The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Requiem, A Celebration of Augie
03.15.2018 | Baseball
Augie Garrido will be remembered for so much more than just baseball.
By Bill Little
The last time I saw Augie Garrido, he was excited about meeting with Chris Del Conte, the new Texas Athletics Director, to talk about how he could help Texas.
It was a role he cherished; a chance, as Darrell Royal once said, that defined what it means to be a Texas Longhorn.
That was why, when word came this week, about a stroke that would take our Longhorn Legend's life – at least for the moment, there seemed something left so hollow. It was, in some ways, a life unfinished. And yet in other ways, no person could have ever changed so many lives, given us all so many thrills, and touched so many hearts. If ever there was a definition of "a life well lived," it would be Augie's.
When he was working on a speech for over 6,000 baseball coaches just a month ago, we researched moments in memory that defined what he taught, and the messages he left. Most of all, I remember a quote I found for him from Babe Ruth.
"I never worry about a strikeout," the Babe had said, "Because it brings me one pitch closer to a home run."
That was the life of Augie Garrido.
In the summer of 1996, when it became necessary for Texas to part ways with Cliff Gustafson, it was my job (on behalf of UT Men's Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds and Associate Athletics Director Butch Worley) to call baseball coaches around the country for recommendations of candidates to fill the challenging job of replacing the man who, at the time, was the winningest coach in college baseball.
My first call was to Augie.
"You know what has happened here," I said. "I have been asked to call some of you and ask for suggestions for candidates who might fill the job."
"What are you looking for?" Augie asked.
"We are looking for the best baseball coach in the country," I replied.
"Well," he began as he started mentioning some of the hottest coaching prospects in America.
I stopped him in mid sentence.
"Let me ask you this," I said. "Is the best baseball coach in America interested?"
He paused for a moment, and replied,
"If you are talking about me, I would have to say that if it is good for The University, if it is good for the Gustafsons, and it is good for me…then I would have to say yes."
And that is where it began. Worley, who was heading the search for Texas, and Dodds, moved swiftly as they arranged a meeting with Augie in Dallas. The rest is history.
And what a grand history it would become.
Augie Garrido was the brightest light in college baseball. His 1995 Cal State Fullerton team had won the National Championship, and would be recognized as one of the best college baseball teams of all time. He had played at Fresno State, and coached Cal State Fullerton to three national championships by 1996.
No one had a better pedigree, and no one was better prepared to carry on the proud tradition of Longhorn Baseball.
With his life partner, Jeannie Grass, Augie came to Texas. It was, in some ways, a return to part of his roots. Although he had grown up in the valleys of California, his mother was a Texan by birth. Baseball had been his life passion. As a college player, he had been to the College World Series. In 1975, he had unseated USC and made Cal State Fullerton's first trip to the College World Series. National Championships would follow in 1979, 1984 and 1995.
By the time he met with Butch and DeLoss, he had joined Gustafson, Jim Brock of Arizona State, Skip Bertman of LSU, and the legendary Rod Dedeaux of USC as one of the true giants of the college game.
And when he came to Texas in 1997, he became part of a golden era of Longhorn sports. Soon, Dodds would hire Mack Brown as the Texas football coach, and Rick Barnes would become the Longhorns men's basketball coach. Brown would go on to become the 10th winningest coach in the history of college football, and bring the Longhorns a National Championship in 2005. Barnes would take Texas to the Final Four in 2003 for the first time since the 1940s.
And Augie would embark on one of the most successful runs in college baseball history.
Starting with the decade of the 2000s, Augie would lead Texas to the College World Series six times in a 10-year span, winning the National Championship in 2002 and 2005, and finishing as runner-up two times.
During that time, he would become the winningest coach in the history of college baseball, collecting 1,975 victories, with 824 of them coming in his 20 years at UT.
But Augie was about more than the victories, more than the championships. He became a larger-than-life figure in college sports, as well as at Texas, and in Austin. Along the way, he proved, more than anything, that a coach is a teacher, whose tutoring is more about life lessons than any base hit or squeeze play.
He taught his players that the game should be fun, and that life was about much more than victories and defeats. He taught them that sport is an image that reflects a life well lived, and that there is a heart and soul that extends far beyond any diamond or center field wall.
He and Jeannie gave us a lesson of what love could be between two people in the 21st century, and he walked among stars and common folk like you and me and treated us all the same. He was always charming, friendly, engaging and caring to anyone who crossed his path.
For his players, he will be remembered for the lessons he taught, and the wisdom he gave. It is about the lives he changed; the differences he made, not only in those who watched the games, but to those who played for him. He taught them to love, and he taught them to believe; that courage and faith in yourself could create great things, even beyond the game. It is an immeasurable gift he shared with them all – a rare and unique perspective that will be treasured by so many forever. It was, after all, never about him, it was about them.
And as we think about all that he meant to the college game, to sports in general and to The University of Texas, that is the part we shall take away. It is truly a requiem, a tribute and celebration of a life that mattered, because we mattered to him.
When Augie served as a consultant and a cameo actor in the movie his friend Kevin Costner did entitled "For Love of the Game," the title did, in many ways define him. But more than that, it is, after all, about passion, not only about the game, but about the kids who play it.
And that, in the end, is what we will remember when we think of Augie. A life that impacts others is a life well lived. That was Augie Garrido.
