Head Coach Augie Garrido- University Of Texas- Photo Courtesy of Donald J Boyles
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
For college baseball’s greatest resume, words cannot quite express the magnitude of success enjoyed by Longhorn baseball coach Augie Garrido. The numbers, however, sum it all up pretty well.
Over 40 seasons, five decades and five programs, Garrido has amassed 1,668 wins, the most all-time for a Division I head coach. He has won five national titles with two different schools, earning national coach of the year honors in each championship season and six years overall.
On Nov. 7, college baseball’s winningest coach will add another accolade to his collection after he is inducted into the Longhorn Men’s Hall of Honor.
“I think all of these things are mainly about other people,” Garrido said of the honor. “The people you work with, the coaches, the players … they’re probably the ones that got me in. It’s always about other people and our job is about who we become as a result of the people that we work with.”
It has certainly been a road littered with success for the coach from Vallejo, Calif. His first 25 seasons in the head coaching profession – aside from three years at Illinois – were spent in his native Golden State. After brief but successful stints at San Francisco State and Cal Poly, Garrido arrived at Cal State Fullerton in 1975. He built the Titans into a national powerhouse and brought three NCAA titles back to Fullerton, beating Texas in Omaha for the 1984 championship.
In 1997, Garrido left Fullerton and faced the enormous challenge of taking over the reins in Austin.
“We had played and learned a lot from the University of Texas while at Fullerton,” Garrido said of his move from the west coast. “It appeared that they were asking me to give back to the program that helped me. It kind of seemed like a circle that was supposed to happen.”
The previous Longhorn coach, 1983 Hall of Honor inductee Cliff Gustafson, retired as the NCAA all-time wins leader. Garrido would surpass his legendary predecessor and close friend in 2003 during the Super Regional in Tallahassee, Fla., where the Longhorns defeated top-ranked Florida State to advance to the College World Series.
“We shared a lot of things professionally,” Garrido said of his relationship with Gustafson. “One of the hardest things to do in all of sport is to follow a legend, and of course Coach Gustafson was truly that.”
In 2002, just his sixth year at the helm of the Texas program, Garrido became the third Longhorn coach to bring home a national title to the 40 acres, joining Gustafson and Bibb Falk.
Garrido’s upbringing played a major role in shaping his interests and providing motivation. The son of migrant fruit workers, he worked many undesirable jobs during his youth.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a long time, but I knew what I didn’t want to do,” Garrido recalls. “I didn’t want to work on the shipyard where my dad worked.”
After serving in the Army following high school, Garrido attended Fresno State to play baseball, the university where his name currently adorns the outfield wall of the baseball field. Despite playing in the minor leagues for a few years, it was during his time in college when he realized his calling.
“In those days, the major league players like me were making $10,000 a year,”
Garrido said. “I didn’t want to do that. So I went to school to be a coach. When I played baseball, I knew I wanted to be a coach.”
Needless to say, Garrido made the right decision. But what has made the coach so successful? Garrido ascribes it to his ability to communicate with and relate to his players.
“I think that it’s because I care about their problems; they interest me,” Garrido said of the players he has tutored over the years. “I think you give unconditionally of what you know, who you are and on a day-to-day basis, try to bring into focus for each person involved their own potential.”
Garrido admits that some things have changed in college baseball: player attitudes, coaching philosophies and administrative structures. But despite his long career as a coach, Garrido denies that the basics of the game have altered.
“The game doesn’t change,” Garrido said. “People like to think it does. Every little detail matters and no one can control the intangibles or the luck factor.”
Whether the game has changed or not, one thing has remained constant over the years. Regardless of time or place, Garrido is a winner, and the game’s most impressive resume continues to be bolstered.
