Beloved long-time South Carolina baseball assistant passes away
Former South Carolina baseball assistant coach Johnny Hunton has passed away. He was 97 years old.
Hunton coached in Columbia for 18 years (1972-1989), a huge number for an assistant coach. He was a part of both Bobby Richardson’s and June Raines’ staffs with the Gamecocks.
After playing his college ball at Maryland, Hunton played in Minor League Baseball in the New York Yankees organization. There, he was teammates with Richardson, who would go on to make seven All-Star Games in the Bigs. Years later, when Richardson was in need of an assistant coach at USC in 1972, he called Hunton. Back then, most teams (including the Gamecocks) had two primary coaches, so Hunton was a massive piece of the puzzle in Columbia.
During his time with the program, South Carolina baseball made five College World Series, the first five in its history. The Gamecocks were the College World Series runners-up in both 1975 (under Richardson) and 1977 (under Raines). The constant was Johnny Hunton. While he was in Columbia, USC became a consistent winner that made 12 NCAA Regionals not being in a major conference. As an Independent and then as a member of the Metro Conference, Carolina was at a selection disadvantage. Still, the Gamecocks emerged as a big-time player on the national scene.
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In addition to his coaching contributions, Hunton was known around the South Carolina baseball program as a good man. Hunton cared for his players and helped them off the field as much as he did on it.
After Coach Richardson made a short post-retirement stop at Liberty University, Hunton became the head coach at Liberty when Richardson retired from coaching for good. He served as the headman in Lynchburg, Virginia for seven seasons. He became the Flames’ fourth-winningest coach during that time.
