Legendary DHS Coach in Line for Stadium Field Naming Honors

He’s a legend both off and on the field who’s won numerous titles for the Dixon High Rams and now the late Ira “Red” Finney is in line for an honor that would cement his legacy in Dixon.

Back in February, l put out Six names were put in the running including Finney’s Dixon High School Principal Ivan Chaidez said.

A committee consisting of five members – which included a DHS staff member, student, parent, a member of the community and one administrator – then whittled the names down to three.

The board chose Finney Field or Ira “Red” Finney Field over the two other names – Rams Field or Donors Field. In early May, the Stadium Field Naming Committee will present their recommendation the Dixon Unified School District Board of Education. The board has the final say in what the name of the field will be.

In Dixon sporting circles Finney was a well-respected coach who above all, inspired his players to achieve greatness both on and off the field.

Fourth-generation Dixonite and DHS campus supervisor Scott Stacey recalls the contributions that Finney made to the school and to Dixon.

“He did a lot of things, but he had equal success in football,” Stacey said. “He started off with a title, with a championship, he had 11 of those over the years and he was also a pioneer of the San Joaquin Section.”

Although Finney’s accomplishments in football were impressive, so were those in baseball, track and field, and tennis Stacey said.

“Well they used to dominate tennis for years,” Stacey said. “But he was quite a gentlemen and he was quite a personable.”

Finney first came to Dixon High in 1950, Stacey said. As a freshman at Dixon High School, Stacey first came to know Finney in the classroom. Stacey was not an athlete but had an intense love for the New York Yankees.

“By the time I got to high school he had returned from coaching but he was still a teacher,” Stacey said. “I still learned a lot of things. Here’s a personal item where he recognized that I was a baseball fan. I was a Yankee fan and he allowed me to view a baseball signed by the 1937 Yankees, which was quite a remarkable thing for the man to do.  He took great pride, he was very interested in peoples’ lives.”

There was another time Stacey recalled that Finney gave a player his cleats because the player broke a cleat off of his shoe.

“There came a point when one of his players was graduating in the ‘50s, he was playing football and he had broken the cleats and in those days you didn’t screw on the cleats, they came with the shoe,” Stacey said. “He broke off the cleat (and) because he wore the same size that Coach Finney did,  Coach Finney allowed him to use the football cleats. Mr. Finney coached in his stocking feat. They did win.”

Coach Finney’s record was one of the most winningest in the DHS Rams’ history.

According to the DixonRams.com web site: “Coach Finney began coaching and teaching at DHS in 1950 where he amassed an impressive 126-49-5 record in football. In addition to his duties as DHS Athletic Director for 19 years, Red coached football, basketball, baseball, track and tennis for a combined 27 league championships at the varsity level and seven more championships at the JV/Frosh levels. He also taught U.S. History, world history and health education at DHS.”