Jim Schlossnagle Joins Texas Baseball Coaching Legends with Opening Day Loss

The Texas Longhorns made their 2025 season debut in Arlington on Friday, kicking off the Jim Schlossnagle era in what fans hope to be a pivotal time for the program.

But Texas' matchup against Louisville didn't make for a promising start, as the Longhorns fell 4-3 after the Cardinals made a momentous comeback in the ninth inning and sealed the win in the 10th.

While the outcome was less than ideal for a veteran head coach like Schlossnagle, he isn't the only head coach to miss out on an opening day win during his first game at Texas. Former Texas baseball coaches Cliff Gustafson, Augie Garrido and David Pierce all similarly lost their first games at the helm, yet still went on to have legendary tenures with the Longhorns. In fact, no Texas head coach has won their opening game since Blair Cherry in 1943.

When Gustafson took over in 1968, the Longhorns began the season with a 2-1 loss at home to historic rival Oklahoma. The team ended up making it to the College World Series as the No. 1 ranked team in the Southwest Conference that year. Gustafson would take Texas to a record number of 17 College World Series appearances, two national titles and 22 Southwest Conference Championships between 1968-1996.

Garrido was next in line to take the reins, and Texas suffered a 9-4 loss handed over by UT Arlington on opening day in 1997. Although it took a few years for the Longhorns to return to the College World Series, Garrido made up for it by sending them to Omaha four seasons in a row from 2002-2005, winning the national title in 2002 and 2005. He spent nearly 20 years with the program before resigning and handing things off to Pierce in 2017.

Pierce joined the club on Feb. 17, 2017 when Texas faced off against Rice in Austin, falling 3-2 to enter the shortest head coaching tenure since Cherry. The Longhorns saw three College World Series appearances under Pierce, their most recent one being in 2022, and three Big 12 Conference Championship titles across eight years until he was fired in June of 2024.

Now, Schlossnagle continues the tradition, and if it's a sign of Texas' return to the College World Series this season, then Longhorn nation doesn't mind the loss.

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