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 (1972) 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.
And it took some cooperation from the professors in health and human performance to make it work. Often, he would get to graduate classes late after ball games – still in uniform. 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. Now, 25 years later, the Iowa native stands on the precipice of becoming the OVC’s all-time wins leader. Entering the 2013 season, McClure needs just 25 victories to surpass the 776 victories recorded by Murray State’s Johnny Reagan.
Along the way his clubs have captured seven OVC regular-season titles along with five OVC tourney titles and subsequent NCAA tourney appearances. He also is a five-time OVC Coach of the Year.
The Governors won only their second OVC crown in school history in 1994 under McClure. Two years later, not only did the Govs win the regular-season title but captured the OVC tourney title, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance in the South II Regional in Baton Rouge, La. That team also achieved a school-record 44 victories.
As successful as the Governors were in 1990s, it is the new millennium that has seen McClure and the Governors attain their greatest successes. McClure has chalked up 417 wins, including two more 40-win campaigns, since the turn of the century along with five OVC regular-season titles and four more NCAA Tournament appearances.
The program literally elevated itself and the OVC with its play since the mid-2000s. In 2007, the Governors lost a memorable 1-0 extra-inning game as APSU's No. 1 hurler Shawn Kelley matched David Price, the No. 1 pick in that MLB draft who was the 2012 season's American League Cy Young Award winner. The next day the Governors climbed an important next hurdle—they won their first NCAA tourney game, defeating Memphis.
The 2011 team took it a step further, although that team's achievements may have been the most improbable. Picked to finish seventh, the sophomore- and freshman-dominated Governors instead won their sixth OVC regular-season title under McClure and did it in remarkably consistent and dominant fashion. The Governors did not lose an OVC series the entire season, finishing at 17-6.
The Governors then traveled to the NCAA's Atlanta Regional and again made a splash, upsetting regional host and favorite Georgia Tech, 2-1, in the opening-round contest. It was the Govs' first NCAA tourney opening-round victory.
But that was just a springboard to 2012. The Governors again captured the OVC regular-season title but was forced to win the tourney title through the loser’s bracket. They did so by winning three 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, the Governors bounced back with consecutive shutouts of Indiana State, 1-0, and longtime perennial NCAA power Cal State Fullerton, 3-0, advancing the program for the first time to a regional final.
McClure has coached 37 first-team All-OVC players during his illustrious career and has seen 29 of his players selected in the Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft. Five of his players – pitcher Jamie "Cat" Walker, pitcher George Sherrill, pitcher Shawn Kelley, catcher A.J. Ellis and pitcher Matt Reynolds – reached the major leagues, with the latter four still at the major league level.
McClure also has spearheaded the continuous improvements to Raymond C. Hand Park — a park that only could be used for daytime baseball and had concrete slabs for seating when McClure took over the program. Today, the park is one of envy of most mid-major programs because of the lighting, chair-back seating, covered picnic areas and new indoor batting facility.
