Baseball coach Augie Garrido to become special assistant to Texas AD

By Steve Lansdale

AUSTIN, Texas — Augie Garrido, who has won more games than any other coach in the history of college baseball, has stepped down as the University of Texas baseball head coach and has accepted a position as special assistant to the athletics director, men’s AD Mike Perrin announced Monday.

Garrido, who has spent the last 20 of his 48 seasons as a college baseball coach at Texas, walks away with[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] 1,975 career victories — more than anyone else in the history of the sport. He also is the first to win baseball national championships at two universities (Cal State Fullerton and Texas), and joins basketball coach Rick Pitino and football coaches Nick Saban and Urban Meyer as the only coaches in football, basketball or baseball to pull off the feat.

“I owe everyone at The University of Texas a million heartfelt ‘thank you’s,’” Garrido said. “I came here to serve and I am so proud to be able to continue to serve the university in my new role as special Assistant to Mike Perrin.”

Garrido has won national championships in four different decades and is one of only three coaches to win five or more NCAA titles (his teams won in 1979, 1984, 1995, 2002 and 2005). His teams reached the College World Series 15 times, advanced to the NCAA Regional 33 times, won 16 NCAA Regional Tournament titles and 25 conference championships. He was named National Coach of the Year six times: in 1975, 1979, 1984, 1995, 2002 and 2005.

“Augie has long been among the best coaches in college athletics, an exceptional developer of young men, great leader and tremendous representative of our University,” Perrin added. “I have deep appreciation, admiration and gratitude for all that he has accomplished in his 20 years leading our baseball program. From the two national championships he brought to Texas, to the many thrilling College World Series performances, Big 12 titles and becoming the all-time winningest coach in college baseball history, he has a vast list of success stories, but none greater than the positive impact he has made on the countless numbers of student-athletes he has coached. We are so grateful for all he has given and everything he’s done for Longhorn baseball, Texas athletics and our great university.

“Augie has left an indelible mark on Texas athletics and will forever be remembered as a true icon of college baseball, much like the legendary Longhorn coaches of the past 100-plus years: Billy Disch, Bibb Falk and Cliff Gustafson. He’s a man who, for two decades, shared with Texas his gift for building championship teams, enhancing student-athletes’ lives both on and off the field and winning with style, class and grace. He is a Hall of Famer in the game of baseball, a great man and a true Longhorn legend.”

Garrido led UT to the College World Series eight times, winning the school’s fifth national championship in 2002 and the sixth in 2005. He also delivered seven Big 12 conference championships and five titles in the league’s conference tournament. Six times in his 20 seasons at Texas, the Longhorns won at least 50 games, including 58 in 2004. His final record at Texas was 824-427-2 (for a winning percentage of .658), including a 25-32 mark in 2016.

Individual players piled up the accolades under Garrido. Three of his Texas players won the Golden Spikes Award, four were named National Player of the Year and six were named College World Series Most Valuable Player. Fifty-three players were chosen as All-Americans (a total of 66 times), 14 were named the MVP of their conference and 15 were selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. He produced 25 Freshman All-America players, 161 all-conference players, 11 players who were named to the USA Baseball National Team and 102 players who ended up playing professional baseball.

A 2005 inductee in both the Texas Hall of Fame and the Titan (Cal State Fullerton) Hall of Fame, a 2008 addition to the Longhorn Hall of Honor and an assistant coach on Team USA in 1990, Garrido was inducted in 2013 into the Omaha College Baseball Hall of Fame and a year later was enshrined in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Earlier this month, he received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, and will be inducted in July into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.

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