Dedeaux Turns Job Over to Gillespie : USC Baseball Coach Retires After 45 Years, 1,332 Victories

As usual, Rod Dedeaux took the moment, panned his audience, and cracked a joke.

“I’d like to remind you of my definition of a successful coach,” he said to the reporters gathered in USC’s Town and Gown room Tuesday. “That’s a coach who’s still working.”

After 45 years, Dedeaux, 71, is no longer USC’s baseball coach. He stepped down Tuesday, taking with him 1,332 victories, 28 conference titles, and 11 College World Series crowns. He is easily the winningest coach in NCAA history--under him, USC had a record of 1,332-571-11--but after eight mediocre seasons in which the Trojans have compiled a 241-227 record, Dedeaux said it was time for someone new.

“We owe this to the great number of people who have played this game (at USC), and played it so successfully over that time,” said Dedeaux, wearing a brown paisley tie with a brown suit. “This is a white tie, but there’s blood on it because I’d like so much to be in Omaha (where the College World Series is being played). I just don’t like being here.”

So, six USC presidents after he became coach, Dedeaux introduced his successor, Mike Gillespie. A former player for Dedeaux, Gillespie, 46, was the choice of a nine-person committee that spent two months searching for a new coach, interviewing six finalists. Athletic Director Mike McGee said that Justin Dedeaux, Rod’s son, had been a candidate, but McGee would not name any of those interviewed.

In the last 16 years at College of the Canyons in Valencia, Gillespie has compiled a 418-165 record, winning the state community college title in 1981, 1983 and 1986. He also has managed in the Alaska Semipro League the last three summers.

“This represents the culmination of a dream that I’ve had for very many years,” Gillespie said. “I never really viewed this as a realistic opportunity.

“I’m optimistic about the future of the USC baseball program and I hold every hope that the program will be one that the entire USC community will continue to be proud of.”

Dedeaux said that he had decided to resign before the 1986 season. He and McGee chose not to publicize it, however, because they wanted to conduct the search with as little attention as possible. Dedeaux was on the search committee, as was Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who served in an advisory role.

As he has previously, Dedeaux pointed to the 1975 reduction in scholarships as a major reason the school’s baseball program has struggled for the last eight years.

When the NCAA limited the number of scholarships from 19 to 13 a year, private schools were hurt proportionally worse than public universities, Dedeaux said. Generally, this is because tuition is much higher at private schools--and especially at USC, where costs are estimated at $15,800 a year--and therefore partial scholarships are not nearly as helpful.

“There are some horrible four-letter words, and you’d be surprised, but UCLA is not one of them,” he said. “NCAA is.”

Although Dedeaux has stepped down, he will remain active as the school’s director of baseball, a newly created position in which he will advise McGee and Gillespie, as well as help raise funds for USC’s endowment fund.