A former first baseman, he played both baseball and football for Stanford when he arrived at the university in 1965. Marquess would go on to become a three-time NCAA Coach of the Year — in 1985, ‘87 and ’88 — and a nine-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Along with the two College World Series titles, Stanford made 30 NCAA Tournament appearances, reached six NCAA Super Regionals and won 18 regionals during his tenure. The Cardinal also won the conference regular-season title 11 times.
“This man was Stanford baseball,” said David Esquer, Stanford’s current coach who played for Marquess on The Farm. “He was my coach, and like a father to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. This is a great loss for the Stanford community, the Stanford baseball family and myself. I love that man.”
Marquess was also a member of the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches’ Association Hall of Fame and the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.
Marquess, who played in the Chicago White Sox organization from 1969-73 and reached Triple-A, also coached USA Baseball to an Olympic gold medal in 1988 when the sport was a demonstration event in Seoul, South Korea.
He always loved his role in the the college game and so appreciated working at someplace like Stanford, taking great pride in not only finding players himself along with his staff but also developing them — many into future pros.
“One of the things, at the professional level a manager can say, ‘Well, I’m just not getting the players, it’s the general manager.’ You can put blame elsewhere,” Marquess said. “In our game, I recruit them, I do everything, so it all falls to me. You can’t blame it on somebody else. The nice thing about Stanford is it kind of sells itself academically, the campus. I mean, what’s not to like?”
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports