-20-
Ken Dugan grew up in the mill area of Huntsville Alabama, playing baseball on
the mill town league team that his father, "Home Run" Dugan organized
for the kids on thier block to keep them out of trouble.
He eventually made the journey to Lipscomb University where he was a true baseball star, setting hitting and slugging records that stand today, and he was recognized as the team MVP as a sophomore, junior and senior. In the summers, he would hitchike to Nashville to play in the summer league teams at Shelby Park, where the weekend games drew thousands of spectators.
After military
service overseas, where he coached his Army post team to the European Championship,
Ken learned from brother Jerry that the
Lipscomb coaching job was available and he returned to his alma mater in 1960
to begin his coaching career - and the rest, as they say, is history.
By the time that Ken retired from coaching in 1998, his teams had amassed a record of 1137-450 , had won two national championships and countless league, district and regional championships; he had written 4 baseball instructional books, been inducted into 5 halls of fame and coached the U.S. Pan American World Games baseball team and the Belgian National team.
His two
sons, Mike and Kurt, played on his Lipscomb teams as did his successor, Coach
Mel Brown and former Lipscomb Coach Wynn Fletcher's father, Tom.
Ken Dugan and his players spread the prestige of Lipscomb baseball and the name of Lipscomb University across the country. It is impossible to overstate how valuable his service to the university was.
Men like
Ken come along infrequently, leave a great legacy
and forever change people's lives.
audio
bio
(2.4Mg, .mp3 file)
(music-bobby ogdin, narration-jonathan seamon)