McCLURE NOTEBOOK
CAREER NOTES
- Finished his 27th season as Austin Peay's head coach with 822 career wins. His is the Ohio Valley Conference's all-time wins leader, surpassing the record previously held by legendary Murray State head coach Johnny Reagan (776 wins, 1958-93).
- Became first head coach to record 300 career Ohio Valley Conference victories, reaching the milestone during the 2012 season. He enters the 2015 season with 348 OVC wins.
- Since 2000 his teams have compiled 487 victories, including 219 OVC wins. The Govs have recorded five OVC regular-season titles – the most of any OVC program – and five OVC tournament titles this millennium.
- While at Austin Peay he has coached 49 first-team All-OVC players, nine conference pitchers of the year and three conference players of the year
- Has coached 38 players selected in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft, including three current major leaguers: A.J.Ellis (Los Angeles), Shawn Kelley (Seattle) and Matt Reynolds (Colorado). In addition, 21 players have signed free-agent contracts.
PLAYING EXPERIENCE
1982-84, Southeastern CC (Iowa)
1984-86, Cumberland (Tenn.)
PERSONAL
B.S., Austin Peay, 1987 (Physical Ed.)
M.A., Austin Peay, 1988 (Health/Physical Ed.)
Wife Amy and a son, Alex.
COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY
When Billy Merkel stepped down as baseball coach in Fall 1987, then-Athletics Director Bob Brooks had a decision to make: begin a search for a replacement, possibly interrupting fall practice and workouts, or name Gary McClure, the program’s graduate assistant, as interim coach.
It would be unfair to call Governors baseball an afterthought back then — APSU only had one Ohio Valley Conference title (1971) prior to that, but it certainly was not at the forefront of any APSU athletics discussions. Since McClure was familiar with most of the incoming recruiting class and had worked with the returning Govs as a student assistant in Spring 1987, Brooks chose to elevate McClure, with the promise if he enjoyed success during that interim season he would be strongly considered for the head coaching position.
After finishing well below the .500 mark the previous two seasons and consecutive last place OVC South Division finishes, the Governors finished 23-27 overall in 1988 with a 10-12 OVC mark, as many league wins they had garnered combined over the previous two seasons. As a result, McClure was named the Governors permanent head coach on June 23, 1988.
Now, 27 years later, the Iowa native is the Governors all-time wins leader and became the OVC’s all-time wins leader during the 2013 season. He enters 2015 ranked 28th among active Division I head coaches with 822 wins. He also received Austin Peay’s ultimate athletics honor in February 2013 when he was inducted into its Athletics Hall of Fame, becoming only the second active head coach to be inducted into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
During McClure’s tenure at Austin Peay, the Govs have achieved 19 of the program’s 24 all-time league postseason appearances. He also has led Austin Peay to the NCAA Baseball Tournament six times. In addition, 14 of McClure’s teams have posted 30-win seasons, including a school and OVC record 47-win campaign by the remarkable 2013 unit, a 44-win season by the storied 1996 squad and 40 victories by both the 2007 and 2012 squads.
On the field, McClure’s players have earned a number of awards, including three OVC “Player of the Year” awards (Randy McDermott in 1992, Nate Manning in 1996 and Craig Massoni in 2013) and nine OVC “Pitcher of the Year” honors: Jamie Walker (1992), Shane Dortch (1994), Craig Smith (1996), Mike Weel (2000), Jeff Mault (2004), Rowdy Hardy (2005), Shawn Kelley (2007), Jeremy Dobbs (2011) and Tyler Rogers (2013). McClure also has cultivated 49 first-team All-OVC players during his career.
Additionally, McClure has seen 46 players signed by major league ball clubs, including five who have advanced to the major league level. Currently three of his former players are on major-league rosters: catcher A. J. Ellis will begin his sixth season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, pitcher Shawn Kelley begins his sixth major league season with the New York Yankees and pitcher Matt Reynolds is in his fourth season, now with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Speaking of the Governors field, McClure has been instrumental in making Raymond C. Hand Park – the Governors home field since 1970 – one of the OVC’s top baseball facilities. Through his leadership, Hand Park has seen the addition of lighting (1993), which was expanded in a 2014 renovation. In addition, chair-back seating (1994), replacement and restructuring of the perimeter fence and most recently the addition of an indoor practice facility (2011).
The on-field product also has improved along with the facility, with the new millennium bringing McClure and the Governors to heights previously unknown to the program. In the 13 seasons since 2001, Austin Peay has recorded 487 wins, including 10 30-victory-plus seasons. Additionally, the Govs also have won 219 OVC contests – the most of any OVC team in that span – and captured a league-best five regular season titles as well as won the OVC tournament five times.
Although the 44- and 40-victory NCAA-qualifying teams of 1996 and 2007, respectively, may have been the most impressive in McClure’s tenure, the 2011 team’s achievements may have been the most improbable. Picked to finish seventh – and not to even qualify for the OVC tournament – the sophomore and freshman-dominated Governors instead won their seventh OVC regular-season title and did it in remarkably consistent but dominant fashion. The Governors did not lose an OVC series the entire season and made the conference season’s final weekend anti-climactic, already having clinched the regular-season crown with three games remaining. In fact, the Govs’ 17-8 OVC mark represented the second-best conference winning percentage (73.9 percent) in McClure’s tenure.
As a result, McClure was named OVC Coach of the Year for a fifth time and then he guided the Governors to an impressive three-game sweep of the OVC tournament, APSU’s fourth postseason crown and subsequent NCAA tourney berth.
The Governors traveled to the NCAA’s Atlanta Regional and again made a splash, upsetting regional host Georgia Tech, 2-1, in the opening-round contest. It was the Govs first-ever opening-round victory in the NCAA Tournament and pushed McClure to his 712th career win.
But that was just a springboard to 2012. The Governors again captured the OVC regular-season title in wire-to-wire fashion but were forced to win the tourney title through the loser’s bracket. They did so by becoming the first team since 1989 to win four straight games, including back-to-back shutouts against Eastern Illinois in the championship round.
That set the stage for another NCAA chapter to be written. After the Govs lost a controversial 6-5 last-inning decision to top-seed Oregon, they bounced back with consecutive shutouts of Indiana State, 1-0, perennial NCAA power Cal State Fullerton, 3-0, advancing the program to its first-ever regional final.
While the 2011 and 2012 campaigns were highlights, the 2013 season was an ride into the improbable. With only 14 returning letterwinners from the 2012 team, the Govs rocketed off to a 25-5 start. The 25-win mark was important for McClure as it was his 777th career win, breaking the OVC career wins mark that had stood for 30 years.
Yet, the ride wasn’t over. After a rough two-week spell that saw the Govs pick up seven losses in eight games, they found their stride again. Austin Peay went undefeated for the entire month of May, a 16-game stretch that included a three-game sweep through the OVC Tournament – for a vaunted “Three Peay-t” – and then a win against Florida in the NCAA Bloomington Regional’s first round. The Govs would eventually reach the regional final for a second consecutive season before again bowing out to the host school, this time an Indiana squad that reached the College World Series.
The three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances brought the Govs to five NCAA berths in the past nine seasons. Austin Peay’s recent run began with their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in Knoxville that capped a 2005 campaign with a 38-24 overall mark and the OVC Baseball Tournament championship.
However, the 2007 OVC tournament championship may be seen as another defining achievement in McClure’s storied career. In addition to leading the Governors to a 40-22 record, the OVC tournament-clinching victory against Jacksonville State was the 600th win in McClure’s distinguished career and qualified the Govs for NCAA regional play in Nashville. He then directed the Governors to their first NCAA tourney victory, an 18-7 verdict, a day after the Govs suffered a gut-wrenching 2-1 11-inning loss to top-seed Vanderbilt.
The 2007 campaign was the culmination of an impressive nine-year run by the Governors under McClure. Austin Peay did not record a losing record between 1999 and 2007 and won the OVC regular-season title in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. The Govs also won the OVC tournament in 2005 and 2007 and their resulting NCAA Tournament appearances were their first since the 1996 campaign
The 1990s saw McClure’s teams reach the 30-win mark in all but three seasons, averaging 30 wins during the decade’s final five seasons. The decade included two OVC regular-season titles (1994 and 1996) and the Governors’ first league tournament championship in 1996. The 1996 season was a memorable one as the Governors posted a school-record 44 wins, the second-most in OVC history. A regular-season title and a NCAA Play-In series victory against Southern University propelled the Governors to the NCAA tournament for the first time as a NCAA Division I member.
McClure served as a student assistant during 1987, joining the Governors after completing his eligibility at Cumberland University (Tenn.). He was a second baseman and shortstop for Woody Hunt at Cumberland, the team compiling a 34-16 record during his junior season. Cumberland ended his senior season ranked 12th-nationally, winning 43 games. McClure hit better than .300 during his two seasons.
Prior to his stint at Cumberland, McClure was an all-region honoree at Southeastern (Iowa) Community College as a freshman.
He continued his baseball playing in the Dallas Amateur Baseball Association, where he was voted the No. 1 shortstop in the league during the 1986 season.
Gary and his wife, Amy, live in Clarksville. They have a son, Alex.
