How did 19 players and one coach find themselves on the losing end of a 32-0 score in Iowa City on April 1, 1989?
What chain of events had taken place in a ten-month span that created a framework of only one regular player and six others from the 1988 squad (that had a 28-man roster) to return to play baseball at Quincy College during the 1989 season?
Is there a justified explanation why a college baseball team, who compiled a record of 251-188 through the seventies and the early 1980’s, loses a season-opening 21 consecutive games in 19 days?
I was living in central Florida (Kissimmee-Saint Cloud) and began teaching at a public school in late August 1997. I also worked weekends as an instructor at a baseball academy in Sanford (an hour’s drive from Kissimmee) and was active with the Houston Astros both on and off the field. The Astros’ spring training facility and the site where their Florida State League team played was ten minutes from my home.
I had moved to Florida after coaching four years (1982-1986) of Division 1 baseball at both Saint Bonaventure University (N.Y.) and George Washington University (D.C.) Both of those colleges competed in the Atlantic Ten Conference that included West Virginia, Penn State, Duquesne, Temple, Rutgers, and several other universities.
When my Florida school year ended in late May/early June (1988), I had the opportunity to coach a selective group of mostly Division 1 college players from major universities (Baylor, Florida, Texas, Mississippi State, Texas Tech, and Toledo among others).
We worked out a couple of days in Nashville, Tennessee while awaiting the arrival of our entire roster of players before beginning 35 consecutive days on the road.
Back in west central Illinois, the Quincy College baseball team had wrapped up their 1988 campaign in the early days of May, ending with an overall record of 20-30. Head Coach Ron Clark, after four seasons, resigned from his baseball position and his job as an admissions counselor on May 25th.
A college athletic department always hopes that a coaching transition can proceed relatively quickly and smoothly. No one benefits from a lengthy delay. The longer a coaching position remains vacant and especially if all the potential players for the upcoming season are kept in the dark, the chance for a potential player exodus grows greater with each passing day.
In Nashville, all our summer team players had arrived, and we began our five-week tour. We played a couple of men’s amateur teams before heading to Millington, Tennessee to participate in a four- team tournament hosted by the 1988 Olympic Team. The United States team included Jim Abbott, Andy Benes, Tino Martinez, and Mickey Morandini along with a host of other future big leaguers.
We defeated the other two teams in opening games that allowed us to play the Olympic team in back-to-back games. Despite two convincing losses, it was a memorable experience for everyone on our team. The USA went on to beat Japan in the championship game in Seoul, South Korea later that summer. Baseball was a demonstration sport; no official medal was awarded.
We ended our tour after a seven-day stay in Ecuador. After playing a series of games there against various teams from the home country, our team flew back to Miami for one evening and then we boarded separate flights back to our homes. It was certainly a once in a lifetime baseball and cultural experience, but I was ready to get back to central Florida.
Meanwhile back in Quincy, the baseball program remained without a coach and several players were looking at other options. I don’t know exactly when individuals began to transfer, but at least five players who had been integral to the 1988 team ended up at other colleges in 1989, mostly Division 1 programs.
Most of what I know about the period when the QC baseball coaching position was vacant came from researching Quincy Herald Whig archives in early February 2024. Information was also gathered with conversations from members of my ’89 squad in February and March of 2024.
The veteran players who were planning on returning to QC and playing baseball for the Hawks in the ’89 season, potential freshmen and junior college recruits, and any walk-on athletes were left in the dark after the completion of the 1988 season. They received little if any information about the coaching vacancy. Some didn’t even know that Ron Clark was no longer the coach.
If there was an attempt to fill the coaching opening in a timely fashion it was a lackluster effort at best. Quickly, the baseball program was pushed to the back of the line and a ‘no hurry, take your time’ mentality was in place.
Joe Nardi was my freshman third baseman on the ’89 team and a four-year performer for the Hawks. Joe (Brookfield, Illinois) had an excellent career at QC and remembered his first visit to the college.
“Coach, when I graduated high school, I had visited Illinois State and Lewis and intended to visit Evansville and Quincy. However, I visited Quincy in late June with my dad and never went to U of E. I had sent out my high school stats to all four schools and received a letter back and a photo of the baseball stadium but can’t recall if it was from Coach Clark or something canned. I absolutely had no idea Coach Clark had left or the state of the program.”
“I had to look up faculty members. The professor who gave us the tour was also the head women’s tennis coach. He walked us around campus, and we saw the stadium (which I thought was the coolest thing). He said the baseball team had struggled over the past few years and might be a good fit for me, giving me a chance to play. That was good enough for me.”
Joe continued, “The first I heard there was no coach was at the very first workout when school started. Note: The workouts were set up and run by one of the returning seniors, who had been an everyday player in past seasons, but had decided he was not going to play his final year.
“Coach Hanks (Athletic Director Sherrill Hanks) had addressed the team at QC Stadium at the advent of the fall semester (late August) and said they were still searching for a coach. The version I remember is Coach Clark had left unexpectedly and that was it. There were a good number of players at the initial meeting. I presume most were returning players. They were shocked. The next practice it seemed like all those guys were gone. It seemed like it was 10-12 players.”
Nardi stated, “The only person we ever heard about being interviewed during the fall was Al Oliver and we saw him getting walked around campus. Nobody ever updated us about anything that fall, and I don’t recall ever being addressed again by the administration, not until you were named as coach.”
I never knew Al Oliver, the former Pittsburgh Pirate, had been a candidate until several years ago. I’m lucky the final decision didn’t come down to a home run derby contest. Oliver was a seven-time major league all-star.
Many of the players who did not show up again after that first meeting were players who were on the 1988 team and returned to QC in 1989. Most of them were prepared to play again, even though they received nothing but silence during the summer months.
Some of them had been two-sport guys in ’88 combining baseball with basketball or football. There had been at least five two-sport players in 1988. Only two of the five continued playing two sports in 1989. The others chose not to participate in baseball again.
There were many experienced baseball-only players who simply decided not to play another season, discouraged by the fact no coach had been hired during the summer months and now the spring semester had resumed, and the position was still vacant. The students were back on campus and these young men saw for themselves and correctly surmised that several college officials had no interest in the future of the baseball program.
Nearly four months had passed since the head coaching position became vacant and if there had been an authentic exploration to hire a legitimate baseball coach with a proven background, it was certainly an ill-advised and lethargic endeavor.
Working on this project, I talked to the only senior on our 1989 club, catcher Bud Mcginnes. Bud played four seasons at QC and was a hard-nosed player and an excellent defensive catcher with a strong arm and the ability to work with our entire staff, many who had no previous college experience on the mound. He was an on-field leader by example and well-respected by all his teammates.
My first question to Bud was the most obvious, “Why did you stay, especially when Pete (twin brother) transferred to Bradley?” Bradley University is in Peoria, Illinois, the hometown of the Mcginnes brothers.
Bud stated, “I was only a year from my sports management degree. I had a lot of good friends at QC, and I really loved the school. Bradley had a very good catcher coming back and I wondered how much time I would see behind the plate. Plus, I really thought more players from the ’88 team would come back and play.”
After my summer travels, I was back in Kissimmee-Saint Cloud which meant there was a ton of mail to inspect. I just made two piles, one for junk and another for bills and any other correspondence that needed a reply. I had a subscription to the NCAA News, a newspaper that had articles about recent changes in the NCAA and anything pertinent in the college sports world. It also contained a few pages on job openings in various sports and on the back cover there was an advertisement that read something like:
Quincy College Athletic Department
Quincy, Illinois
Full- time, Division 2 Baseball Coaching Position
Contact Quincy College Athletic Department
It listed an address and phone number. It may have also listed the athletic director, Sherrill Hanks’ name.
I had been to Illinois only once. That instance was a flight into Chicago, a connecting site for another flight. Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, and other midwestern states were uncharted territories for me.
I sent my resume.
It was more of a reflex action than any legitimate interest in the position. I didn’t even update my curriculum vitae with my recent coaching sojourn or any other pertinent information.
Quincy never crossed my mind again until I received an acknowledgement about three weeks later that they had received my resume. It was simply a form letter, and now it was early August. If they still didn’t have a head coach yet, well, that would be puzzling, but I had zero enthusiasm in finding an answer to their mysterious hiring practice.
I disregarded that letter quickly because I had finally decided on purchasing my first house, not only in Florida but ever. My uncle and I went house- hunting in the Saint Cloud area and in two weeks I had found the perfect house and location for me. It was a 15-minute drive from school, ten minutes from the Houston Astros complex and less than an hour drive to Sanford, and my instructional work. It was a good feeling to know that I had finally made a commitment to living in central Florida.
While I was settling in, QC baseball was not. The students were back from summer break and no baseball coach was in sight. Now there were two more issues that were very apparent. There had been no recruiting done for the ’89 season. No high-profile player from either high school or junior college had been recruited. Not one.
Secondly, fall practice consisted of a couple of seniors conducting some workouts. That was probably better than the potential team sitting on their hands, but not much.
As a college coach, I always loved fall practice. The northeastern fall weather was much better than the bitter early spring cold temperatures. The fall was a perfect teaching and evaluation time without a lot of game performance concerns. It provided an opportunity to see what the team that took the field in the spring might look like. It also gave the freshman another academic advisor- someone else to make sure the young guys got off to a good start.
The QC fall roster numbered 18 at that time with eight freshmen, seven sophomores with only four of them seeing any quality time the previous year, two juniors (one who never played baseball in college) and one senior, Bud Mcginnes.
September turned to October and October turned to Thanksgiving and still no coach. Thanksgiving came and went. The players had no idea what was happening. Some may have thought there would be no Quincy College baseball season.
Days without a baseball coach at Quincy College now totaled 189- One-hundred and eighty-nine days without a baseball coach.
I was teaching during the afternoon of December 2nd when the main office notified me that I had a phone call.
“Jim, this is Sherrill Hanks, athletic director at Quincy College. We’d like to fly you in for an interview as soon as possible. If you are interested, let us know and we’ll make the arrangements.”
My first thought, but left unspoken, was, ‘You still don’t have a baseball coach?’
I told him I’d get back to him the next day.
My parents, who wintered in Florida, thought it was simply foolish to go out there for an interview. My friends, in and outside the game of baseball, thought it was a waste of time. I basically agreed with all of them.
I flew out of Orlando to Quincy, Illinois on December 6th.
1990 photo, left to right- Elvis Turkovich, pitcher and infielder on the 1989 team. Paul Littleton, volunteer assistant coach on the '90 squad and Eric Shogren, centerfielder on the '90 team.
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