Cliff Gustafson, the legendary Texas Longhorns baseball head coach and one of the most winning coaches in college baseball history, has died at the age of 91, his family has confirmed. austin american statesmanGustafsson died in his sleep Monday morning from congestive heart failure, family members said.
Gustafsson coached the Longhorns from 1968 to 1996, winning national championships in 1975 and 1983. Similarly, Texas under Gustafsson has won his 22 Southwest conference titles, and College World has made him 17 appearances in his series. Overall, Gustafsson’s 1,466 wins rank him 15th all-time among college baseball coaches (the category he led at the time of his retirement), and his . Best ever.
Gustafsson was named National Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1983 and was a member of the first class of college baseball Hall of Fame inductees in 2006. He is also a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame of the Baseball Coaches Association of America. Of Fame, Longhorn Hall of Honor. Along the way, Texas’ Gustafsson coached future major leaguers like Roger Clemens, Greg Swindell, Bert Houten, Keith Moreland and Ron Gardenhire before managing the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers. did.
Before becoming a coach, Gustafsson was a center fielder for the Longhorns in the early 1950s. He wrote a letter in 1952 and finished his college play with a . 308 batting average.
“He was very unique,” Gustafson’s daughter Jan Gustafson Shepherd told the American politician, “and the best dad ever.”