‘Perfect for Rice:’ Former players remember baseball coach Wayne Graham
In Wayne Graham’s first team meeting in the spring of 1993, he told players that Rice University was going to win a national baseball championship, and anyone who didn’t believe him should leave.
Graham, the legendary coach who died at the age of 88, took over as the head coach of Rice baseball in 1992.
Rice’s baseball program had never won a conference championship, let alone a national one, before Graham arrived.
After his 26th and final season at Rice in 2018, Graham had coached the Owls to 23 consecutive NCAA appearances. He also led the team to the College World Series seven times, winning the national championship in 2003 against Stanford University.
“What [Graham] was able to do really is remarkable,” former Rice baseball player Lance Berkman said. “To me, he is in the pantheon of top five college baseball coaches of all time. You got Rod Dedeaux, and you got Skip Bertman, you got Augie Garrido and to me, Wayne Graham is right there with all those guys in terms of what he was able to accomplish as a coach.”
Graham died on the night of Sept. 3, 2024 in Austin, Texas, according to Rice Athletics.
"I am deeply sorry to hear about the passing of a man who had a significant impact on my life," Rice baseball coach Jose Cruz Jr. said in a statement. "His encouragement to push us beyond any and all limits has been a valuable lesson that I carry with me and strive to apply as I follow in his footsteps.”
Cruz played for Graham from 1992 to 1995, where he broke the school record for runs batted in and was a member of the first Rice baseball team to compete in the NCAA Tournament in 1995. In that same year, Cruz was drafted by the Seattle Mariners as the third overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft.
“The example of being committed to greatness no matter what others thought was possible was evident here at Rice, and [Graham’s] accomplishments here are and will always be a source of joy for all Owls,” Cruz said. “He will always be celebrated, remembered and missed.”
Beyond Cruz, Berkman and former Rice baseball player Paul Doyle also emphasized that Graham was able to coach Rice baseball beyond expectations.
“Coach Graham willed Rice to feats that nobody else thought were possible,” Doyle said. “... He taught us willpower and instilled the mindset of a champion. Not only was he the greatest coach in Rice history, he was the greatest coach in the history of college baseball. His accomplishments at Rice with limited resources are far superior than [those of] any other coach in college baseball.”
What Berkman remembers most fondly about Graham, though, was the way he would shake a player’s hand after they hit a home run. Berkman compared it to getting a compliment from his own father.
“It didn’t come very much, but you knew that when you shook his hand coming around third after you hit a home run it was like ‘job well done,’” Berkman said. “I think that connection was really something that I'll always remember.”
Berkman also said that Graham was tough to play for, but ultimately made players better. Former Rice baseball player and a co-captain of the 2003 team, Chris Kolkhorst, echoed Berkman’s sentiments in an interview with the Thresher in 2023.
“[He was] amazing,” Kolkhorst said. “He was firm but fair. Once you realized that he only got on the guys he cared about and he was trying to make you better, then you understood him.”
Prior to Rice, Graham coached at San Jacinto College for 10 years. There, he won five national championships and was named the national junior college coach of the year five times and the top Texas junior college coach six times.
At San Jacinto, Graham coached seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens, who described Graham as one of the “Best of the Best” on X, formerly known as Twitter, on the morning of Sept. 4.
“Great Coach, but far better teacher of the game,” Clemens said. “Gave us young men life lessons to carry with us forever. I will miss Coach, and his funny stories we had together over the years.”
Graham has been inducted into the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame, Conference USA Hall of Fame, College Baseball Hall of Fame, Junior College Hall of Fame, Texas Baseball Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
“He will be missed but his legend will never die,” Doyle said. “What he instilled in his players and coaches will live forever and will be passed down for generations to come. I had the benefit of playing for Coach and coaching with him. He was a savant, a true genius.”
Many will remember Graham as the first coach to bring Rice University a national championship, and Berkman described Graham as a perfect fit for Rice.
“On the exterior you wouldn’t think ‘Hey this is a Rice kind of guy,’ but he understood the value of education,” Berkman said, “He was unbelievably smart, much smarter than I think people want to give him credit for being. I just feel like he was the perfect guy for Rice University and his legacy will be winning.”
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