The late Jack Coombs, a native of LeGrande, Iowa, was known throughout the nation as "Mr. College Baseball". He not only compiled one of the great records in collegiate baseball history while at Duke but also authored the text, Baseball, used by over 187 colleges and universities as the bible of the sport.
Coombs' Duke teams won 382 games against 171 defeats during his tenure from 1929-51. He captured seven State Championships and five Southern Conference titles during that span.
He was not only a great coach but a great teacher of the game, sending a total of 47 players on to the Major Leagues.
Coombs was a charter inductee to the defunct Collegiate Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame (1965) and a member of the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame (1977).
