Legendary Rice coach Wayne Graham (Rice Athletics)
Legendary former Rice head baseball coach Wayne Graham, some of the adorned coaches within the historical past of faculty baseball, handed away at 88 this week.
“Coach Graham was the best baseball coach on any degree of baseball,” Former Rice assistant and Texas head coach David Pierce instructed D1Baseball. “He influenced, guided, and inspired coaches and gamers to be their very best. He was a baseball lifer, and he might be missed.”
Graham, over the course of his profession, did top-of-the-line teaching jobs this sport has ever seen. Most followers on the Division I Baseball degree know Coach Graham for what he achieved at Rice. However what he achieved at San Jacinto (TX) CC within the junior school ranks can also be exceptional.
The Yoakum, Texas, native started his teaching profession at Scarborough Excessive Faculty in Houston earlier than heading to Spring Department Excessive Faculty for a season. That yr would change the trajectory of his life and profession eternally. The subsequent yr, 1981, he was the pinnacle coach at San Jacinto.
It took time for San Jac to achieve its footing, however this system lastly did so in 1984. Graham’s program proceeded to rattle off seven straight 50-plus win seasons, together with 5 NJCAA nationwide championships in six seasons. Really exceptional.
That success led one hometown program, Rice, to purpose for his providers. Earlier than his arrival, it’s secure to say the Owls weren’t precisely a baseball juggernaut. They performed their video games at Cameron Discipline, which, on the time, was a glorified highschool stadium and simply the worst facility within the convention. This system additionally hadn’t made an NCAA event look and had simply seven profitable seasons in 78 years. It was the hardest of robust jobs.
Graham didn’t care concerning the challenges. In the event you knew Coach Graham in any respect, that shouldn’t shock you.
It took Graham a while to get the Owls on a roll. They received 29 video games in his first season in 1992, 36 in yr two, and 34 in yr three- no NCAA event appearances, nevertheless. However all the pieces modified for the Owls, and Graham, when this system lastly made the NCAA tourney in 1995 with a 43-19 total file.
That marketing campaign would change Rice Baseball for many years, and switch Graham right into a legend on the Division I degree.
Graham went on to win 1,173 video games as the pinnacle coach of the Owls, led this system to a whopping 23-straight NCAA event appearances, all seven of this system’s Faculty World Collection appearances, and reached the head of our sport in 2003 by beating Stanford within the first-ever Faculty World Collection championship collection.
That yr, Graham had some of the adorned weekend rotations within the historical past of the game with Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend and Philip Humber not solely all first rounders, but in addition all chosen within the first eight picks of the MLB draft. He additionally had the consummate spark plug atop the lineup in Chris Kolkhorst.
“Coach Graham was positively an old-fashioned coach, that’s for positive,” Kolkhorst instructed D1Baseball. “He confirmed his affection by writing your identify within the lineup every day. He’ll win to win was infectious. He would make you so mad typically that you just simply rotated and took it out on the opposite crew. My appreciation for Coach Graham has grown as I’ve gotten older. I simply wish to say thanks to Coach Graham. I might all the time run by means of a wall for that man.”
Graham had a lot extra nice reminiscences with the Owls after that 2003 marketing campaign. His tenure with this system went one other 15 seasons.
As soon as his profession at Rice was over, Graham moved to Austin to observe the profession of certainly one of his long-time assistants at Rice, David Pierce. Graham was a former Texas Longhorns baseball participant himself. And with Pierce, his pal, the pinnacle man for the Longhorns, he needed to remain concerned in school baseball anyway he may — as a sounding board for Pierce, and as a frequent customer to UT practices and video games. You’d usually see Coach Graham holding courtroom at UFCU Disch-Falk Discipline. I final noticed Coach Graham throughout final yr’s Orange-White collection in Austin. Proper on model, he was dissecting among the Longhorns’ arms.
“Lots of people influenced me as a participant and coach. None greater than my dad, father-in-law, dad and Coach Graham,” Pierce stated. “His final objective was to create development and improvement with all of his gamers and coaches. He was a person of integrity and character with a love for baseball, gamers and profitable.
“I beloved working for Coach Graham. Belief me, there was by no means a boring second and loads of challenges. However Coach G was actually one of the best.”
Baseball was life for Coach Graham, and his profession, for my cash, will go down as top-of-the-line jobs ever accomplished, together with Augie Garrido, Skip Bertman and Pat Casey, amongst others.
As hard-nosed and demanding Graham was on the sphere, he had a a lot softer exterior off the sphere.
Graham and his character are certainly one of a number of the reason why I completely loved protecting school baseball at a youthful age. We had a unbelievable relationship over time — a lot that after I’d cowl a recreation at Reckling Park again in Rice’s prime, I might block out an additional 30-45 minutes than ordinary as a result of I knew Coach Graham would wish to discuss store.
Coach Graham beloved to inform me about his dad. He additionally beloved telling me how he was so outdated that he performed for Casey Stengel. He instructed me loads of Stengel tales, but when I’m being trustworthy, a few of them are somewhat fuzzy in the meanwhile. Maybe most ironic about our relationship is that after video games, we’d seldom discuss concerning the recreation or his crew for 20-Half-hour. As an alternative, he would flip away from me, peruse scores on the D1Baseball scoreboard (which was then owned by Rice graduate Jeremy Mills) on his laptop monitor, and, after about 5 minutes, need my tackle the Aggies, Longhorns, and loads of different groups round school baseball.
Then … we might discuss concerning the Owls. The person actually beloved school baseball. Even along with his standing within the sport, he needed to take in any data he probably may.
One thing else I do know properly about Coach Graham was the love for his spouse, Tanya. If the Owls have been taking part in a recreation, Graham’s finest good friend and spouse Tanya was within the constructing. One time after Rice had simply performed Mark Appel and Stanford, Graham and myself have been thawing out (it was frigid that day) in his workplace speaking about Appel’s fastball and the sport, amongst different matters. An hour or so had handed and Graham received a cellphone name from his spouse. First, she needed to know the place he was. It had been properly over an hour. Second, he stated they’d plans that night time.
Graham, me involved, stated: “On that word, I higher get house. I’m going to be in hassle.”
I may go all day with Coach Graham tales, however you get an thought of who he was as a coach and individual.
Wayne Graham was robust on his gamers. He was demanding to his coaches. However he knew the components to win on the highest ranges doable in baseball, and deviating from that norm was not in his DNA.
“I’m grateful and in debt to Coach Graham for a lot in my life,” UTSA head coach and former Rice assistant Pat Hallmark instructed D1Baseball. “By way of making essentially the most out of a ballplayer and crew, he’s the best school baseball coach ever. His aggressive will was second to none. It was an honor and a privilege to play and coach for him.”
He was top-of-the-line to ever do it, and I’ll miss seeing him on the ballpark.
His indelible marks on our sport is not going to be forgotten.
