Eugene Franklin Shell (April 16, 1930 – October 8, 2020) was an 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 tea ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach. He played

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 ...

and

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at Northeastern State and Southwestern Oklahoma State. He then served as the head baseball coach of the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane The Golden Hurricane are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tulsa. These teams are referred to as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (or variously as TU or Tulsa). Before adopting the name Golden Hurricane in 1922, the University of Tu ...

from 1966 to 1980, leading the Golden Hurricane to a second-place finish in the 1969 College World Series. He also was the head baseball coach of the Southwestern Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (1985–1987).

Early life

Shell attended Central High School and Webster High School in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

Coaching career

Shell was head baseball coach at

Edison Preparatory School Thomas Edison Preparatory School is a Public school (government funded), public school located in midtown Tulsa, Oklahoma serving students from the 6th grade to the 12th grade. Overview The school was recently ranked by ''Newsweek'' as the #467 ...

, Webster High School and

Claremore High School Claremore High School is a public high school located in Claremore, Oklahoma. Administration As of 25 June 2023, Kenneth Hindenburg is the principal. Other faculty include: *Darren Grisham, assistant principal - JR./SR. *Brook Lee, assistant pri ...

, where he won five state championships. In 1965, Shell was hired to be an assistant football coach for

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. He was asked to be an assistant basketball coach as well before he was offered the position of head baseball coach. Shell died on October 8, 2020.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shell, Gene 1930 births 2020 deaths Northeastern State RiverHawks men's basketball players Northeastern State RiverHawks baseball players Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs men's basketball players Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs baseball players High school football coaches in Oklahoma Tulsa Golden Hurricane baseball coaches Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball coaches Tulsa Golden Hurricane football coaches Sportspeople from Oklahoma Baseball coaches from Oklahoma Baseball players from Oklahoma Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball coaches Central High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni Webster High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni