While the Duke baseball team has been roughly as successful as the Nebraska basketball team during the last 40 years or so, for a time they were a bit of a Southeastern powerhouse.  The Blue Devils baseballers made it all the way to Omaha and the College World Series on three different occasions in the 1950s and ’60s.  In what can only be described as the oddest of coincidences, in both 1953 and 1961, the Blue Devils made it to the CWS along with the seldom-seen nines from Northern Colorado and Boston College.  In both appearances, the Blue Devils lost to a Big 8 team (Texas in 1953, by a score of 1-2; Oklahoma State in 1961, by a score of 2-3), then beat Northern Colorado in their second game at each Series, but then lost to and were eliminated by Boston College in their third and last game, each time by 1 run and both times in extra innings.  Strange, but true. 

The beautiful little gem of a ballpark on the Duke campus is known as Jack Coombs Field, named after the most successful coach in Duke history, Jack Coombs.  Over the span of 22 years, Coombs compiled a record of 382-171 at Duke from 1929-1951. 

Jack Coombs

You have all heard of John “Colby Jack” Coombs, a star (but not Hall of Famer) pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1906 to 1914, and then with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1915 to 1920.  He compiled a remarkable 31-9 record for the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics, notching 13 shutouts, and then won Games 2 and 5 for the A’s in their 4-1 World Series defeat of the Chicago Cubs.  The following year he was 28-12, and won Game 3 of the World Series against John McGraw’s Giants, a 4-2 Series win for Connie Mack’s Athletics.  After a 21-10 season in 1912, Coombs became ill with typhoid fever which caused him to go from 180 to 126 pounds, and he only started in two games in 1913 and then two games in 1914 before being traded away to the Dodgers. 

Colby Jack was born in LaGrand, Iowa, a tiny farming community about fifty miles northwest of Des Moines.  When he was about 4 years old, his family moved to a farm near Kennebunkport, Maine, where he attended a prep school in Waterville, Maine.  He then entered Colby College in 1902, starring in baseball, basketball, football and track, and was the fastest sprinter in New England, running the 100-yard dash in 10.2 seconds.  He majored in chemistry at Colby College and was accepted to MIT for graduate work when Connie Mack’s brother, who lived in “Wusster,” Mass, signed him to a big league contract in 1905.  As a senior, Colby Jack led his school to a 14-3 record, including a 6-0 win over rival Bowdoin (Max Bridges’ alma mater) for the Maine championship.  His Major League debut on July 5, 1906, was memorable as he pitched a 7-hit shutout to defeat the Washington Senators. 

After his Major League career was over, Coombs found his niche as a college baseball coach, first at Williams (head coach, 1921-24), then at Princeton (pitching coach, 1925-28), and finally at Duke for 22 years as head coach.  As Duke’s coach, the Blue Devils earned 7 North Carolina State Collegiate championships, 5 Southern Conference championships, and earned the title of “Mr. College Baseball.”  Twenty-one of his players made the Major Leagues, including Dick Groat (starting shortstop for the 1964 Cardinals) and his nephew, Raymond Franklin “Bobby” Coombs.  In a strange statistical anomaly, Bobby Coombs played only two years in the Majors, in 1933 for his Uncle’s Philadelphia Athletics (where he pitched in 21 games in relief, went 0-1 and had a 7.47 ERA) and in 1943 for the New York Giants, where he pitched in 9 games and had a 12.94 ERA.  His career mark with these teams was 0-2 with a 9.32 ERA. 

As the Duke coach, Colby Jack Coombs always wore a coat, tie and hat in the dugout, usually with a vest, despite repressive heat at times.  He was forced out by Duke in 1952 at age 70 (University policy) and moved to Palestine, Texas, where he lived until he passed away on April 15, 1957. 

Two other Duke coaches you may have heard of were Heine Manush (who coached them for a single year, 1917) and “Country” Enos Slaughter, who was the Duke coach from 1971 to 1977.  Some pretty well-known coaches. 

The only recent Major League players who played for Duke (at least ones that I have heard of) were Quinton McCracken and current ML pitcher Chris Capuano. 

In hoops, as most of you are aware, the Blue Devils have captured four National Championships, in 1991, 1992, 2001 and 2010.  Strangely enough, two of these Final Fours were in Indianapolis and the other two were in Minneapolis. 

Duke’s football program is not talked about much these days, but still has an impressive history.  The most famous Duke football season was in 1938, when Wallace Wade coached the “Iron Dukes” team that shut out all of its regular season opponents, one of only three teams in history that can claim this feat.  That same year, Duke made its first Rose Bowl appearance, losing 7-3 when USC scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game. 

In one of the best sports trivia questions of all-time, the only Rose Bowl game ever played outside of California took place at Duke’s home stadium (now known as Wallace Wade Field) in 1942, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the concern that a large gathering on the West Coast might be in range of Japanese aircraft carriers.  Unfortunately, even with the home field advantage, the Duke Gridironers lost to Oregon State in that game. 

Duke’s football team won the ACC championship game in 1989, when they were coached by Steve Spurrier.  They have not had a winning football season since 1994. 

And finally, a bit of Duke political trivia:  Former President Richard Nixon attended Duke Law School, finishing 2nd in his class.  However, demonstrating the paranoia that would later result in Watergate and its aftermath, Nixon was so concerned about how he had done on his final exams as a freshman that he broke into the office through the ceiling to check out his scores.  Caught, and suspended briefly, he was allowed to return and finished 2nd in his class, as aforementioned.