Calvin “Cal” Bailey served 36 seasons as the head baseball coach at West Virginia State University, where his Yellow Jacket teams combined for a 1,063-521-4 (.669) record. The program never posting a losing season.
Bailey, who retired in 2014 and passed away in 2020 at the age of 77, is the winningest college coach in any sport in the state of West Virginia. He is also among the winningest coaches in NCAA Div. II history with his career 1,063 victories still good for 14th all-time among NCAA Div. II coaches.
Under Bailey’s leadership, 16 student-athletes earned All-America accolades, with 36 going on to compete professionally. Eighteen of Bailey’s former players were taken in the Major League Draft, with three reaching the big leagues: Larry Carter (San Francisco Giants), Paul Fletcher (Philadelphia Phillies, Oakland Athletics) and Scott Patterson (New York Yankees, San Diego Padres).
His Yellow Jackets won 18 West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) championships and one Mountain East Conference title in 2013.
In 1999, Bailey guided the program to a third-place finish in the NCAA Div. II World Series. The Yellow Jackets would follow that up with a fifth-place finish at the 2005 NCAA Div. II World Series. In his final season of 2014, Bailey led West Virginia State to the inaugural Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament title, winning the final game of his illustrious career. Being the first season for the MEC, the tournament champion did not qualify for an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
The longtime Yellow Jackets skipper earned WVIAC Coach of the Year honors eight times while taking home ABCA North Atlantic Region Coach of the Year honors in 1999 and 2005. In 1980, Bailey became the first baseball coach to be honored with the West Virginia Sports Writers Association College Coach of the Year Award.
Bailey was inducted into the West Virginia State University Hall of Fame in 1985 and later inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
The baseball field at West Virginia State University is named in his honor.
A West Virginia native, Bailey graduated from Spencer High School in 1960 and went on to pitch for West Virginia State where he earned All-WVIAC honors. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 23rd round of the 1966 MLB Draft and spent six years in the minor leagues.
Bailey joined the West Virginia State coaching staff in 1974 as an assistant before being named head coach of his alma mater in the spring of 1978. In his spare time, Bailey was an avid hunter and farmer. In 2002, Bailey was named Kanawha County Farmer of the Year.
