Jack Dusty Rhodes (born 1946) is a retired American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

coach and the former head coach of the University of North Florida Ospreys

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 ...

team. He was the first coach in UNF baseball history, having founded the program in the 1980s and serving as head coach from 1988–2010. UNF's baseball field, officially

Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium, generally known as Harmon Stadium, is the baseball stadium at the University of North Florida (UNF), and the home field of the North Florida Ospreys baseball team. It is located on the university's campus i ...

, is named in his honor.

Life

Dusty Rhodes started his coaching career in the minor leagues, working in the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one o ...

and

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The Brewers are named for the city's association wi ...

organizations. He then shifted to

, coaching at

Palm Beach Junior College Palm Beach State College is a public college in Lake Worth, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. Palm Beach State College enrolls nearly 27,000 students in over 100 programs of study including bachelor of applied science, associa ...

. He was hired by UNF in 1986 to start up the school's first baseball program. As the coach at UNF, he saw the program through its days in the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stud ...

(NAIA),

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

, and finally

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

. While in the NAIA he led UNF to three Number 1 rankings in NAIA and the Number 1 ranking in NCAA Division II in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. He coached the Ospreys to two NAIA World Series, and three Division II World Series, with a second place finish in the team's final year of Division II competition. In 2005, UNF's first season of Division I play, he led the Ospreys to a 34-21 record. In 2008, the Ospreys defeated four in-state opponents (the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as th ...

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdiv ...

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

, and South Florida Bulls). In 2004, Rhodes was the coach of the Greek national baseball team for the 2004 Athens Olympics. The team finished in 7th, with one win over Italy. He has also worked with the USA national team as an assistant. He also operated a baseball camp each year that takes place at Harmon Stadium. Rhodes announced his retirement after the 2010 season. That summer he married his longtime girlfriend, a UNF employee. He was succeeded as head baseball coach by

Smoke Laval Raymond Peter "Smoke" Laval (born December 20, 1955) is an American college baseball coach who was the head coach of the University of North Florida Ospreys. He is a former head coach of the Louisiana State University Tigers and the University of ...

. In 2010 UNF named its baseball field

after Rhodes. After retiring from college coaching, Rhodes served as the hitting coach for the

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, a town on the outskirts of Appleton in the Fox Cities, and are na ...

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganiza ...

single-A affiliate of the

from 2011 to 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, Dusty 1946 births Baseball coaches from Florida Florida Atlantic University alumni Florida Gators baseball coaches Florida Southern College alumni Florida Southern Moccasins baseball coaches Living people Minor league baseball coaches North Florida Ospreys baseball coaches Palm Beach State College alumni Palm Beach State Panthers baseball coaches Sportspeople from Jacksonville, Florida