USD Baseball 1992

HallofFame

Page 8

CUNNINGHAM INDUCTED INTO ABCA HALL OF FAME January 1991 Head Coach John Cunningham ,along with five othercoaches, was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in early January. This is the highest honor the ABCA awards and coach Cunningham joins a most prestigious group of baseball greats. The formal induction came on January 5, 1991, at the Hall of Fame-Coach of the Year Banquet in New Orleans. He now joins 142 other amateur baseball coaching greats in the ABCA Hall of Fame. Members of the associaton - other coaches - vote on who to add to the Hall of Fame each year. "That's what's really special, getting recognition from peers," says Cunningham, who has coached at USO since 1964 and enters the 1991 season with 624 career victories. "People like me don't usually get this kind of recognition,· he adds. "It's usually the people with the gaudy records that do." Cunningham has been an active member in the ABCA for 27 continuous years. Besides his 27 years of coaching USO, Cunningham also coached 14 years in the California Collegiate Baseball League where he won over 300 games and 6 cham- pionships. Cunningham's USO teams have won thirty or more games six times and four of his teams have gone to post-season playoffs. Two of those four became regional champions and College World Series participants. His 1971 team won the regional tide while setting the school record of 34 wins - for that performance Cunningham was named District VIII ·coach of the Year." Nine of his players have been named All-American and two were selected to represent the United States in interna- tional competition. Among the more prominent players Cunningham has sent into professional ball are John Wathan, an All-America selec- tion in 1970, who is now the manager of the Kansas City Royals and outfielder Kerry Dineen, a two-time All-American at USO who played in the Yankees organization. One of the reasons Cunningham has stayed on at USO for so long is his philosophy of academics and athletics falls perfectly in line with the university's. He is a firm believer that academics and athletics are not incompatible and that student-athletes can do both and do both well. Approximately 90.0 percent of his student-athletes that stay in the program for four years graduate on time - and many of them are now lawyers, doctors and businessmen. He has done so much for the school, that in January of 1988, the university honored him with an elegant dinner party, invited 400 of his closest friends - many being ex-players of his - and then announced that it was renaming the baseball field after him:CUNNINGHAM BASEBALL STADIUM.John Cunningham is a man who has devoted his life to teaching the game of baseball, and more importantly, in helping all his players set and attain goals, and in directing and preparing them for life after college. The American Baseball Coaches Association couldn't have picked a better person for their Hall of Fame than John Cunningham. Congratulations J.C. - from all of us whose lives you have touched over the past 28 years at the University of San Diego.