Dave Hobrecht’s improbable journey from teenage surfer and baseball player to University of Southern California (U.S.C.) graduate, world-renowned black-and-white charcoal artist, and co-author of The All-Time Dodgers Art Book is what Hollywood biopics are made of.
Excited to start his final summer before high school and after graduating from eighth grade a few days prior, then-13-year-old Hobrecht could never have imagined that a beautiful Huntington Beach, California, day in June 1984 was nearly his last.
Legally crossing a busy street near his home with a skateboard in tow and three lanes of traffic stopped, the future part-time teacher and full-time artist began his journey through the crosswalk.
“A car in the fourth lane did not stop and struck me,” Hobrecht recalled. “My head hit the windshield, both of my legs were shattered, my knees were ripped off, my pelvis was cracked, I suffered internal bleeding, and I lost two weeks of memory.
“The doctors at the hospital told my parents to start making arrangements because I was not expected to live.”
Unable to walk and stuck in a hospital bed for a month, the wheelchair-bound teen occupied his time (and unknowingly began his art career) drawing with pencil and paper. He has not stopped since.

After miraculously walking again following strenuous physical therapy, Hobrecht returned to America’s national past time while attending Huntington Beach High School. Frustrated with his slow speed on the base paths, Hobrecht concentrated more on studying than playing baseball.
Although still enamored with art, Hobrecht eventually graduated from the prestigious Marshall School of Business at U.S.C. and worked for his parents’ steel manufacturing company.
Unable to shake his passion for drawing, the self-taught artist quit the family business, worked as a cartoonist at Surfer Magazine, painted visuals on baseball cards for Topps, began painting pieces for famous athletes such as the late Bill Walton and Oscar De La Hoya, and eventually opened his own art gallery in Laguna Beach, California.
Decades after the near-fatal accident, former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti walked into Hobrecht’s art gallery one day and asked him to create a custom piece for him.
After delivering the finished painting, Hobrecht and Colletti spent three years co-authoring The All-Time Dodgers Art Book.
Released in September 2023, the 13-chapter tome features Colletti’s choice of the all-time Dodger players, manager, team, broadcaster, and six all-time moments, as well as Hobrecht’s 80 original black-and-white charcoal paintings.
Baseball fans have the unique opportunity to re-live or learn about Dodgers history through Colletti’s 18 essays and more than 30 player reviews and marvel at Hobrecht’s exquisite works of art.
“Ned and I did one chapter at a time,” said the married father of four and part-time rendering teacher at Laguna College of Art and Design.
“Ned would send me an unedited rough draft, and I would start the designing. Every painting needed to have a distinctive look, angle, background, and timeline from Ebbets Field to the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium.”
As he was unable to alter the original drafts due to his use of charcoal and pastels, some of Hobrecht’s paintings took more than one month to complete.
“If I messed up, I couldn’t go back and change anything,” he recalled.
Hobrecht, who one day hopes to craft paintings for Sandy Koufax and Michael Jordan, has signed on to produce his next book in collaboration with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and legendary Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser.
Never one to focus on the past, the renowned artist eagerly anticipates the painstaking process of creating brand-new black-and-white works of art.
PHOTO: Hobrecht
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