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Longtime Arizona Baseball Coach Jerry Kindall Dies

By Peggy McClain

Omaha, NE - JUNE 28: A general view of NCAA baseballs prior to game two of the College World Series Championship Series between the Arizona Wildcats and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on June 28, 2016 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Omaha, NE - JUNE 28: A general view of NCAA baseballs prior to game two of the College World Series Championship Series between the Arizona Wildcats and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on June 28, 2016 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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On Christmas Eve, the College Baseball world received the sad news that former Arizona Baseball Coach Jerry Kindall had died after suffering a stroke.

It seems we just heard Coach Kindall’s voice calling NCAA post-season baseball games. His voice was always so steady  and professional as he taught us, the viewers, aspects of the game at hand from his playing and coaching perspective.

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Jerry Kindall was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota where he earned a national title in baseball. He later played professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and his hometown Minnesota Twins.

His illustrious career eventually led him to Tucson, where he was hired to coach the Wildcats in 1973. Kindall would go on to coach for 24 seasons at Arizona!

During that time, he lead the Wildcats to three National Championships (1976, 1980, 1986), five College World Series appearances, and 12 post-season appearances. Kindall finished his career as a Wildcat with 861 wins, the winningest coach in Arizona Baseball history. He developed 43 All-Americans and coached 209 into the pros. We see one of them, Terry Francona, occasionally at Arizona Basketball games. Like his college coach, once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat.

Looking back as simply an Arizona sports fan, I remember a humble coach who quietly put Arizona Baseball on the map. Having attended high school in Tempe, we were told Arizona State was the baseball school. ASU certainly has had a load of college baseball success and national titles, but meanwhile Coach Kindall was drawing talented players to Tucson and letting his results do the talking.

In fact, the Sun Devils currently have won five national titles in baseball; Arizona is just one shy of that with four. The last two baseball titles at ASU were in 1977 and 1981. Clearly, Jerry Kindall was swinging the pendulum to Arizona. With the 2012 Arizona Baseball title run and the second place finish in 2016, the Wildcats are arguably THE baseball school in Arizona and we can thank Coach Kindall for laying the solid groundwork.

Here are some thoughts pouring in on Twitter about Coach Kindall:

https://twitter.com/chuckcecil26/status/945010098346246144

At the time I attended The University of Arizona, the team played at Wildcat Field, just east of Arizona Stadium. Years before the move to Hi Corbett Field, Arizona Athletics renamed the baseball field “Jerry Kindall Field.”The games cost fifty cents or so to attend back in the early 80s. It was fun to walk over to Wildcat Field on a spring afternoon if I didn’t have a class and catch a few hours of baseball and sun. Freshman year, little did I know I was watching the soon-to-be National Champions, led by Coach Jerry Kindall and Terry Francona, the current manager of the highly successful Cleveland Indians.

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Zona Zealots will remember Coach Jerry Kindall fondly. We thank his family for sharing him with us over the years and we send them our prayers and condolences at this difficult time.

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