Rod Dedeaux

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Dedeaux moved to Los Angeles and graduated from Hollywood High School in 1931. He played baseball at the University of Southern California for three seasons and was a member of the Trojan Knights. Dedeaux then played professional baseball briefly in 1935, appearing in two games as a shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers late in the season. The following year while playing for Dayton in the Mid-Atlantic League, he cracked a vertebra while swinging in cold weather, ending his season. ==Career==

Dedeaux invested $500 to start a trucking firm, Dart (Dedeaux Automotive Repair and Transit) Enterprises, which he built into a successful regional business. When his college coach, Sam Barry, entered the U.S. Navy during World War II, he recommended Dedeaux to take over the team in for the war's duration. Upon Barry's return in 1946, they served as co-coaches with Dedeaux running the team each year until Barry finished the basketball season. USC won its first national title in 1948, over Yale, captained by first baseman George H. W. Bush. The finals were held at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo, Michigan, settled by a 9–2 win in the third and deciding game. Following Barry's death in September 1950, Dedeaux became the sole coach and proceeded to build on his early success to establish the strongest program in collegiate baseball. Prior to his retirement in June , Dedeaux's teams won ten additional College World Series titles in Omaha, including five straight (1970–74) and six in seven years. No other coach had won more than three titles until 1997. At USC, Dedeaux coached dozens of future major leaguers, including Ron Fairly, Don Buford, Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, Roy Smalley, Fred Lynn, Steve Kemp, Mark McGwire, and Randy Johnson. Throughout his USC career, he accepted a nominal salary of just $1 per year since his trucking business supplied him with a substantial income. He retired as the winningest coach in college baseball history with a record of 1,332–571–11 (), and Dedeaux became known as "The Houdini of Bovard" for the come-from-behind home-field wins by the Trojans. A new baseball field named Dedeaux Field opened in 1974, named in honor of the active head coach. Olympics Dedeaux was the head coach of the United States baseball teams at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where baseball was contested both times as a demonstration sport. The 1964 team played one game as part of the Olympic program, defeating a Japanese amateur all-star team, while the 1984 team finished second in a field of eight teams, winning its first four games and losing to Japan in the final game of the tournament. Films Dedeaux also served as the baseball coach and consultant for actors and ballplayers on the 1989 film Field of Dreams. While Dedeaux was critical of the "phoniness that was in baseball movies," an opinion which he acquired while working as an extra in the 1948 film The Babe Ruth Story, he accepted the task after reading the original novel Shoeless Joe and brought Buford along to help him coach the cast. Phil Alden Robinson, who directed the film, stated that ballplayers were prepared for the film by Dedeaux. ==Personal==

Dedeaux was married to the former Helen L. Jones (1915–2007) for 66 years and they had four children. ==Death and legacy==

Dedeaux died in early at age 91 at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, Six months later on July 4, he was one of ten in the first class inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Dedeaux was also inducted in the inaugural class of the Omaha College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013, and a statue of him was unveiled at Dedeaux Field on the USC campus in 2014. Dedeaux was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2005. Dedeaux and his wife Helen are buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles. ==Head coaching record==