Cradle of Coaches: The outcasted coaches

Miami University has a history of developing coaches who go on to lead teams at the highest level of their respective sport, most notably football coaches. Names such as Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, John Harbaugh and Sean McVay all walked on the same campus we do today and now have statues outside Yager Stadium. What many fail to recognize is that the Cradle of Coaches extends far beyond the statues students walk past at every home football game.

The Cradle of Coaches Association is composed of former Miami coaches and alumni who the university inducts for their coaching accomplishments. The organization has over 60 members, with many of these coaches serving long and successful tenures at extremely high levels of their sport. Here are three Miami coaches who are notable but have never got the school-wide recognition they deserve:

Walter Alston

Walter Alston was born on Dec. 1, 1911 in Venice, Ohio. His Miami career began in the fall of 1929 before he was forced to drop out because of the Great Depression and the financial hardships that came with it. He would re-enroll at Miami in the fall of 1932, marking the beginning of his stellar collegiate athletic career.

Alston played three years of baseball and basketball at Miami and was named captain of both teams during his senior year. Alston graduated in 1935 with degrees in industrial arts and physical education. He signed with the St. Louis Cardinals out of college where he only saw one career at-bat in the major leagues that ended with a strikeout.

Following a long career in the minor leagues, the latter half of which he spent as a player manager, Alston was hired to manage the Triple-A affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, called the St. Paul Saints. After five years of managing the Dodgers Triple-A affiliates and leading them to winning records in all five seasons, he was moved up to the Major League club in 1954.

In his second season, Alston led the Dodgers to their first and only World Series title during their 68 seasons in Brooklyn. He led them back to the fall classic the following year, but they fell short in a 7-game series against the New York Yankees.

In 1958, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and Alston followed. He spent the next 19 seasons as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning five more pennants and three more World Series. Alston retired following the 1976 season. In 1977, his number 24 was retired by the Dodgers and in 1983, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, making him one of only 23 managers to achieve this.

Darrell Hedric

Born in Franklin, Ohio on June 9, 1933, Darrel Hedric was a standout basketball player in high school. He was recruited to play at Miami and was a varsity letter recipient in all four years of his collegiate career. Only two years after his graduation in 1955, he returned to Miami as an assistant basketball coach — a position he would remain in until 1970 when he was promoted to head coach.

Hedric coached Miami for the next 14 seasons, leading the team to five Mid-American Conference titles and four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament appearances, including a round one 84-81 upset of the defending national champions, the Marquette Warriors (now Golden Eagles) in 1978.

Miami finished that season ranked 19th in the Associated Press (AP) final poll, which is still to this day Miami’s only time being ranked in the final basketball AP poll. Hedric is also known for being the only head coach to beat college basketball coaching legends Bob Knight of Indiana University and Dean Smith of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on their home courts.

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Throughout his career as head coach, Hedric won 216 games, which is the second most of any coach in Miami basketball history. Miami retired Hedric’s number 12 in 1997. He is now 93 years old but is still a huge part of Miami basketball, attending every home game and managing his office in Millett from 9 a.m. to noon everyday.

Ron Zook

Ron Zook was born in Ashland, Ohio in 1954 and was a multisport star in high school, playing football, basketball and running track. Zook received an offer to run track at Purdue University but decided he wanted to play football instead, so he chose to go to Miami and walk on to the football team.

By his senior season, Zook was a starter at defensive back and a co-captain of the team. He graduated in 1976 and immediately became a coach, spending two years coaching high school before bouncing around various collegiate teams as a defensive backs coach.

Zook then found his way to the NFL in 1996 with the Pittsburgh Steelers before becoming a defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. His big break in the coaching scene came in 2002 when he was hired as the head coach of the University of Florida Gators where he saw modest success over three seasons.

Following his Florida tenure, Zook was hired by the University of Illinois Fighting Illini who were coming off a terrible stretch, only winning nine games over three seasons. Despite an awful first season, Zook was able to recruit new talent, giving the Illini a top 30 class in the country.

In 2007, Zook led the Illini to its first winning record in five years including a win over No.1-ranked Ohio State on the road. After finishing the regular season with a 9-3 record, the Illini received an invite to the Rose Bowl, its first appearance in the game since 1984, where the team played the University of Southern California. This success led to Zook being named the Big Ten Conference coach of the year. Zook is still working in football and is currently at the University of Maryland as a special teams assistant.

In a school known as the Cradle of Coaches, it’s easy to overlook many of the lesser known figures. But coaches such as Alston, Hedric and Zook have all contributed to the winning culture that made the Cradle of Coaches what it is today.

swearitj@miamioh.edu