Ron Fraser
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| Sport(s) | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born | June 25, 1933 Nutley, New Jersey |
| Died | January 20, 2013 (aged 79) Weston, Florida |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1963-1992 | Miami (FL) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 1,271-438-9 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
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1982 College World Series 1985 College World Series |
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College Baseball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006 |
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Ronald "Ron" Fraser (June 25, 1933 – January 20, 2013) was the college baseball coach at the University of Miami from 1963 to 1992.
Nicknamed the "Wizard of College Baseball," he was one of the most successful coaches in NCAA baseball history, and was also responsible for bringing college baseball to a new level of public awareness. The Miami Hurricanes baseball team went from being on the brink of being "contracted" to being the toast of college baseball under Fraser's tenure.
Born and reared in Nutley, New Jersey, Fraser was a three-sport letterman at Nutley High School where he graduated in 1953. After graduation, he played baseball for Florida State University from 1954 to 1956 as a relief pitcher. At Florida State he joined Theta Chi. After that he was in the Army for some years, stationed in Germany and the Netherlands. He became manager of the national team of Germany and after the 1958 European championship, he managed the Netherlands until 1963. In 1963, Fraser took a head coaching job with the University of Miami, a school which did not offer its baseball players a scholarship. Even though the school did not begin to offer scholarships until 1973, Fraser built a respectable program through hard work and endless promotions. Some of the people Fraser brought in to bring publicity to the program were Major League Baseball Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Stan Musial, as well as announcer Joe Garagiola. In 1974, Miami was runner-up to the University of Southern California, a perennial college baseball powerhouse. The previous year, Miami started a record streak of consecutive postseason appearances in college baseball, a record which as of the 2016 season is still being added to. Also in 1973, Mark Light Stadium was built in large part to efforts by Fraser to build a privately funded stadium.
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