Jim Brock

Who was Jim Brock?

Jim Brock was the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils baseball team for 23 years.

Arizona State's second varsity baseball coach was Jim Brock who coached at ASU for 23 years. During his first year as head coach, Brock managed his team to a 64-6 record. That record still holds the NCAA all-time winning percentage in a single season. Jim Brock's all-time record at ASU is 1,100- 440. Brock also led ASU to 13 College World Series appearances. In 1994, Brock battled liver and colon cancer that would take his life one day after the conclusion of the College World Series. Though his strength was waning, Brock did not miss a conference game through the '94 season. He led his team through the regional tournament at Knoxville, Tennessee, and was in the dugout when the Sun Devils beat University of Miami, 4-0, in the Series opener. Speaking in little more than a whisper, he gave his team an inspirational pep talk after a scoreless first inning when he sensed that the Sun Devils were flat. "You can make an assumption that you'll be up because it's the College World Series," Brock said, "But you spend so much emotion in the final game of the regional that you sometimes have to find a way to regain that emotion." On his way to Rosenblatt Stadium, for the second game of the Series, Brock's condition worsened. The Sun Devils went on to lose to the University of Oklahoma, 4-3, in the home half of the eleventh inning. Brock was airlifted from Omaha to a Mesa hospital shortly before game number three. His Sun Devils went on to hit five home runs to eliminate top seeded Miami, 9-5, and present him with his 1,100th coaching victory. Later, Oklahoma eliminated ASU from the series and went on to capture the national title. On June 12, 1994, three days after his team's season ended, Brock died of colon cancer. He was 57. Brock was posthumously voted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in January 1995.