Costa Kittles, affectionately known as “Pop,” was a football and baseball star at Florida A&M University during the late 1940s and 1950s before becoming one of the most successful head baseball coaches in Florida A&M history. He went 401-128 (.758) as the Rattlers’ head coach before retiring in 1982.
Kittles garnered All-America honors in football as an end in 1950 and was an all-star catcher for the baseball team. He joined the Florida A&M staff in 1952 as an assistant football coach and physical education instructor. For the next 40 years, he worked as a coach for Florida A&M athletics.
Kittles became the Rattlers’ head baseball coach in 1960, piloting the program to their first of seven-straight Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles and eight overall. The Rattlers appeared in six NAIA district playoffs, advancing to the NAIA World Series in 1962 under Kittles.
Nineteen of his players were signed or drafted to the professional leagues, including Hal McRae, Andre Dawson and Vince Coleman, who went on to illustrious Major League careers. McRae was a three-time All-Star who led the majors in doubles twice and runs batted in once over his 19 seasons. Dawson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 after being named Major League Rookie of the Year in 1977, MVP in 1987 and earning eight All-Star nods and eight Gold Gloves. Coleman led NCAA Division I in stolen bases in 1981 and ’82 before going on to win MLB Rookie of the Year honors in 1985. He set a Major League rookie-record with 110 stolen bases that year and led the league in swiped bags six times.
Kittles’ former student-athletes also include William “Bill” Lucas, who became the first African American General Manager in Major League Baseball history with the Atlanta Braves from 1976 until his untimely death in May of 1979.
Following his retirement from coaching, he continued to serve as an assistant professor in Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Florida A&M until 1995.
In 1982, Kittles was honored with induction into the Florida A&M Sports Hall of Fame and his contributions to the baseball program were again recognized in 1999 when the baseball field at Florida A&M was renamed Moore-Kittles Field in honor of Kittles and his college coach, Dr. Oscar Moore.
Kittles, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 76, and his wife Emma established the Costa Kittles Endowed Athletic and Physical Education Scholarship at Florida A&M. The scholarship is intended to provide financial support for students pursuing studies in physical education and participating in athletics at Florida A&M. The pair also established the Emma and Costa Kittles Scholarship in Human Sciences endowment at Florida State University.
