The LSU Tigers just became the first Division I athletic program to win an NCAA basketball national championship and the College World Series in the same year. It’s a monumental feat which elicits many questions. One of them: “Has any coach reached the Final Four and the College World Series in a career?”
The answer: Yes. Three people have pulled off that double. One of them belongs to the University of Southern California.
His name is Sam Barry, whom we wrote about in an extensive series during the pandemic in 2020.
Barry won the College World Series at USC in 1948. Eight years earlier, in 1940, Barry took USC to the Final Four and lost by one point to Kansas in the national semifinals.
Barry joins Everett Dean of Stanford and Frank McGuire of St. John’s as the only three people to earn a Final Four appearance and a College World Series berth as a head coach.
Dean led Stanford basketball to the 1942 Final Four and then guided Stanford to the 1953 CWS.
McGuire led St. John’s baseball to the 1949 CWS and then guided the Johnnies to the 1952 Final Four. McGuire later won the 1957 college basketball national championship at North Carolina.
Sam Barry’s list of accomplishments and innovations is remarkably long. If you have never heard of him before, today — or any other day — is a great time to learn about (and this is no exaggeration) the single most important figure in the history of USC athletics.
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