Larry Cochell is a former American professional coach in

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

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 ...

. He coached baseball for the

Emporia State Hornets The Emporia State Hornets are the athletic teams that represent Emporia State University (ESU). The women's basketball and softball teams use the name Lady Hornets. The university's athletic program fields 15 varsity teams in 11 sports all of who ...

(then known as Kansas State Teachers College), the

Creighton Bluejays The Creighton Bluejays, or Jays, are the athletic teams that represent Creighton University, a Jesuit/Catholic University in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. They compete in NCAA Division I in the Big East Conference. Sports sponsored Baseba ...

, the Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles, the

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are the sixteen college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oral Roberts University, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Golden Eagles compete at the National Collegiate Athle ...

, the

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...

, the

Cal State Fullerton Titans The Cal State Fullerton Titans (also known as CSUF or Fullerton Titans) are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Fullerton. The Titans are a member of the NCAA Division I level. The Titans compete within the Big West C ...

, and the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

Career

He took three programs to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

, doing so with Oral Roberts in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, Cal State Fullerton

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, and Oklahoma in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, being the first coach to do so (with

Ron Polk Ronald George Polk (born January 12, 1944) is an American professional coach in NCAA Division I college baseball. He was a long-time head baseball coach at Mississippi State and is considered to be the "Father of Southeastern Conference Basebal ...

and

Andy Lopez Andrew Lopez (born November 30, 1953) is a retired American college baseball coach. He was most recently the head baseball coach at University of Arizona, and has served as the head baseball coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Pepperdine, and ...

doing the feat in later years). He went 8–10 in six appearances. It was with Oklahoma that he received his highest success, leading them to a

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

at the 1994 College World Series in his fifteen seasons with the club. During his time at Oklahoma, he had his two of his sons play on the team, Chad (1997–2000) and Craig (1992–1993), with the former playing 126 total games and hitting .255 for his career. He is one of 56 coaches with over 1,100 wins, having a record of 1331–813–3, 21st most.

Controversy and aftermath

On April 29, 2005, reports surfaced that he used racial remarks to describe one of his players, notably saying in an interview before an

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

telecast of the Oklahoma-

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

game that “There are honkies and white people and there are niggers and black people. Dunigan is a good black kid ... There’s no nigger in him.”, which he used to describe Oklahoma's freshman outfielder Joe Dunigan III. On May 1, 2005, he resigned, with Sunny Golloway serving as interim head coach for the rest of the season. After the resignation, he was offered positions in minor league baseball and work in Europe, but he turned them down, citing how he wanted to spend time with his family and deal with his health, particularly blockage in two of his arteries that were found around the time of his stepping down.

Head coaching record

References

Notes

External links