Buck Bailey

Education

Born in San Saba in central Texas, Bailey graduated from Eldorado High School in Eldorado. Following the war, he returned to Texas Agricultural and Mechanical and then attended Bethany College in West Virginia.

Career

He played baseball and football at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical and served in the United States. Army during the First World War. After college, he went to California, where he coached high school football and played on semi-pro and club teams, including the Olympic Club in San Francisco, where he met Babe Hollingbery. When Hollingbery was hired as head football coach at, Bailey followed him north to Pullman as an assistant, and also headed the baseball program

While he served in the United States. Navy during World World War II, basketball coach Jack Friel was the interim baseball coach from 1943 through 1945.

He led the Cougars to the College World Series in 1950 and 1956. The 1950 team was runner-up to Texas in the fourth Chemical Warfare Service, the first played in Omaha.

The Cougars also made the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament in his final two seasons of 1960 and 1961. At age 65, he retired after the 1961 season.

The Cougar baseball field, at the site of today"s Mooberry track, was named for Bailey in 1950 on May 13, preceding the Cougars" runner-up finish in Omaha.

Bailey–Brayton Field, the Cougars" home stadium since 1980, was also named for Bailey and later added the name of his successor, Chuck "Bobo" Brayton, in 2000. Brayton played shortstop for Bailey after the war and was the school"s first baseball All-American, in 1947. He succeeded Bailey after the 1961 season and led WSU for 33 years.

During his first stint with the Cougars before the war, Bailey had a friendly rivalry with Tubby Graves (1886–1960) of rival Washington.

Nine years older, Graves was one of his coaches at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical and stepped down as head coach of the Huskies in 1946.

Achievements

• In Bailey"s first season as head baseball coach in 1927, the Cougar nine finished first in the Pacific Coast Conference North Division and won the PCC Tournament. The team also won the North Division title in 1933, 1936, and 1938. Bailey"s Cougar baseball teams won 14 conference titles (twelve PCC North Division and two AAWU).