Dick Cooke in a former American

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

coach, who served primarily as the head coach of the

Davidson Wildcats baseball : ''For information on all Davidson College sports, see Davidson Wildcats'' The Davidson Wildcats baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, United States. The team is a member of the ...

program. He was named to that position prior to the

1991 season File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, 1991 Russian presidential election, elected as Russia's first President of Russia, president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated ...

, and is the winningest and longest-serving baseball coach in school history.

Playing career

Cooke played at

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, earning three varsity letters as a left-handed pitcher. After graduating with a degree in journalism in 1978, he spent three years in the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

organization at class-A, appearing in 85 games with a 2.95 ERA.

Coaching career

A few years after ending his playing career, Cooke accepted a position as assistant coach at Richmond, where he remained for five seasons. He departed to become assistant athletic director and head baseball coach at Belmont Abbey in 1989, where he re-instituted the baseball program that had been discontinued at the varsity level 17 years earlier. After two years with the Crusaders, he accepted the head coaching position at Davidson. In his time with the Wildcats, ten players have been selected in the

Major League Baseball Draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

. Cooke has also worked with

USA Baseball USA Baseball is the national governing body for organized baseball in the United States, and is a member of the United States Olympic Committee and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The organization selects and trains the World Basebal ...

, serving as an auxiliary coach at the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

and

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. In the summer of 2012, Cooke was named chairman of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee. Just a month later, the car Cooke was driving was struck by another vehicle, leaving him with serious head injuries. After the 2013 season, Cooke was honored with the CollegeBaseballInsider.com's Tom Walter Inspiration Award. Cooke resigned following the 2018 season.

Head coaching record

The table below lists Cooke's record as a head coach at the Division I level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Dick Living people Baseball players from New Jersey Belmont Abbey Crusaders baseball coaches Davidson Wildcats baseball coaches Sportspeople from Point Pleasant, New Jersey Richmond Spiders baseball coaches Richmond Spiders baseball players Winston-Salem Red Sox players Winter Haven Red Sox players 1956 births

Playing career

Coaching career

Head coaching record

See also

References