Readers react to USC’s Rod Dedeaux not being on the list of top 10 coaches

Longtime USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux, right, consoles University of Texas head coach Cliff Gustafson after Dedeaux’s Trojans defeated the Longhorns 5-3 in the 1974 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Dedeaux led the USC program to 11 national championships during a celebrated 45-year run. (AP Photo/Larry Stoddard)

The world according to Jim:

• The Rod Dedeaux Fan Club has been heard of.

I asked for comment last week after I printed my list of the top 10 head coaches/managers in the history of Southern California sports. (Emphasis on Mine list.)

And I left out Dedeaux, the longtime USC baseball coach who won 11 national championships (though the first, in 1948, was with SC basketball coaching legend Sam Barry as co-baseball coach). Dedeaux’s teams won 1,332 games and had a career winning percentage of .699, and he coached for 45 years before retiring in 1986 at age 72. He won six Coach of the Year awards as voted on by his fellow coaches, was one of the 10 initial inductees into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, and coached in two different Olympic Games, 1964 in Tokyo and 1984 in LA, both when baseball was a demonstration sport. …

• I’m not sure if this was an organized email campaign or if many of us of a certain age independently voiced our objections. There were a lot of “how could you” responses and at least one “you’re better than that.” Fine. I didn’t expect unanimous opinions.

I haven’t forgotten about Dedeaux. I just think the 10 I picked were more worthy for different reasons, but I think we can disagree. And this is a chance to give the guy the credit he deserves. It’s not that he wasn’t worthy, it’s that — as I wrote last week — when it comes to coaches and managers, we have a deep bench in SoCal. …

• When Dedeaux and his teams dominated college baseball, it was a different landscape — one that didn’t change much until other big schools, particularly those in the Southeast, started pouring more money into baseball. The College World Series has been anchored in Omaha for so many years, but for so many years the path to a national championship ran through USC or Arizona State, and that was a compliment to what Dedeaux built here and what coaches Bobby Winkles and Jim Brock built at ASU. …

• I would also say this: Winning a championship at the pro level is harder than doing it with a college program. You can’t plan your way into the postseason in the pros, and while there may not be absolute parity (see big market vs. small market), there is less of an imbalance than in college sports.

And it’s still growing as we speak. Thanks, Fox! Thanks, ESPN! …

• That said, there have been several legendary winners at various college programs in Southern California, in addition to the ones we mentioned above. Not only Dedeaux, but also those in my top 10, John Wooden, UCLA men’s volleyball coach Al Scates, and USC soccer coaches John McKay and Pete Carroll.

There’s USC men’s swimming coach Peter Daland (nine titles), or UCLA softball coaches Sharron Backus and Sue Enquist, who combined for 11 titles (three as co-coaches, with Backus being part of eight championships and Enquist six). There’s UCLA women’s gymnastics coach Valerie Kondos Field (seven titles), Bruins women’s volleyball coach Andy Banachowski (six titles), and current U.S. Olympic women’s water polo coach Adam Krikorian, who oversaw eight women’s national championships and three men’s titles at UCLA. …

• Not all the legends have been at the big schools, either. Billie Moore won a CIAW women’s basketball national title (the precursor to the AIAW) at Cal State Fullerton—the columnist’s alma mater, to be fair—before winning another at UCLA. Augie Garrido rebuilt Fullerton’s baseball program from scratch, winning three College World Series titles on modest terms.

Also, Pepperdine’s Marv Dunphy led three teams to NCAA men’s volleyball titles, Brian Gimmillaro won three national championships with Long Beach State women’s volleyball, and most recently Alan Knipe won back-to-back men’s volleyball titles at Long Beach. And John Speraw, who most recently won the NCAA men’s championship at UCLA and will coach the men’s Olympic team in Paris, won three titles at UC Irvine before winning two at his alma mater. …

• We also can’t let this go without acknowledging the professional coaches/managers who were a part of it. Bill Sharman led the Lakers to LA’s first title in 1972 and a professional record of 33 straight wins that still stands, literally losing most of his voice in the process. Mike Scioscia led the Angels to a World Series championship in 2002 and sparked a decade of success in Anaheim, as hard as that is to believe given the state the franchise is in today. Randy Carlyle led the Ducks to California’s first Stanley Cup title in 2007. Bruce Arena won three MLS Cups with the Galaxy and, not coincidentally, teamed up stars David Beckham and Landon Donovan. …

• And then there’s the Rams’ Sean McVay, who’s been to the Super Bowl twice and won one in seven seasons. I could see him landing in the top 10 of the list in a few years. …