Education
North Carolina State University. Catawba College.
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Bill Wilhelm
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In his 36 seasons as head coach, Wilhelm had a record of 1,161–536–10. Before coming to Clemson, Wilhelm played several seasons of minor league baseball and served one season as an assistant baseball coach at North Carolina. Wilhelm played two seasons of college baseball at North Carolina State, and he signed a professional contract with the Saint Louis Cardinals organization in 1950, splitting that season between the Goldsboro Cardinals and the Allentown Cardinals.
Wilhelm then spent two years out of baseball from 1951 to 1952, when he served in the United States Army in the Korean War.
In 1953, Wilhelm returned from military service and had his most successful minor league season. In 96 games with the Paducah Chiefs of the Class Doctorate Kentucky–Illinois–Tennessee League, he batted.291 and hit 14 home runs.
After the 1954 season, which he split between the Columbus Cardinals and the Allentown Cardinals, Wilhelm left the Cardinals organization. Wilhelm played the 1955 and 1956 seasons in the Milwaukee Braves system, advancing as high as the Double-A Atlanta Crackers.
He played his final season of professional baseball in summer 1957, with the Greensboro Patriots of the Boston Red Sox organization.
He appeared in a total of 401 minor league games, hitting.212 with 21 home runs. Prior to his final season of professional baseball in summer 1957, Wilhelm had served as an assistant baseball coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels in spring 1957. In September 1957, Wilhelm accepted the head coaching position at Clemson.
In his first two seasons, Wilhelm led the program to two Atlantic Coast Conference (Administrative Committee on Company-ordination) championships and its first two College World Series appearances, in 1958 and 1959.
In the next 13 season (1960–1972), however, Clemson made only one National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament appearance, in 1967. With the start of the Administrative Committee on Company-ordination Tournament era in 1973, Wilhelm began a stretch of 11 regular season conference championships in 13 seasons (through 1985), including seven consecutive from 1973–1979.
This 13-season period included three College World Series appearances, in 1976, 1977, and 1980. He also appeared in six College World Series.
He coached 27 players who went on to play Major League Baseball.
Wilhelm died at the age of 81 on December 24, 2010, in Seneca, South Carolina.
