University News | 8.17.2012

Updated 8.29.2023

Head Baseball Coach Joe Walsh Dies Suddenly

He coached for the past 17 seasons and won five Ivy League championships.

From The September-October 2012 Issue

Joe Walsh

Head baseball coach Joe Walsh died suddenly at his Chester, N.H., home early on July 31.

Walsh, 58, served proudly in his self-professed “dream job” for the past 17 seasons, winning five Ivy League championships. He played baseball at Suffolk University, where he assumed his first head-coaching job in the 1980-81 season. He came to Harvard in 1996 as the first full-time, endowed baseball coach, a position funded by former player (and now Harvard Corporaton member) Joseph J. O’Donnell ’67, M.B.A. ’71.

Walsh’s college coaching record is 569-564-3, including the Crimson record 1998 season of 36-12. He is survived by his wife, Sandra, and their four daughters.

Published in the print edition of the September-October 2012 issue, in the John Harvard's Journal section, under the headline, “Head Baseball Coach Joe Walsh Dies Suddenly ”.

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