DURHAM, N.C. - USA Baseball mourns the loss of three-time national team coach Jack Stallings, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 87. He was the hitting coach for Team USA at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games and also played for the United States in the first-ever Pan American Games in 1951.
Stallings played an integral part in the creation of USA Baseball in the 1970s, along with Ron Fraser (Miami), Rod Dedeaux (USC), Dutch Fehring (Stanford) and Hal Smeltzly (Florida Southern), who passed away earlier this week. During this time, he served as a coach for the 1970 and 1973 national teams. Stallings was also an administrator for the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, where Team USA won a gold medal, and the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.
"Coach Stallings was not only one of the founding fathers of USA Baseball, but he was perhaps the greatest ambassador for international baseball," said USA Baseball President Mike Gaski. "Jack traveled throughout the world giving baseball clinics to coaches and players in Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America, and over the years invited and hosted many of these same baseball people to his university to train and to study the game.
"Jack was a dear friend to so many because, as the consummate teacher, he never hesitated to share his knowledge or his time. One of the all-time winningest coaches in college baseball, Jack will be remembered not only for how many games he won, but for the impact that he had on the lives of so many players and coaches both here in the United States and throughout the world."
Stallings was the head baseball coach at Wake Forest for nine years, Florida State for six years and Georgia Southern for 24 years before retiring in 1999. He led Florida State to a second place finish at the 1970 College World Series He currently ranks 28th in college baseball coaches' all-time wins list with 1,259.