Augie Garrido would have turned 87 years old Friday. He’s gone, but his legacy lives on.
There was never a dull moment with Texas baseball’s Zen Master. The man was a winner, an unapologetic, complicated winner who somehow balanced bravado and class while returning the program to dizzying heights.
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Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido won five national championships in all between Texas and Cal State Fullerton. He led the Longhorns to titles in 2002 and 2005. He died in 2018. “Knowing we were the last squad to get him that title, it kind of leaves a tear in your eye and an extra place in your heart,” said former UT pitcher Adrian Alaniz.
Cliff Cheney/Special to American-Statesman
Garrido left in 2017 as the winningest coach in college baseball history with a 1,975–951–9 career record. His teams won five College World Series titles — three at Fullerton and two at Texas — and left an enduring impact of triumph with some stumbles and plenty of laughs along the way.
“Omaha is mandatory at Texas,” Garrido would always say. Texas hasn’t played in a CWS since 2022 and will enter its 21st season since Garrido delivered a sixth national title with a win over Florida. The fan base is well past famished for a seventh.
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Texas is No. 3 in D1Baseball’s preseason poll entering its Feb. 13 season opener at home against UC-Davis. Coach Jim Schlossnagle has built a deeper, more balanced roster than 2025, though he is still aiming for physically bigger players in the mode of outfielder/Longhorns football safety Jonah Williams. That will come in time.
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With that said, he knows no one can predict the twists and turns that come with a baseball season, especially in the SEC, the toughest league in America.
“SEC baseball is what it is,” Schlossnagle said on the latest “On Second Thought” podcast with Houston Chronicle colummist Kirk Bohls and yours truly. “There’s going to be 16 teams and 12-13 will be in the NCAA Tournament. That’s the thing that will be unique about our season.”
Expect the unexpected. Schlossnagle’s 35 years as a coach have taught him as much. Along with learning from the example set by legends like Garrido.
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Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle greets White Sox catcher Rylan Galvan ahead of the annual Texas Longhorns Alumni Baseball Game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 in Austin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
The Augie effect still lives
As I walked out of UFCU Disch-Falk after Saturday’s annual alumni game, I ventured past four busts outside the stadium. Bibb Falk, Billy Disch, Cliff Gustafson and Garrido form the Mount Rushmore of Texas baseball coaches. I knew Coach Gus from a few phone calls during my time as the UT baseball beat writer (2003-06), but I formed a relationship with Augie during his 20 seasons at the helm.
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He was some character. Generous to a fault, but admittedly an imperfect human being who enjoyed the trappings of fame and good money, he was obsessed with the game he used as a teaching tool for the young men he coached.
He reached out when my father died in April 2016 in the midst of one of Texas’ worst stretches under his watch. The Horns finished 25-32 in what turned out to be his final season, leading to his reassignment in the department. It was a polite way of saying he was fired because Augie never would have left if given the choice. His departure was the unofficial end of a great era of Texas coaching legends, including football’s Mack Brown and basketball’s Jody Conradt and Rick Barnes, who had all left their posts before him.
Jeannie Garrido smiles at a bust of her late husband and former Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019, in Austin, Texas. [NICK WAGNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]
Austin American-Statesman
The following January, Augie, ever the foodie, joined me, Bohls and our retired former American-Statesman coworkers for lunch at Lotus Hunan in Westlake, our favorite Chinese hangout. He loved talking about the game, but enjoyed talking about life more. He loved discussing movies, wine and sports, but mostly former players like Phil Nevin, Justin Simmons, Huston Street, Drew Stubbs, J. Brent Cox and Seth Johnston to name a few.
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I know his memory will always be tied to the epic, profane locker room rant he delivered after a 2006 home loss that spurred a 10-game winning streak and a Big 12 title, but so many coaches got where he was going. The subject of Richard Linklater’s 2008 “Inning by Inning” documentary was so much more than a couple of F-bombs.
He never forgot how to laugh at himself — “Just call me Soggy Burrito,” he would tell me — even in the toughest times. He famously moved the 2005 team and support staff from a Super 8 hotel in Starkeville before its super regional matchup with Mississippi State to another spot in Tupelo some 45 minutes away because he simply couldn’t bear the thought.
“I will never stay in a hotel with a number in the title,” he told me after Texas advanced to Omaha, where it eventually toppled Florida for the natty. After he retired, he settled into a residence at the Four Seasons of all places.
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It was quintessential Augie. Just being himself.
A stroke felled him March 12, 2018. I texted, but never heard back.
Three days later, the news came. He was gone at 79, the same age listed on Dad’s death certificate.
It’s been nearly eight years, but it seems much longer.
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In case you haven’t noticed, I miss the guy.
Texas Longhorns defensive lineman Byron Murphy II (90) celebrates after a sack against TCU Horned Frogs quarterback Josh Hoover (10) in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, November. 11, 2023, at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman
Why overlooked Seattle will win the Super Bowl
The Seattle Seahawks don’t get the same headlines as the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers, but it won’t stop them from taking home the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.
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They will take a 27-17 win over the upstart New England Patriots and an overlooked position will play a key role.
When it comes to tough matchups, I usually go with the better quarterback but in this case, I’m taking the Seahawks because they have the most fearsome fearsome defensive tackles duo in the sport. Leonard Williams and former Texas Longhorn Byron Murphy II have the ability to take over games up front, which allows the play-makers on the back end to shine. When two defensive tackles account for 14 of a team’s 47 sacks, it opens things up for the others to shine.
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Williams and Murphy disrupt and destroy up front, which will make for a long day for young New England QB Drake Maye, who will get some MVP votes after a banner sophomore season.
The old ones among us will remember Dallas’ 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII when defensive linemen Randy White and Harvey Martin — the linchpins of the famed Doomsday Defense — shared MVP honors, the only time in the game’s 59-year history the award was shared.
Expect Williams and Murphy to wreak similar havoc.
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