Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991 TAG: 9104130052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Four coaches - for all sports.
"The trainer coached wrestling," Laird said Friday shortly before the baseball dugout at English Field was named in his honor, courtesy of alumnus George Sampson of Knoxville, Tenn.
Laird is 88 years young, and he has stayed put since coming to Virginia Tech in 1939 from his alma mater, Davidson.
He coached the baseball team for 30 years and the basketball team for eight, from 1947-55. He also was an assistant coach in football. What position did he coach in football? "One year it was the backs, another year it was the linebackers," Laird said. "Wherever I was needed."
In basketball and baseball, he coached alone. Now, a powerhouse such as Arizona has eight baseball coaches.
"One year [Baltimore Orioles coach] Johnny Oates stuck around to finish up his degree and he helped me out," Laird said.
Laird is a man of great humor, a pleasant man, a man whose impact on Sampson's life caused him to fund Friday's ceremony. A plaque honoring Laird will be attached to the Tech dugout at English Field.
Sampson, ironically, was a basketball player.
Laird recalls the time when Tech was practicing in old War Memorial Gym, and the wrestling team was drilling at the other end of the court. "One of the basketballs went over there," Laird said. "We sent a guy over to get it and they pinned him."
Laird graduated from Davidson in 1926, and that fall he became the head coach at nearby Catawba. Of football, basketball and baseball. His salary, he recalled, "was a couple of thousand [dollars]."
During World War II, Laird served as the coach of the baseball team for the Naval Pre-Flight at Chapel Hill, N.C. One of his players was Ted Williams, just two years after Williams hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox.
Laird's other players included Johnny Pesky, a career .307 hitter who later managed the Red Sox, and Harry Craft, who managed Kansas City and Houston. A fourth big-leaguer was Buddy Hassett, first baseman for the Yankees. "I carried the bats out," Laird said with a smile.
As for his military career, Laird said, "The only danger I encountered was getting hit in the belly with a slug of bourbon."
Laird doesn't drink any more, but he remains a smoker. Somebody told him that would kill him. "I'm more worried about a jealous husband," responded Laird, a widower after 55 years of marriage to Sis, who became as permanent an institution around Tech as her husband.
Laird's baseball teams won 343 games and lost 275, with four ties. They didn't play 60-70 games in college ball, as they do today in a situation that has forced the NCAA to make a cut to 54 games starting next year.
One reason for the shorter schedule during Laird's coaching days was - obviously - the size of the staff. Baseball couldn't start until basketball ended, although, Laird said, "Sometimes they overlapped a little, just like football and basketball."
But that was a gentler time, and Tech was coached by a gentle man - a member of the College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, enshrined in 1971, and the school's own Hall of Fame as of 1983.
When the weather is warm and the sun shines on English Field, Greene Flake "Red" Laird can still be found, watching a few innings from the top of the stands.
Friday, he approached Tech coach Chuck Hartman before the game against South Carolina.
"You want to say something?" Hartman asked.
"No," said Red Laird. "I want to take batting practice."
by CNB