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Remembering Cliff Gustafson with Scott Bryant and Keith Moreland

Steve Habelby:Steve Habel•01/02/23•

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Cliff Gustafson (Photo courtesy of the University of Texas)

The college baseball world took a knee after the passing of former Texas coach Cliff Gustafson on early Monday morning at the age of 91.

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In the latest edition of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton talked with former Longhorn players Scott Bryant and Keith Moreland on Gustafson and his legacy, and told some stories about their time with Coach Gus on the 40 Acres.

In 29 seasons as head coach at Texas from 1968-96, Gustafson compiled an all-time record of 1,466-377 and at time of his retirement was the winningest college baseball coach in history. Gustafson’s teams earned a record 17 College World Series appearances, winning the national title in 1975 and 1983.

Bryant, the 1989 Dick Howser Trophy winner and a first-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds, said Gustafson was able to get the most from his players, even though his style was not for everyone.

“You always knew where you stood – that was the one thing with Coach Gus, he didn’t sugarcoat much,” Bryant explained. “If you made a mistake, he was gonna let you know about it. But if you did something well, he was gonna let you know about that, too. He was almost a mythical figure until you got to know him.”

Gustafson’s teams won 22 Southwest Conference Championships, including strings of nine in a row and then 10 straight later in his career.

The list of great college players that Gustafson and the Texas program produced is notable: Burt Hooton, Bill Bates, Spike Owen, Roger Clemens, Greg Swindell, Brooks Kieschnick, Jim Gideon, Tony Arnold, Calvin Schiraldi, Kurt Dressendorfer, Calvin Murray, and Kevin Garner, to name just a few. Every one of the above Texas players was an All-American.

“In the 80s and the 90s, if you had a chance to play at the University of Texas that was, you know, the pinnacle of college baseball,” Bryant said. “Coach Gus was very hard on people because he expected a lot out of you. And it there were people who it affected positively and there are people who had affected negatively.”

Gustafson was inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 1983 and is a member of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and Southwest Conference Hall of Fame. He was named the National Coach of the Year in both 1982 and 1983, and his teams won 44 College World Series games, which ranks second all-time.

Moreland said Gustafson was “always in the background” and “slow and steady” in his approach. He never ran up the score on opponents and treated every one with respect. He expected nothing less of his players.

“Cliff was that figure that was out there that taught us how to win with honor and dignity or lose with dignity and understand how to go about, you know, living life,” Moreland said. “He was such a mentor for not just the things on the field and off the field but made each one of us strive to be better.”

Moreland called Gustafson “ahead of his time” because he taught his players that the most difficult outs in a game are the final three.

“Even in Major League Baseball at the time you didn’t look at that much as closers of games, and that’s how the game has evolved,” Moreland explained. “Coach Gus saw that early that the fact is that those are the hardest outs to get whether you’ve got a five-run lead or a one-run lead. The pitcher and the defense have a ton of pressure on those last three outs of a game and, you know, that was just something that he recognized quickly.”

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