s not a surprise for someone who earned $10 in his first decade on the job at Cal (opens in new tab) — $1 per year — before he quit banking to pursue his real passion.

What makes coaching endlessly fascinating? 

“I don’t believe that we’re one smart guy away from figuring everything out,” Clark said. “I think that when you look at the biggest problems that we face, whatever those might be, from poverty to the environment — you know, all the big stuff — I just think it’s going to be groups of people kind of pointing their nose in the same direction and getting it done. 

“And I know that the players that are leaving our rugby program have a really, really deep understanding of working with others and the concept of team.”

Some of Clark’s Cal players have appeared for national teams, signed pro contracts, and won Olympic medals. Most play their final competitive game at Cal, and it’s Clark’s job to prepare them for life after sports.

“It’s been a very sobering responsibility to be the custodian of a program that first played in 1882,” Clark said, “and to see if we could leave the program in a better place.”

Thirty-one titles and six halls of fame later, the journey to a better place continues. There are always more doctorates in “team” to hand out.