1970-88: Breaking New Ground, The Gonsalves Era
The 1970 season not only marked LBSU's first foray into Division 1, it also marked the first hiring of a team alumni as head coach. Incoming skipper John Gonsalves had played second base for the team from 1964–65, and even earned NCAA all-district honors his senior year. After a mildly distinguished 3-year career in the New York Mets minor league system (netting one selection to the class A New York - Penn League all-star team), Gonsalves returned to his alma mater to take over the reins from his former coach Bob Wuesthoff who was retiring.
In his first year, Gonsalves led the team to an uninspiring 29-23 overall record, but the team's 11-4 record in conference play was enough to capture the first ever conference title of the newly-formed Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA). That season also saw Gonsalves receive the inaugural PCAA Coach of the Year award. Gonsalves would remain at the helm of the program for the next 19 seasons, and through two conference changes. The first switch came in 1977, when Long Beach State joined the upstart Southern California Baseball Association (SCBA), an NCAA Division 1 baseball-only conference consisting of baseball teams from schools that otherwise competed in either the PCAA or the WCC.
The 49ers posted their best year to date in 1979, when the 49ers compiled a 40-22-3 mark that set a new school record for wins and was good enough for a second-place finish in the competitive SCBA. Unfortunately for the Gonsalves, he would never again coach a team to that level of success. Over the next 5 seasons, the 49ers only once posted a winning record or finished better than 4th in the conference. Even the demise of the SCBA and the renewal of PCAA competition (now known as the Big West) in 1985 couldn't change the fortunes of the hard luck 49ers, as they placed seventh in the conference in '85 and eighth in each of the next three years. This unfortunate stretch of underachievement left the Long Beach State baseball program disappointed and disillusioned. Despite holding the school career wins record at the time by a considerable margin, Gonsalves managed only a 205-342-10 cumulative record over his last 9 years. After the 1988 season, Gonsalves stepped down as head coach.
Read more about this topic: Long Beach State 49ers Baseball, History
Famous quotes containing the words breaking and/or era:
“I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)