22 Facts About Rod Dedeaux

Raoul Martial "Rod" Dedeaux was an American college baseball coach who compiled what is widely recognized as among the greatest records of any coach in the sport's amateur history.

Rod Dedeaux's teams won 11 national titles, including a record five straight, and 28 conference championships.

Rod Dedeaux was named Coach of the Year six times by the Collegiate Baseball Coaches Association and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1970.

Rod Dedeaux was named "Coach of the Century" by Collegiate Baseball magazine and was one of ten initial inductees to the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Rod Dedeaux played baseball at the University of Southern California for three seasons.

Rod Dedeaux then played professional baseball briefly in 1935, appearing in two games as a shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers late in the season.

Rod Dedeaux then turned to coaching in the semi-pro and amateur ranks.

Rod Dedeaux invested $500 to start a trucking firm, Dart Enterprises, which he built into a successful regional business.

When his college coach, Sam Barry, entered the US Navy during World War II, he recommended Rod Dedeaux to take over the team in 1942 for the war's duration.

At USC, Rod Dedeaux coached dozens of future major leaguers, including Ron Fairly, Don Buford, Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, Roy Smalley, Fred Lynn, Steve Kemp, Mark McGwire, and Randy Johnson.

Rod Dedeaux turned down numerous offers of major league coaching positions, including invitations from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda to join his staff, always rejecting them due to his preference for the college game and his desire to remain close to his family.

Rod Dedeaux was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 1970, and in 1999 was named the Coach of the Century by Collegiate Baseball magazine.

USC played its home games at Bovard Field through 1973, and Rod Dedeaux became known as "The Houdini of Bovard" for the come-from-behind home-field wins by the Trojans.

Rod Dedeaux was the head coach of the United States baseball teams at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where baseball was contested both times as a demonstration sport.

Rod Dedeaux served as the baseball coach and consultant for actors and ballplayers on the 1989 film Field of Dreams.

Rod Dedeaux coached at USC for many years, and is a wonderful man, very full of life, energetic, very supportive, just really was very giving of himself and cheerful all the time, was a great spirit to have around.

Rod Dedeaux was the starting shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Rod Dedeaux played one game, broke his back and that was the end of his career.

Rod Dedeaux sent more people to the majors than, I think, anyboby else in college history.

Rod Dedeaux died in early 2006 at age 91 at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, of complications from a stroke five weeks earlier.

Rod Dedeaux was inducted in the inaugural class of the Omaha College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013, and a statue of him was unveiled at Rod Dedeaux Field on the USC campus in 2014.

Rod Dedeaux was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2005.