By: Joey Mullins
 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Joe Davidson has worked in college athletics for more than 40 years. During that time, he has worked in nearly every area of an NCAA Division I athletics department. One of the jobs he performed early in his career was coaching the men's golf team at UAB. Now, his career has come full circle as he steps into a new role as the Interim Head Women's Golf coach at Samford.
 
Davidson has worked at Samford University since 2012, and has worked in the Athletics Department since 2016, but has recently transitioned from a Senior Associate Athletic Director role back into the coaching ranks.
 
Though it has been a long time since he has coached golf, Davidson said it was not a hard decision when he was approached by Athletics Director Martin Newton about making the move back into coaching.
 
"It took me five minutes to really decide," Davidson said. "Not because I didn't like what I was doing, but this is the first thing I did in my career, was coach golf. At my age and where I am in my career, I feel that I want to do something I can really enjoy and make a difference in some lives, whether it be on the course or off the course. I wanted to do this."
 
During the 2019-20 season, with then Head Coach Haley Wilson pregnant with twins, Davidson went on some trips with the team to help her out. He said that experience was one of the reasons he wanted to take on the new challenge.
 
"I had travelled with the girls last year to a tournament and had seen what kind of people they were," Davidson said. "If I had not traveled with them, I probably would not have done it. I got to know the five returners really well. With the five returners, plus the two freshmen we have coming in, we're going to have a very good program. That takes hard work, but I think they already see what kind of person I am and what I will require them to do, and they know what it takes to get better, or they wouldn't be playing Division I golf."
 
Davidson's career in college athletics began back in 1978. He had spent two years as a student at Auburn University, but had decided not to return. He was considering joining the Army until a chance meeting with legendary UAB Head Basketball Coach and Athletics Director Gene Bartow changed his plans.
 
"I played golf with Coach Bartow and my high school basketball coach at Oak Mountain one day," Davidson said. "We just kind of hit it off. I knew I wasn't going back to Auburn, so Coach Bartow said, if you want to be involved come and see me this week, and I found the opportunity to be with them. Then that first day I got with Coach Lee Hunt (Bartow's assistant), and we hit it off because we both liked to golf and we liked to fish and we've been very good friends ever since."
 
 
Even as a student assistant, Davidson was involved in all areas of the athletics department. He did everything from compliance and academics to game operations. Davidson said it was exciting to be on the ground floor of a brand new athletics department.
 
"I opened the first box of basketballs at UAB," Davidson said. "There were only seven total staff members in an athletic department of probably 12 or 13 sports and we made it happen. So, I was a student, but I was doing administrative stuff too. I was also working in the ticket office, I was also taking money at a volleyball game, or whatever. I learned very early on about game management. It just kind of interested me, I liked being involved. You say start at the ground up, well we all did that at UAB."
 
After graduating from UAB 1981, Davidson served as a graduate assistant with the Blazers' Athletics Department from 1981 to 1983, earning a Master's Degree in 1983. During that time, he coached the men's golf team and served as the school's junior varsity basketball coach. He also served as an academic adviser and administrative assistant.
 
He then moved into a full-time role in the Athletics Department. Davidson served as the department's Coordinator of Athletic Academic Services (1980-84), men's golf coach (1981-89), Assistant Athletic Director of Business (1985-90), Associate Athletic Director (1990-95) and Senior Associate Athletic Director (1995-98).
 
Of the group he worked with at UAB, almost all of them stayed in athletics. Davidson said he is proud to have been a part of that group and he credits Bartow with a lot of the success they have all had.
 
"It's funny out of that group, you've got a vice president at ESPN, you've got several athletic directors, we all went on to be involved in sports at the highest level," Davidson said. "That's a tribute to Coach Bartow. He had two statements that he would always say to us, 'Find a Way' and 'Get it Done.' And that's kind of how we do it here at Samford, we find a way and get it done."
 
Throughout the 20 years Davidson worked for Bartow, he learned a lot of lessons that have helped him throughout his career. Davidson pointed out one thing that stood out above everything else that he learned from his mentor.
 
"Loyalty, he believed in loyalty," Davidson said. "I think if you have loyalty to what you do, to the people around you and loyalty to the goal you are trying to accomplish, it will come out right."
 
Davidson had the opportunity to become a Division I Athletic Director in 1998 when he stepped into the role at Jacksonville State University. Davidson said it was a long process in becoming the Gamecocks' AD.
 
"It had gone on for four or five months because I knew (former AD) Jerry Cole was going to retire," Davidson said. "I had been at the NACDA Meetings the summer before and I had met a couple of people there from Jax State and there was a mutual interest there and that mutual interest grew over that fall. There were two schools I was looking at and I had to make a serious decision about that. I started there in January or February in '98 and was there for two full years."
 
During his two years in charge of the Jacksonville State Athletic Department, Davidson led the department as it worked to become a successful Division I program after moving up from the Division II level. Davidson talked about some obstacles he faced in being a Division I Athletic Director for the first time.
 
"The things that were happening in the Anniston/Gadsden area were unfortunate," Davidson said. "Goodyear had closed, the fort was about to close, so you're seeing a lot of changes, economically in that area that I felt were going to hurt what we were trying to do, but we were still putting 80 percent of people in our football stadium. I hired Mark Turgeon, which created a lot of interest in basketball, and attendance went up automatically. The women's sports up there were very good, and they continued to be good. So, we put the effort into the areas where we were deficient. I had a great staff up there and a lot of them are still up there."
 
Davidson said they accomplished a lot of things that he is proud of during his time at JSU.
 
"I think putting good people in good places," Davidson said when asked what his proudest accomplishment was. "We made some changes to the Gamecock Club, changes for the better where we could streamline the money a little more where it would go quicker to the sport for use. But just hiring good people in good places, and I've always been one that I ask myself, would I want my own child to play for them and that was how I felt in hiring people. Jacksonville State is a great university, and we had good people there who wanted it to do well, and we had great support.
 
"They were going from Division II to Division I and they just needed a little more direction on how to go Division I," Davidson said. "It's one thing to say you're Division I, but you need to act like it and be like it. That is really what I was there to do, to push it more toward Division I."
 
After leaving Jacksonville State in 2000, he spent several years out of college athletics, though a lot of the time he was still working on a college campus. Among his jobs during that time were Executive Director of Alumni Affairs (2000-2004) and Facility Coordinator for Housing and Residential Life (2009-2011) at UAB. While he was not working specifically in athletics, he said he was still heavily involved in promoting athletics.
 
"I was always around it," Davidson said. "When I was Executive Director of Alumni Affairs, I was heavily involved in promoting UAB football. We set up chapters in every Conference USA town we played in, and that was big. We felt we had to do that. The face of Conference USA has changed, but they have continued to do that. We increased alumni membership, increased giving, increased the scholarship program for students, so you were always around students. I was told very early on, if you work around a college campus, it's always good for your children you have and it keeps you young. Coach Bartow was big about that. He said there is no place better to work than a college or university because of those things."
 
Davidson came to Samford University in July 2012 as Facility Coordinator for Residential Life. He said he had always been aware of Samford from living in the area, and has always enjoyed working at the school.
 
"I had lived in Homewood for years and I would come to games," Davidson said. "Everybody over here in the athletic department were friends of mine. Lauren Taylor in Residential Life had someone leave and I had done some similar work over at UAB. So, I came over here and worked part time one summer and then I went on full-time eight years ago and I loved it. I can't say I never saw myself working here, but when I got here I wondered why I hadn't tried sooner, because it's a very good place in so many ways."
 
Davidson moved over to the Athletics Department in March of 2016. He has overseen the Facilities and Operations Department the entire time he has worked in Athletics, but he has also served on Newton's Senior Leadership Team. He said when Newton approached him about coming over to the Athletics Department, it was an easy decision to make.
 
"He said he wanted to talk to me about something so I came over and talked to him," Davidson said. "I said I needed the weekend to think about it, but I had made my mind up by the time I got back to my office. It was an easy transition. I felt like I knew everybody when I came here. It was an easy decision. I think working here makes you a better person, and it has truly helped me as a person."
 
During his time in Samford Athletics, Davidson has led and overseen many improvements within the Facilities and Operations Department, as well as in the Athletics Department as a whole. He talked about what he has seen in Samford Athletics during his time in the department.
 
"It's a constant challenge," Davidson said. "It's not a battle, it's just a challenge. I think we do as great of a job here as we can. Our facilities are very good, and they are all in one location. Everything is right here. You can walk 40 yards and see three or four different sports. I hope I've helped from a management standpoint to help take stuff off the coaches more. And I hope I've helped that relationship from the other side of campus as well, regarding facilities and operations."
 
Davidson moved into his new role as Interim Head Women's Golf Coach a couple of weeks ago, and it is a challenge he is looking forward to very much. Looking back over his 40-plus years in college athletics, Davidson talked about some of the changes he has seen in the industry.
 
"I think if you look at any area, the biggest change is how the money drives it now, it is absolutely different," Davidson said. "I can remember working Auburn-Alabama games at Legion Field when I was 14 years old and that's probably when it started. But, looking at it now, the money involved, and it's the detail that is required every day to really field a team. It's so much different from when I coached before."
 
Davidson has meant a lot and added a lot to Samford University and Samford Athletics, as he has wherever he has worked throughout his career. As he steps into this new role it will be exciting to see the impact he has on the women's golf program and its student-athletes.