DENVER – As a young Derrick Clark pondered his basketball future, he got a call from a fiery young coach at Division III California Lutheran.
 
Acting on a recommendation from Clark's junior college coach, Brian Katz, Mike Dunlap was ready to give Clark a chance to continue playing.
 
"I think some things are just meant to be," Clark said. "We were meant to cross each other's paths. It was unlikely, because I was probably an hour away from saying, 'I'm not playing again.' I had this injury, I rehabbed, got hurt again, and in the back of your mind you're thinking, 'Man, this isn't going to happen.'
 
"And if I was healthy and I'd gone somewhere else, I don't think things would have ended up the way they have."
 
Clark became an all-conference player for Dunlap and eventually played professionally in Australia.
 
"I had never seen him play, and it wound up being the greatest gift we ever had," Dunlap said. "He was a consummate player. He could score, defend, rebound and could play different positions. He was very prideful.
 
"That's the big thing that stood out about Derrick – he did everything the right way."
 
Dunlap wound up becoming the head coach at MSU Denver in 1997, and Clark was settling into a 9-to-5 job when, again, he got a call.
 
"He called at just the right time," Clark said. "He said, 'You should come out and try coaching.' And it's not that it was my dream to be a coach, but I just wanted to be around the game. You miss it. It's such a big part of my life, and it's led me to some places that I couldn't believe."
 
Said Dunlap: "I called and asked if he would be interested in coming to Metro State and we would groom him and take it from there. We had a special relationship. He took me up on it, and he came and stayed for almost two years in our house because we didn't have the money at Metro State (to have multiple full-time assistants).
 
"He lived on bread and water for a couple of years before he got bumped up."
 
From there, Clark helped build MSU Denver's Division II national championship teams of 2000 and 2002, becoming a full-time assistant in the process. In 2005, he moved into the Division I ranks as an assistant under Jeff Bzdelik, first at Air Force and then at Colorado.
 
Then, when the MSU Denver head coaching position became available in 2010, Clark took over the program and led back to post-season glory while compiling a seven-year record of 173-50 (.776 winning percentage), with three regional championships, two national semifinals, and one trip to the national championship game. He was named the Division II National Coach of the Year for 2012-13 by the Division II Bulletin, was twice named the region coach of the year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was twice the RMAC Coach of the Year.
 
"If I wore 10 ½ shoes, Derrick filled them and made them size 14s," Dunlap said. "I had great pride in those that followed. And I can't say enough about (former athletic director) Joan McDermott and her leadership as well. But Derrick had weight in his wagon in trying to keep it up there, and he pushed it right to the top. He's a very special human."
 
Now Clark is set to stand next to Dunlap and other Roadrunners legends as he is inducted into the MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Clark and one of his top players, Mitch McCarron, plus Luke Kendall and Mark Worthington, whom he coached as an assistant, will all be inducted in an April 20 ceremony along with the 2010-11 MSU Denver women's basketball team that won a regional championship.
 
The ceremony will take place at the Tivoli Turnhalle on the MSU Denver campus. Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for kids 12 and under. The evening starts with a 6 p.m. social, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. 
 
"My goal was never the Hall of Fame," Clark said. "My goal when I first got here was, 'Don't embarrass yourself. Learn how to coach. Do it the right way. And earn respect that way.' When you're a first-time head coach, you don't know what you don't know. You have all these ideas. … Trying to take bits and pieces from everyone can drive you crazy.
 
"The hardest part about being a head coach in the beginning is figuring out who you are. I didn't want to embarrass myself or my family that first year. I wanted to prove that I knew what I was doing, but it took a while. Fast-forward it to now, going into the Hall of Fame, and it's pretty special.
 
"It's a nod to your family, my wife who is the engine that makes everything go. No one gets to this point by themselves. Hopefully my family can have some pride in what 'we' accomplished here."
 
Clark's first two teams showed that he certainly knew what he was doing – they were 22-8 in 2010-11 and then went 25-7 the following season, winning the Central Region title.
 
The next two years, though, were at another level – 32-3 overall and 20-2 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play in 2012-13, then 32-2 and 22-0 the following season. The 2012-13 reached the national championship game, and the 2013-14 team reached the national semifinals.
 
"I got to coach some tremendous guys," Clark said. "None of us are John Wooden, where our Xs and Os just dominate. It's about players at the end of the day. I was fortunate to be around some great players whose contributions have legacy status here. I had players like that. And it's not just the guys who are going into the Hall of Fame. … It's all those other guys, too. That's what it's about for me.
 
"I had tremendous (coaching) staffs, too," Clark said. "Nobody gets here by themselves."

Said Dunlap: "I'm so proud of all of them going into the Hall of Fame, but in particular Derrick. He earned every bit of it. He kept Metro State elite. He's as good a coach as I've ever been around."

Success on the court was just a starting point for Clark.
 
"It's always bigger than just your single agenda," Clark said. "If you're just the basketball coach, then you're missing the point. You're part of the community.
 
"This university changes lives. It has changed lives, and it continues to change lives. What I loved about our guys being in this environment, is that you can have a 40-year-old mom who's working two jobs and just trying to get her degree, and our guys are in classes with her. They've seen people who are changing the legacies of their families.
 
"That's what MSU Denver is about. It's being accessible to people that need this opportunity, and it's at an economic price. MSU Denver gives people the opportunity to change their lives. All you have to do is buckle down and work hard."