Legendary College Baseball Coach Augie Garrido Dead at 79

Augie Garrido, who won five college baseball national championships as a head coach, has died. He was 79.

Augie Garrido, the legendary college baseball coach who won five national championships during his 48-year career, died early Thursday morning. He was 79 and had been in the hospital following a stroke, according to the University of Texas athletic department. 

Garrido won three national titles as Cal State Fullerton (1979, 1984, 1995) before he was hired by Texas in 1996. At UT, Garrido won two more national championships (2002, 2005) and led the Longhorns to the College World Series eight times. He retired in 2016 as the all-time winningest coach in college baseball history with 1,975 wins). 

"This is a very, very sad day," Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte said in a statement. "We lost one of the greatest coaches of all time, a truly special Longhorn Legend and college athletics icon. There will never be another Augie Garrido. He was a once-in-a-lifetime personality whose impact on Texas Athletics, collegiate baseball and the student-athletes he coached extended far beyond the playing field. If you were fortunate enough to have spent time with Augie, or if you followed him in any way, he had a great effect on you with his brilliant combination of wisdom, wit and charm. He was just an incredible coach, molder of men and a great person. He will be missed, but the memories of him and his awesome accomplishments will carry on forever. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Jeannie, and his family."

Garrido is one of four coaches in the modern era to win Division I national championships at two different schools, men or women—he joins Urban Meyer (football, Florida and Ohio State), Nick Saban (football, LSU and Alabama) and Rick Pitino (basketball, Kentucky and Louisville). He was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.