Drexel’s basketball community remembers Dave Clawson

For more than 30 years, Dave Clawson was a staple inside the Daskalakis Athletic Center at Drexel. As much as Drexel meant to him, he meant more to Drexel.

Clawson, 70, who spent more than three decades as the clock and scoreboard operator at Drexel, died after a long illness on Nov. 20.

“He was just a kindhearted, loyal man that had strong beliefs in doing the right thing and loved being part of a greater community of Drexel,” said Bridget Scanlan, who met Clawson in 1999 when she was on the women’s basketball team.

Clawson was a Drexel lifer. He graduated from the university in 1975 and began his career working the clock and scoreboard for men’s basketball games in 1986 before adding the women’s games to his responsibilities in the mid-1990s. In 2017, he was inducted into the Drexel Athletics Hall of Fame as the Athletics Director Legacy Award winner.

Clawson was known for his dependability during his time at Drexel. He rarely missed games and kept an eye out to help people at the scorer’s table in case they missed some action. He was always working, doing what would have been the job of two or three people at other schools.

“It was like he had a million arms,” said Molly Sweeney, who met Clawson in 2008 while working at Drexel games, “but he never looked like it was a problem.”

Clawson was so good at his job that Nick Gannon, Drexel’s deputy director of athletics, was sometimes left wondering.

“[Gannon] would question if Dave was doing the scoreboard right because a basket would go in and literally before he could look up to take a peek at the scoreboard, everything was already updated, he was so quick,” said assistant athletic director Sean Joyce, who first met Clawson in 1998.

In the hectic atmosphere of game day, Clawson was a “calm, stoic presence,” cracking a joke at just the right time to loosen everybody up. He used tricks to help him stay on top of things during the game, such as carrying a timer to keep track of certain situations or using a pen to help him with the possession arrow.

» READ MORE: Drexel men’s basketball notches a close victory against Lafayette

But some of his tricks he couldn’t take on alone. Before the DAC was renovated, there wasn’t a lot of room between the scorer’s table and the sideline, so players would motion over to Clawson from the bench. His wife, Kathleen, would sit behind him in the stands and help.

“She would yell out to him, ‘Hey, Dave, sub, coming in,’ in just kind of that pitch that only a husband could hear,” recalled Britt Faulstick, who worked alongside Clawson doing the score book, starting in 2003. “I wouldn’t pick up on this, but he would hear it every time. And she was kind of like another member of the team — an uncredited member of the team. But she was there for every game.”

Clawson’s relationships that began at Drexel grew beyond the doors of the DAC. Scanlan recalled reaching out to him for business advice and bonding with the Clawsons about their shared passion for Disney. When Scanlan was debating going to Jefferson University — where Clawson worked when he wasn’t behind the scorer’s table — for another bachelor’s degree, she confided in Clawson.

“He was just a great mentor to me,” Scanlan said. “... I just can’t say enough good things about him.”

» READ MORE: Credit a brotherhood (and inspiration from the WWE) for the rise of Drexel wrestler Mickey O’Malley

Before the men’s and women’s basketball games following Clawson’s death, there was a moment of silence to honor the man who loved Drexel but was loved back even more.

“When they did the moment of silence for him,” Sweeney said, “I couldn’t help but look over at the scoreboard operator spot and just feel that huge loss.

“It’s such a huge loss not only to the Drexel family but really to this world because he was a genuinely wonderful guy, wonderful human being, and a great person to have in my Drexel family. He will definitely be missed.”