A lot of you are too young to remember, heck I was in 5th grade when Joe came to town.
Joe was hired in 1965 to coach baseball in the 1966 season. He took over a d2 team and moved them to d1 in his first year and made the ncaa playoffs
- He also made the playoffs in 1967. In 1968 he won the regional and finished 2nd to USC at the CWS also winning national coach of the year. In his last season, 1969, he went back to the CWS. A lot of the players he recruited were on the team when Itchy took them to the cws in 1971
Joe hired Itchy as his pitching coach when he came to SIU. That is how Itchy got back to SIU. Joe had his players in shorts long before the White Sox did it and had beautiful coeds as batgirls. He left to coach/ manage in the Cleveland organization and then became the first non-japanese manager in the Nippon league
It is a travesty he is not already in the HOF. Please sign my online petition
I didn't get to SIU until the late '70s, but I heard quite a bit about him. Also remember him coaching for Cleveland in the early '70s. When the White Sox played the Indians, Harry Caray almost always referred to him being from SIU.
Wow. This is a travesty. Thank you for posting this.
(Inflammatory political snark)
There is no doubt Coach Lutz elevated the baseball program. There have always been some questions about the circumstances around his leaving SIU. Perhaps these are why he has not been enshrined in the Saluki HOF.
There have always been some questions about the circumstances around his leaving SIU. Perhaps these are why he has not been enshrined in the Saluki HOF.
I've done a bit of research on the situation over the past few days. There's not much hard information about what happened, but it appears there were a few issues with the athletic department/administration. It's a good guess that a few people didn't care for his promotions, which were unconventional back then. But unless something more sinister is involved, it might be time to let bygones be bygones and induct him into the HOF. What Lutz did with the baseball program was every bit as impressive as what Hartman was doing with the basketball program in the late '60s.
Joe was hired in 1965 to coach baseball in the 1966 season.
@freedawg I have been asked by a few "wasn't he a little hard to get along with?" The answer of course, is yes. Joe was prickly and a coach from that era coaching much like Bob Knight, but on his record alone. I always bring this up as well "he might have clashed with people like Boydston, but he went to the CWS twice in 4 years and was national coach of the year. Chris Lowery is in our HOF and his was a good, not great, player as well as a horrible coach who sued the University. Yet Chris is in
One more thing. Joe hired Itch as his pitching coach in 1969. Joe had a winning percentage of 75.6, and Joe took his spring trips to play Arizona, Arizona St, FSU, Miami, etc. Itch has a winning percentage at SIU of 68.1 Joe also is the only coach to win ABCA/AETC coach of the year (1968) Itch won it three times with Adirondack, Sporting News and something called the Diamond coach of the year
Itch was great, not downplaying his record, but Joe was the one that made us a national power then Itch kept it going
