Golden: Texas' Cliff Gustafson not only won, but he impacted, changed lives along the way

Cliff Gustafson was a brilliant coach, but the players who knew him best talked more about the life lessons he provided with baseball serving as the ultimate teaching tool. The Texas legend passed away Monday from congestive heart failure at age 91, leaving behind a legacy of excellence and more memories than one can count.

“He taught us how to win with honor,” said Keith Moreland, an All-American on the 1975 College World Series champions, Gustafson’s first title team at Texas. “There was no showboating or showing up the other team. We went out there and we played hard and then we would shake hands, win or lose. Those are the lessons we took from him.”

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Gustafson stockpiled rosters of high school superstars and junior college transfers that had to fight like cats and dogs to get precious playing time. With no scholarship limits back then, the Horns were loaded and Gus was forced to make tough decisions regarding PT and playoff rosters. Such was life back then.

He was a baseball man who didn’t hesitate to dole out ample doses of tough love to his players, young and old.

“We were all winners in Little League and high school, but when we got to the next level, you had to learn how to take it even higher under Gus,” said former Texas pitcher Greg Swindell. “There were guys who had good freshman years and he would tell them they would have to get over it because they had to get better. He always said as soon you as you think you have it figured out, the game will kick you right in the ass.”

The two College Series titles came in 1975 and 1983, but the 22 Southwest Conference regular-season titles and 17 trips to Omaha — including seven in an eight-year stretch between 1968 and 1975 — were a testament to his program’s unyielding dominance.

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The players learned under his watch, and when they returned in later adulthood they gained an ever greater appreciation for the man.

“People didn’t realize, but when I got to come back and coach with him, I learned that he loved to pick a guitar,” Moreland said. “He didn’t always show that side. He was really, really an interesting man away from baseball.”

The man who built Disch-Falk loved talking ball. During my four years as the Texas baseball beat writer from 2003-06, I was blessed to have a relationship with two all-time great coaches.

Augie Garrido had already returned the Longhorns to the top of the college baseball world with a national title the season before my first year on the beat and there was never a dull moment covering his teams. What I appreciated even more were the occasional phone calls I got, usually on a Monday, to discuss the series that just happened.

I never knew where Coach Gus got my cell number, but I would like to give a public thanks to whoever gave it to him because it was such a pleasure to have conversations with him about his beloved Longhorns.

The talks were never long. Just a quick review of the series and a question or two about a couple of players that may have caught his eye that weekend. He was genuinely interested in what made this new generation of players tick. It's important to note he was never attempting to undermine the man who replaced him because he had genuine respect for Augie.

And that went both ways.

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When I first met Augie, he told me about his Cal-State Fullerton teams that were practicing in public parks before he built the program into a national power. Fullerton won a national title in 1979, but Garrido dreamed of playing in a swanky stadium in front of bigger crowds before the team made it to the College World Series.

To that end, he reached out to Gustafson to schedule a weekend series at Disch-Falk Field in 1983. The Disch was the preeminent college baseball facility at the time and any team that played there would leave feeling as if it had just played in college baseball’s version of Yankee Stadium.

“I wanted them to see a true college baseball dynasty up close,” Garrido said.

The Horns, who were at the start of a 66-14 season that would result in the program’s fourth national championship, swept the three-game series, but Garrido’s players were given a first-hand view of a true baseball dynasty.

“He built that stadium and then recruited players in who could play to its dimensions,” Moreland said. “He brought in players who could pitch it, catch it and run it.”

Corpus Christi Carroll star Brooks Kieschnick recalled having already verbally committed to Mississippi State and coach Ron Polk in 1990 when he got a call from Texas volunteer assistant Deron Gustafson, son of the head coach.

“We want you at Texas,” he said.

“I’m already committed to Mississippi State,” Kieschnick said.

Five minutes later, the head coach called with a question.

“If you go by the Cadillac dealership and they say they want to sell you a car for $20,000 then you go to another lot and see the same car for $15,000, what do you do?” Cliff Gustafson asked. “You take the best deal and that’s what we’re offering you.”

“I was in Austin signing the next day,” said Kieschnick, who went on become a three-time All-American and the only two-time winner of the Dick Howser Trophy (1992, 1993), given to the national player of the year.

Gustafson won big with the best players and Texas baseball became synonymous with college baseball excellence during his 29 seasons. He coached 35 first-team All-Americans, nine SWC players of the year and countless others who took his baseball example and applied to successful lives after their playing days ended.

“He changed the landscape of Texas baseball!” pitching legend Roger Clemens tweeted. “Not just at the University of Texas but the state of Texas and across the nation.”

Coach Gus has departed, but his impact remains through the lives he touched and through the stories of the men he coached.

That’s called legacy.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas coach Cliff Gustafson will be remembered as a winner, teacher