Ron Dahms, at 6' 11", was a native of San Diego and played at Madison High School. He attended Oregon State for two years and then transferred to USF. At 6' 11", he was at that point, one of the tallest men ever to play for USF, and became a very noteworthy figure in Northern California sporting circles when he led a near upset over USC with 25 points and 27 rebounds his first season. Displaying fine outside shooting highlighted by a deadly hook, Dahms was a tremendous asset to the 1970-1971 Dons until sidelined due to a serious knee injury. That injury has lingered on into this year leaving Dahms as a doubtful candidate for long stints of playing time. Last season, "Slim" as he is called by his teammates, was honored as the Northern California Player of the Week for his performance against USC. His brother Tom is a defensive line coach for the Oakland Raider football team.
The biggest challenge for the Dons will be replacing 6-9 pivot man Pete Cross, currently the starting center for the Seattle Supersonics. That job has fallen on the lanky shoulders of 6-11 soph Ron Dahms, a redshirt who transferred from Oregon State two years ago. Dahms is flanked by 6-7 John Burks and 6-5 Ron Centerwall, both regulars last year. Burks averaged 13.7 ppg last year as a soph, becoming the third all-time soph scorer for USF (behind Bill Russell and Ollie Johnson). The muscular Center- wall tallied at a 10.2 clip (TheFoghorn).
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