Grambling's Jones and Southern's Goodwin heads to College Baseball Hall of Fame

The late GSU Coach 'Prez' Jones
(Courtesy Grambling State Athletics)

GRAMBLING, LA -- Grambling State’s former president Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones along with six others will be inducted as members of the 2011 College Baseball Hall of Fame class and will be honored during the induction ceremony on July 3 in Lubbock, Texas, as part of the College Baseball Foundation’s annual celebration of the greatest players in the past and present of college baseball.

President Jones coached at Grambling State from 1926-77. During his tenure, he won six titles in the now-defunct Midwest Athletic League from 1952 to 1958 and five titles in the Southwestern Athletic Conference from 1961 to 1967. He was named NAIA Coach of the Year in 1967. Jones coached 11 NAIA All-Americans including Tommie Agee and Ralph Garr, while compiling a career record of 816-218.

Jones, who served as the university’s president from 1936-77 was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in 1992 and in May of this year, had the distinction of having GSU’s baseball stadium named in his honor.

Grambling Fight Song
Fight for dear old grambling
Fight we're gonna win
Light the torch of victory
We will win this game...RAH RAH RAH
Fight for dear old grambling
Fight we're gonna win
There's no doubt that we are
The pride of the USA



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Goodwin and Jones becomes first inductees from HBCU's

The two HBCU inductees will be former Southern University standout Danny Goodwin (1972-75), who had a .394 career batting average with 20 home runs and 166 RBIs and was the 1975 Sporting News Player of the Year while Southern transitioned from NAIA to NCAA status.

He is joined by former Grambling State head coach Ralph Waldo Emerson “Prez” Jones, who coached the Tigers from 1926 to 1977 and was the school’s president from 1936 to 1977. Jones led Grambling to six Midwest Athletic League and five Southwestern Athletic Conference titles.

“This really means a lot because I didn’t come from a well-known baseball school, at least nationally,” Goodwin said.

“This gives schools like Southern an opportunity to let the nation know there are some quality young men playing baseball. I don’t know if many people understand the real history of baseball or how revered baseball is in the black community at large.”

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The legend of Danny Goodwin

Danny Goodwin, a catcher at Southern University from 1972 to 1975, still has the distinction of being the only player to twice be the overall No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball draft. He was a three-time All-American — twice at the NAIA level and once at the NCAA level — and was The Sporting News’ 1975 College Player of the Year. He had a .394 career batting average and compiled 20 home runs and 166 RBIs.

Danny Glover
(Courtesy SU Athletics)

Danny Goodwin is hardly a household name, but he remains the only ballplayer to be taken with the first overall pick on two different occasions. In spite of being the most heavily desired amateur player in two separate and distinct drafts, Goodwin never became the star that most talent evaluators had anticipated. Such is the crapshoot that comes with any player who is drafted, no matter how high he is taken and no matter the accompanying level of hype.

In the late 1960s, Goodwin began developing a legendary reputation as a high school ballplayer in Peoria, Illinois. An athletic but powerfully built, left-handed hitting catcher who carried 195 pounds on a 6-foot-1 frame, Goodwin flashed the kind of strength that left fans—and teammates—in awe.

Playing in a game for Central High School in late April of 1971, Goodwin delivered the signature moment of his amateur career. Leading off the game, he blasted a gargantuan home run to right-center field, the ball clearing a hill and a driveway before it hit the second deck of a swimming pool that lay well beyond the ballpark’s boundaries. To observers of the blast, the home run not only had stunning length, but remarkable height and hang time. By the time the ball touched down against the pool structure, it had traveled over 400 feet, an unfathomable distance for a high school player swinging a wood bat.

No one happened to film or videotape the Goodwin monstrosity, but the epic home run was not missed by major league eyes. About 20 big league scouts had gathered in Peoria to watch Goodwin that day. The home run, one of nine that he would hit in his senior season, confirmed what most scouts had already suspected: Goodwin, who would hit .488 in 25 games as a senior, would be taken with the first pick of the upcoming June draft.

Southern University Fight Song
Southern University defenders of the Gold and Blue
We will always loyal be and sing a cheer for you
All for one and one for all we've got the will to win for thee
So we'll fight, fight, fight, fight, til we win the victory."
Go Jags!!!!!



The Chicago White Sox owned that pick. They already had a decent left-handed hitting catcher of their own in 24-year-old Ed Herrmann, but he was no star. The White Sox had not enjoyed a standout season from a catcher since their pennant-winning campaign of 1959, when Sherm Lollar hit 24 home runs for the famed “Go Go” Sox. More importantly, the Sox considered Goodwin the best available player in the draft, someone they simply could not bypass. Even in off-the-field areas, the likeable Goodwin graded out highly; he did well in school and owned a good attitude. On all counts, the draft direction pointed toward Goodwin.

After drafting him at No. 1, the White Sox offered Goodwin a contract paying him an estimated $60,000. He turned down the less-than-impressive offer, which he believed to be worth less than a college scholarship from Southern University in Louisiana. Goodwin opted to continue his education. A highly intelligent young man who possessed interests in science and math, he enrolled at Southern, eventually becoming a zoology major. As part of his four-year tenure at Southern, Goodwin earned collegiate baseball player of the year honors.

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