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Posted by
Ray Fink
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Tue, Aug 24, 2010
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Baseball
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From a start that included a chicken wire backstop to a place in the NAIA Baseball Hall of Fame, Oklahoma Baptist University head baseball coach Bobby Cox has not stopped working.
Cox, who is in his 27th season at the helm of the Bison baseball team, was selected for inclusion and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the ABCA Rawlings-NAIA Hall of Fame and Awards Luncheon in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 7.
He will be joined in the baseball portion of the NAIA Hall by Q.V. Lowe of Auburn-Montgomery, Cary Ammons of Southeastern Oklahoma State and Jeff Allen Maack of Oklahoma City.
Among the 20 NAIA honorees going into the Hall this year are Scottie Pippen, Terry Porter and Travis Grant.
An event on the OBU campus is being planned for September and will be announced later.
With 972 career wins, Coach Cox stands 28 shy of being the first OBU coach to 1,000 wins. He is the all-time leader in coaching wins in all sports and is the only OBU baseball coach to reach the NAIA World Series, making it in 1989 and 1996. His teams have never had a losing season. He has coached 15 All-Americans and a dozen major league draftees. Cox, who was inducted into OBU's Hall of Fame in 1996, was named Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1996; District 9 Coach of the Year in 1986, 1989 and 1991; Area 3 Coach of the Year in 1989 and Great Plains Region Coach of the Year (by the region and by the American Baseball Coaches Association) in 1996.
As a player, Cox was an All-District performer for the Bison in 1979, leading his team with a .389 batting average while driving in a team-high 33 RBI in 34 games.
But the wins and losses only tell part of the story.
"I don't know anyone more deserving I think the best compliment I could give him is that he coaches every player - whether it's the four-hole hitter in the lineup or the last guy on the bench - like he would coach his son," said long-time assistant and former Bison catcher Chris Klimas. "There are coaches who are good winners or good losers but whatever the situation, he has handled it with dignity and class and that has a lot to do with his sustained success."
Looking back, Cox counts Klimas as one of the added benefits to come his way.
"When I started out, it was just me," Cox said. "Coach Klimas is the first full-time assistant we've ever had."
The off-the-field events have included fostering player-led Bible studies, team book studies, study halls and guest speakers. Several players have made major life decisions and experienced spiritual change under Cox's tutelage.
"I think it is a great honor and well-deserved. Bobby Cox is a gentleman, who has fielded competitive baseball teams here for 27 years now. Bobby Cox stands for what the NAIA is all about."
While the World Series teams have plaques on the walls, Cox recognizes the value of the other 24 teams.
"They are all a big part of the program," said Cox. "All of those teams are part of this award. This has been a good place to work. The first time we went to the World Series in 1989 it felt like a pretty big deal. It was my fourth or fifth year and everyone bought in to what we were doing. Other teams have come really close; got to the last game. Those two seasons, '96 and '89, we were just so much better than anybody else in the league. But all of those teams over the years have made this possible."
When Cox took over the program, the team was playing on a patch of ground with a chicken wire backstop, short dugouts with a wooden plank for a bench and an old school desk or two dragged in for the scorebook.
The locker room carried the odor of sweat, analgesics and the effects of a leaky roof. A large trash barrel adorned Cox's office every spring to catch the rain and debris falling from the roof in Clark Craig Fieldhouse.
"It wasn't much to start with," Cox recalled. "I remember my dad and I got the tractor out one year and just started over. There have been a lot of good administrators over the year that helped get that old field in pretty good condition."
Now, the Bison play in one of the best parks in the NAIA with chair-back seats, good dugouts, wireless internet and a beautiful landscape just a stroll away from the Coates building with nice offices, laundry, batting cages, locker rooms with projection screens, television and very few hints of the rustic start of the Cox era.
"When I look back, from where we are now, it just blows you away," Cox said.
Hall of Fame inductions usually happen for people out of the game. Cox has yet to grasp the reality of the honor.
"It hasn't soaked in yet, but it's quite an honor," he said. "I saw a list somewhere of active winning coaches and I was fourth on that list and all the guys ahead of me are legends. It wasn't until then that I even ever thought of just how many wins that is. I'm sure I will appreciate it more and more as time passes."
The number, Cox said, is made more special by the location.
"To be able to do it in one place is more important to me," he said. "I remember senior year, talking to Bob Hoffman about coaching and wanting to come back here to see if we could get it done. And we did. That's pretty special to me."
The coach is also quick to point out that he's not quite finished yet.
"We've got a few more wins in us," Cox said. "We've still got a ways to go."
Cox, who is in his 27th season at the helm of the Bison baseball team, was selected for inclusion and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the ABCA Rawlings-NAIA Hall of Fame and Awards Luncheon in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 7.
He will be joined in the baseball portion of the NAIA Hall by Q.V. Lowe of Auburn-Montgomery, Cary Ammons of Southeastern Oklahoma State and Jeff Allen Maack of Oklahoma City.
Among the 20 NAIA honorees going into the Hall this year are Scottie Pippen, Terry Porter and Travis Grant.
An event on the OBU campus is being planned for September and will be announced later.
With 972 career wins, Coach Cox stands 28 shy of being the first OBU coach to 1,000 wins. He is the all-time leader in coaching wins in all sports and is the only OBU baseball coach to reach the NAIA World Series, making it in 1989 and 1996. His teams have never had a losing season. He has coached 15 All-Americans and a dozen major league draftees. Cox, who was inducted into OBU's Hall of Fame in 1996, was named Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1996; District 9 Coach of the Year in 1986, 1989 and 1991; Area 3 Coach of the Year in 1989 and Great Plains Region Coach of the Year (by the region and by the American Baseball Coaches Association) in 1996.
As a player, Cox was an All-District performer for the Bison in 1979, leading his team with a .389 batting average while driving in a team-high 33 RBI in 34 games.
But the wins and losses only tell part of the story.
"I don't know anyone more deserving I think the best compliment I could give him is that he coaches every player - whether it's the four-hole hitter in the lineup or the last guy on the bench - like he would coach his son," said long-time assistant and former Bison catcher Chris Klimas. "There are coaches who are good winners or good losers but whatever the situation, he has handled it with dignity and class and that has a lot to do with his sustained success."
Looking back, Cox counts Klimas as one of the added benefits to come his way.
"When I started out, it was just me," Cox said. "Coach Klimas is the first full-time assistant we've ever had."
The off-the-field events have included fostering player-led Bible studies, team book studies, study halls and guest speakers. Several players have made major life decisions and experienced spiritual change under Cox's tutelage.
"I think it is a great honor and well-deserved. Bobby Cox is a gentleman, who has fielded competitive baseball teams here for 27 years now. Bobby Cox stands for what the NAIA is all about."
While the World Series teams have plaques on the walls, Cox recognizes the value of the other 24 teams.
"They are all a big part of the program," said Cox. "All of those teams are part of this award. This has been a good place to work. The first time we went to the World Series in 1989 it felt like a pretty big deal. It was my fourth or fifth year and everyone bought in to what we were doing. Other teams have come really close; got to the last game. Those two seasons, '96 and '89, we were just so much better than anybody else in the league. But all of those teams over the years have made this possible."
When Cox took over the program, the team was playing on a patch of ground with a chicken wire backstop, short dugouts with a wooden plank for a bench and an old school desk or two dragged in for the scorebook.
The locker room carried the odor of sweat, analgesics and the effects of a leaky roof. A large trash barrel adorned Cox's office every spring to catch the rain and debris falling from the roof in Clark Craig Fieldhouse.
"It wasn't much to start with," Cox recalled. "I remember my dad and I got the tractor out one year and just started over. There have been a lot of good administrators over the year that helped get that old field in pretty good condition."
Now, the Bison play in one of the best parks in the NAIA with chair-back seats, good dugouts, wireless internet and a beautiful landscape just a stroll away from the Coates building with nice offices, laundry, batting cages, locker rooms with projection screens, television and very few hints of the rustic start of the Cox era.
"When I look back, from where we are now, it just blows you away," Cox said.
Hall of Fame inductions usually happen for people out of the game. Cox has yet to grasp the reality of the honor.
"It hasn't soaked in yet, but it's quite an honor," he said. "I saw a list somewhere of active winning coaches and I was fourth on that list and all the guys ahead of me are legends. It wasn't until then that I even ever thought of just how many wins that is. I'm sure I will appreciate it more and more as time passes."
The number, Cox said, is made more special by the location.
"To be able to do it in one place is more important to me," he said. "I remember senior year, talking to Bob Hoffman about coaching and wanting to come back here to see if we could get it done. And we did. That's pretty special to me."
The coach is also quick to point out that he's not quite finished yet.
"We've got a few more wins in us," Cox said. "We've still got a ways to go."