University News | August 17, 2012

Harvard's baseball coach Joe Walsh dies suddenly at 58

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

From The September-October 2012 Issue

Joe Walsh — Joe Walsh | Photograph courtesy of Harvard Athletics

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 September-October 2012 print issue under the headline “Harvard's baseball coach Joe Walsh dies suddenly at 58,” in the John Harvard's Journal section.

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