Rod Dedeaux

Raoul Martial " Rod" Dedeaux ( born February 17, 1914 in New Orleans, † January 5, 2006 in Glendale ) was an American baseball manager. He coached among others, the American baseball team for the Olympic Games 1964 in Tokyo, Japan and in 1984 in Los Angeles, USA.

Dedeaux played three years for the USC Trojans, University of Southern California and completed two games for the Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop. His career as a baseball player, he was forced to retire due to a back injury. From the year 1950 he began to work out on the baseball player at the University of Southern California after he assisted since 1942. He won a total of 11 NCAA Baseball Championships and coached, among others, the later MLB player Mark McGwire, Tom Seaver, Randy Johnson, Fred Lynn, Ron Fairly and Roy Smalley. He finished his career as the most successful college baseball coach ever with 1332 victories. In 2006 he was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame and has received awards from the Collegiate Baseball magazine as Coach of the Century in 1999.

He died after complications from a stroke.