Jack Leggett
Jack Leggett (born March 5, 1954) is a retired American head college baseball coach. He was recently the head coach of the Clemson Tigers from 1994 to 2015.[1] Under Leggett, the Tigers reached the College World Series six times.[2] As of the end of the 2012 season, he had a career record of 1,224–694–1, with seven conference tournament titles and 23 NCAA tournament appearances.
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 5, 1954 Bangor, Maine, U.S. |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1978–1982 | Vermont |
| 1983–1991 | Western Carolina |
| 1992–1993 | Clemson (assistant) |
| 1994–2015 | Clemson |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 1,332–770–1 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 1985 Southern Conference 1986 Southern Conference 1987 Southern Conference 1988 Southern Conference 1989 Southern Conference 1994 Atlantic Coast Conference 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference | |
| Awards | |
| 1994 ACC Coach-of-the-Year 1995 ACC Coach-of-the-Year 2006 ACC Coach-of-the-Year | |
He was named Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Coach of the year in 1994, 1995 and 2006.[3] In 1994, his team won 57 games, a record for the second most single-season wins in ACC history (behind the record 60 wins set by the 1991 Clemson team).
Coaching career
Leggett served as head coach for five years at Vermont and nine years at Western Carolina. He became the head coach at Vermont prior to the 1978 season. After coaching the Vermont club baseball team in 1977, Leggett had brought the program back to varsity status, after it had been cut following the 1971 season.[4][5][6] He set a program record for wins (22) in 1981, and Vermont appeared in consecutive ECAC New England Division I Tournaments in 1981 and 1982.[7] In 1981, Leggett managed the Falmouth Commodores, a collegiate summer baseball team in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League.
At Western Carolina, he had 302 career wins and led the Catamounts to five NCAA tournaments (1985–89), and five Southern Conference titles. Under his guidance, the Catamounts averaged 33 wins a season during his time in Cullowhee, N.C. He is the only person to be the head coach at both NCAA Division I schools nicknamed the Catamounts (Vermont and Western Carolina).
Leggett was inducted into the Western Carolina University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 [8] and the Vermont Principals Association Hall of Fame in 2009.[9] In 2014, Leggett was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.[10] Leggett was a member of the 2015 class of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.
The son of former University of Vermont swim coach Les Leggett, he grew up in South Burlington, Vermont and was a three-sport athlete at South Burlington High School, winning state titles in baseball and football. He attended the University of Maine where he earned all-conference honors in both football (defensive back, kicker) and baseball (infielder), captaining the Black Bears in 1976 when they advanced to the College World Series. In football, he holds the Maine record for longest field goal, a 52-yarder.[11]
Head coaching record
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vermont Catamounts (Eastern College Athletic Conference) (1978–1982) | |||||||||
| 1978 | Vermont | 11–9 | |||||||
| 1979 | Vermont | 12–11 | |||||||
| 1980 | Vermont | 12–16 | |||||||
| 1981 | Vermont | 22–15 | ECAC Tournament | ||||||
| 1982 | Vermont | 18–10 | ECAC Tournament | ||||||
| Vermont: | 75–61 | ||||||||
| Western Carolina Catamounts (Southern Conference) (1983–1991) | |||||||||
| 1983 | Western Carolina | 25–20 | 9–5 | 3rd | |||||
| 1984 | Western Carolina | 37–20 | 13–3 | 1st (South) | SoCon tournament | ||||
| 1985 | Western Carolina | 37–35 | 11–6 | 2nd (South) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1986 | Western Carolina | 33–28 | 12–5 | 1st (South) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1987 | Western Carolina | 36–20 | 13–3 | 1st (South) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1988 | Western Carolina | 38–24 | 14–3 | 1st (South) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1989 | Western Carolina | 23–31 | 10–5 | 1st | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1990 | Western Carolina | 37–25 | 10–7 | T–2nd | SoCon tournament | ||||
| 1991 | Western Carolina | 36–26 | 11–3 | 2nd | SoCon tournament | ||||
| Western Carolina: | 302–229 | 103–40 | |||||||
| Clemson Tigers (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1994–present) | |||||||||
| 1994 | Clemson | 57–18 | 20–4 | 1st | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1995 | Clemson | 54–14 | 20–4 | 1st | College World Series | ||||
| 1996 | Clemson | 51–17 | 17–7 | 2nd | College World Series | ||||
| 1997 | Clemson | 41–23 | 13–10 | 4th | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1998 | Clemson | 43–16 | 14–9 | T–2nd | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 1999 | Clemson | 42–27 | 13–10 | 4th | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2000 | Clemson | 51–18 | 17–7 | 2nd | College World Series | ||||
| 2001 | Clemson | 41–22 | 17–7 | 2nd | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2002 | Clemson | 54–17 | 16–8 | 4th | College World Series | ||||
| 2003 | Clemson | 39–22 | 15–9 | T–3rd | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2004 | Clemson | 39–26 | 14–10 | T–4th | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2005 | Clemson | 43–23 | 21–9 | 2nd | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2006 | Clemson | 53–16 | 24–6 | 1st (Atlantic) | College World Series | ||||
| 2007 | Clemson | 41–23 | 18–12 | 2nd (Atlantic) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2008 | Clemson | 31–27–1 | 11–18–1 | 4th (Atlantic) | |||||
| 2009 | Clemson | 44–22 | 19–11 | 2nd (Atlantic) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2010 | Clemson | 45–25 | 18–12 | T–1st (Atlantic) | College World Series | ||||
| 2011 | Clemson | 43–20 | 17–13 | 2nd (Atlantic) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2012 | Clemson | 35–28 | 16–14 | 3rd (Atlantic) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2013 | Clemson | 40–22 | 18–12 | 3rd (Atlantic) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2014 | Clemson | 36–25 | 15–14 | T–2nd (Atlantic) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2015 | Clemson | 32–29 | 16–13 | T–3rd (Atlantic) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| Clemson: | 955–480–1 | 369–219–1 | |||||||
| Total: | 1,332–770–1 | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
See also
References
- "#7 Jack Leggett". ClemsonTigers.com. Clemson Sports Information. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- "2011 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Record Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 17, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- "2006 Clemson Regional". CollegeBaseballInsider.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- McGranahan, Ed (February 22, 2008). "Baseball a Way of Life for Leggett". WLTX.com. The Greenville News. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- "Vermont Board Votes Thursday on Future of Football Program". The Day. New London, Connecticut, USA. Associated Press. November 15, 1974. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
The trustees eliminated intercollegiate baseball a few years ago, citing a lack of attendance at games as a reason.
- Bufano, Shane (May 10, 2010). "Where Have All the Catamounts Gone?". VermontScoreboard.com. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
- "Meet Vermont's Coaching Staff." 1982 ECAC New England Division I baseball tournament Press Release. "Leggett took a team that was missing four of its top six hitters from the 1981 record-setting tournament team and took them to its second consecutive tournament appearance. ... Leggett has a career mark of 73-59 (.553) going into this weekend's playoffs in Pawtucket, including last year's 22-15 mark, the most wins in the 86-year history of Vermont baseball."
- Western Carolina Announces 2001 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees :: Jack Leggett, Brett Miller, Bruce Peterson and Karen Sanders Peterson To Be Honored
- VPA Hall of Fame Inductees
- "Leggett to Be Inducted into ABCA Hall of Fame". CollegeBaseballInsider.com. January 15, 2013. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
- Suttles, Aaron (June 11, 2010). "Clemson Coach a College Legend". TuscaloosaNews.com. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved January 16, 2013.