Raoul Martial "Rod" Dedeaux was an American college baseball coach who compiled what is widely recognized as among the greatest records of any coach in the sport's amateur history. Dedeaux was the head baseball coach at the University of Southern California for 45 seasons. During this tenure, Dedeaux's teams won 11 national titles, including an unprecedented five straight titles from 1970?74, and 28 conference championships. He was named Coach of the Year six times by the Collegiate Baseball Coaches Association and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1970. He was named "Coach of the Century" by Collegiate Baseball magazine. In 2006, Dedeaux was one of the 10 initial inductees to the College Baseball Hall of Fame. [More at Wikipedia]

February 17th, 1914 in New Orleans  /  Died:   Jan 5th, 2006 - at age 91, complications from a stroke