Wayne Leon Graham was born on April 6,1936 and is the former head coach of the Rice Owls baseball team in Houston, Texas.
21 Facts About Wayne Graham
2.
Wayne Graham has coached one College World Series championship team and five NJCAA World Series championship teams.
3.
Also a former professional baseball player, Graham played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets.
4.
Wayne Graham was the batboy for the 1945 semi-pro Finger Furniture baseball team coached by his father.
5.
Wayne Graham attended Reagan High School in Houston and played college baseball at the University of Texas, where he played two seasons under coach Bibb Falk.
6.
Wayne Graham was signed by the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1957.
7.
Wayne Graham played eleven years in pro ball, with the Phillies and Mets organizations.
8.
Wayne Graham was named Texas minor league player of the year in 1962 after hitting.
9.
Wayne Graham received two brief MLB call-ups in the early 1960s.
10.
Wayne Graham then appeared in twenty games for the 1964 New York Mets under the tutelage of legendary skipper Casey Stengel.
11.
When his playing career ended, Wayne Graham returned to the University of Texas to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education in 1970, and he later added a master's degree in education at the University of Houston in 1973.
12.
Wayne Graham's coaching career began at Scarborough High School in Houston.
13.
Wayne Graham coached for nine seasons at Scarborough and one year at Spring Branch High School before moving on to coach junior college baseball at San Jacinto College in Houston.
14.
Those five national titles in six years eventually led to Wayne Graham being named Junior College Coach of the Century by Collegiate Baseball.
15.
Wayne Graham inherited a program that had tallied only seven winning seasons in 78 years of Southwest Conference play and had only finished above fourth place once.
16.
Wayne Graham's crowning achievement was the 2003 College World Series, in which Rice won its first national championship in any sport in its 91-year history.
17.
Wayne Graham has more than 1,600 wins as a collegiate head coach.
18.
Wayne Graham was largely responsible for Rice's on-campus baseball stadium, Reckling Park, being built in 2000.
19.
In 2004, Wayne Graham presided over history, as three Rice pitchers were drafted in the first eight picks of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft, the only time three teammates have ever been selected in the first round.
20.
Eight of those players have been pitchers, and Wayne Graham is known for developing players that went undrafted out of high school, such as Niemann and Townsend.
21.
Wayne Graham never had a losing season as a high school or college coach until his final season at Rice, 2018.