USD Baseball 1998

Coach ohn Connin ham

The 1998 season will be Head Coach John Cunningham's 35th and final year at the helm of the Univer- sity of San Diego base- ba 11 program . Cunningham , an American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Farner, has led the Toreros to 16 win- ning seasons includ- ing two World Series

appearances. Last season , Cunningham recorded his 800th victory, an 11-2 win over Brigham Young on March 18, and ranks in the top forty in all-time victories by Division I coaches . A native San Diegan, Cunningham attended St. Augustine High School and then went onto college at the University of San Francisco. A basketball and baseball standout, Cunningham also made the President's Honor Roll six times at USF as well as achieving membership in Alpha Sigma Nu , the Na- tional Jesuit Honor Society. As a basketball player, he was named All-Conference and listed as Honorable Mention on the Catholic All-American lists. As a senior in 1959, he was named USF's Athlete Of The Year. In 1960, he took part in the U.S. Olympic Basketball Team Trials and was a member of the All-Army bas- ketball team. After a tour in the armed forces and a brief stretch in the Baltimore Orioles organization, Cunningham was hired by former USO athletic director Phil Woolpert (and Cunningham's collegiate coach) in 1962 as an assistant basketball coach. He took over the baseball coaching duties in 1964 for Mike Morrow. Over a span of 34 years, Cunningham's teams have won thirty or more games seven times (71 , 78, 79, 80, 81 , 87, 93) with four of his squads advancing to postseason play.. His 1971 and 1978 squads won regional titles and advanced to the Division II College World Series. He was named District VIII Coach Of the Year in 1971 . In 1979, the Toreros moved into the Division I ranks and in his first year at that level , Cunningham guided the Toreros to a 32-19-1 record and fourth place finish in the Southern California Baseball Association . In 1985, USO joined the West Coast Conference and over the past 13 years in the league, Cunningham has won 314 games and has more overall victories (814) than all of the other seven coaches combined. In 1993, he was named WCC --4--