Dean of the baseball diamond
John Winkin, elder statesman of college baseball, has been dispensing old-school wisdom from dugouts since 1946.
from the May 7, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
"I hope he goes on forever," says Dave Keilitz, head of the American Baseball Coaches Association. "But the thing about him is, when he's no longer coaching – and no longer with us – there is still going to be John Winkin coaching in this world because of the legacy he has left."
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Drafted into World War II the day after he graduated from Duke University, Winkin was an ensign on a Navy destroyer at the entrance of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. He eventually rose to the rank of commander and served 56 months in the Pacific theater. "The thing I learned from the war is you couldn't be timid and survive. You had to be tough," says Winkin, who dreaded most the kamikaze planes. "When you were in action, it was like being in a game. Once the game started, you competed."
Success, like baseball, is in Winkin's DNA. His mother, who died when he was 12, was a physician. His father was a linguistics professor at Columbia University who spoke seven languages. Widowed in 1983 after 23 years of marriage and divorced twice, Winkin is the father of two and grandfather of eight, and a Roman Catholic, but he doesn't much like to discuss his personal life. "The boys – that's my family in many ways," he says of his players. "I see more of them."
Says Gabby Price, athletic director at Husson: "John has a way of making life quite simple, yet profound, by the intrinsic values that he teaches. Loyalty. Responsibility. Hard work. Getting along with each other."
An avid fan of swing-era jazz, Winkin lives in a condominium on the edge of campus, indulges in chocolate milkshakes, and is so well known for his daily, three-hour combination walks and runs that many in this college community wonder if he even owns a car. (He does.) "When people see me in the car, they think something's wrong with me," he jokes.
Winkin, all of 125 pounds, has been actively coaching since 1946, when he became skipper of an American Legion ball club in his hometown of Englewood, N.J. It was there he became a bridge partner of future Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. "I don't think I've met a more dynamic, godly human being," Winkin says.
There were other brushes with greatness. Winkin befriended baseball icons Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio and was acquainted with Mickey Mantle. "Anyone in baseball circles knows 'Wink,' " says Red Sox veteran broadcaster Joe Castiglione. "He's regarded as an innovator."
Named National Coach of the Year in 1965, Winkin has been elected to seven baseball halls of fame and still writes, longhand, a semimonthly column for Collegiate Baseball.
But reaching the big leagues, his boyhood dream, never came true. "I never was great at the game, but I played with a lot of passion," says Winkin, a center fielder in high school and college. "I don't know that I was good at anything except competing."
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