Temple to honor baseball coach
Temple will officially dedicate its baseball field as the James "Skip" Wilson Field tomorrow during a ceremony that will begin at 12:30 p.m., before the Owls' Atlantic Ten Conference game against St. Louis.
Temple will officially dedicate its baseball field as the James "Skip" Wilson Field tomorrow during a ceremony that will begin at 12:30 p.m., before the Owls' Atlantic Ten Conference game against St. Louis.
The field is at the Owls' Ambler campus.
Wilson, 77, retired in August 2005 after 46 seasons during which he compiled 1,034 wins and led Temple to 12 NCAA tournaments, 12 conference titles, and College World Series appearances in 1972 (third place) and 1977 (eighth place).
He ranks 32d in NCAA Division I history in victories, and only three coaches ahead of him - Bob Morgan of Indiana, Bob Hannah of Delaware, and Bob Warn of Indiana State - are from Northern schools.
The gregarious Wilson, raised in Manayunk, was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 1987. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
Wilson spent several years in the Philadelphia Athletics' farm system before enrolling at Temple in 1951.
Several of his players went on to sign professional contracts, including Bobby Higginson, John Marzano, Jeff Manto and Joe Kerrigan. Former Phillies general manager Ed Wade also played under Wilson.