Roger Cador won't leave until Southern baseball is back on its feet, but he knows the end is getting closer

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Roger Cador won’t die in a Southern uniform. He simply refuses.

After 32 years at the helm of Southern baseball, Cador watched the program grow out of a stolen grocery basket filled with nothing but a few dirty uniforms and a handful of used balls to become one of the most successful historically black college programs in the country.

In 1987, Southern became the first HBCU to win a game in the NCAA tournament. In 2003, Rickie Weeks won the the Golden Spikes Award, given annually to the nation’s top amateur player.

Cador is a legend in the baseball community, but all things come to an end. Cador just hopes it’s on his own terms, whenever that may be.

“I’m not looking to die (in this position),” he said. “Now, I may go out tomorrow and die, but that’s not my goal. My goal is not to die in this program. And I’m not going to hold over this program and make them think it’s my program. I want that to be known. I have no plan of dying in this program.”

Cador has been open about his exit strategy. The Jaguars are struggling to get out from under the NCAA’s thumb after the lack of institutional control ruling it handed down last year. In preparation for the ruling, Cador purged his roster before the start of last season, which helped limit the number of scholarships the Jaguars lost.

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