Coach Baumgartner’s own playing career began at Clay High School where he was a three-sport athlete, playing football, basketball, and baseball.  He earned accolades in all three sports and eventually was named to the Clay Athletic Hall of Fame.  He graduated from Clay in 1960 and earned a baseball scholarship to play catcher for University of Toledo.  The scholarship was for room, board, and books.  “Even though I lived just across town, I got to stay on campus at UT.  Even though there wasn’t much going on at UT back then, I thought it was awesome,” said Baumgartner.  “I loved it.  Other than to do laundry once in a while, I hardly came home.”

               Baumgartner eventually worked his way into a full scholarship, but not through baseball.  He did it by walking onto the football team.  “There was no freshman baseball then, so I was just sitting around in the fall and wanted something to do so I walked on for the football team,” he said.  Toledo had two scholarship freshmen quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart, but he beat both of those players out and was able to play in the only two games freshmen were allowed that year.  The university then picked up the other half of his scholarship so that he had tuition paid as well.  “It was a pretty good deal for me,” he said with a laugh. 

               During his senior year of college, he signed a contract to teach math at Start High School upon graduation; but once his senior year of baseball ended, he started playing in for a local Federation League team.  It was through this Federation team that he met a scout from the Detroit Tigers.  The scout took Baumgartner up to Detroit to work out with the Tigers, which said was an amazing experience.  After the workout, he was allowed to stay for the game, at which he learned that the Tigers wanted to offer him a contract to play minor league baseball.  Even though he already had signed a contract to teach, he signed the contract to play baseball as well.  He was expected to report for spring training in Florida in the upcoming February with the idea that he would be playing for Jamestown (NY) in the New York-Pennsylvania League. 

               However, since he had no baseball commitments in the fall, he began his teaching career at Start, where he taught math and he was an assistant football coach.  Then, when it came time for spring training, he resigned his teaching position and headed to Florida.  When the Tigers broke camp that spring, he did not go to Jamestown, but instead went to Daytona Beach, a step up the minor league ladder.  “It was great,” said Baumgartner, but after six weeks of games his pro career came to an end.  “When the major league team started making its cuts, they released me.  It didn’t last long, but I’m glad I had the chance.”  He then added that the team released him one day before his 500-dollar signing bonus was going to kick in.  “Instead, they gave me a bust ticket back to Daytona—I think we were playing in Fort Lauderdale at the time—and my pro career was over.”

               When he came back to the Toledo area, he was now without a teaching position.  He hoped to get hired by his alma mater, Clay.  He interviewed for a position there, but there were no openings.  But his former coach and English teacher at Clay had moved up to Assistant Superintendent.  The Assistant Superintendent knew Edgar Andrews, then the principal at Rossford.  Rossford had an opening.  Baumgartner interviewed for the job and was hired.  So, in 1965 he started teaching Algebra and Geometry to freshmen and sophomores.  At the time, he was one of two math teachers in the high school. 

               In his first year at Rossford, he coached three sports: football, basketball, and baseball.  He was the freshmen basketball coach on the 1966 boys’ basketball team that reached the state final and is credited with putting Rossford basketball on the map.  Then, schools in Ohio were either Class “A” or Class “AA”.  Rossford liked playing in the small school division, so they wanted to stay Class “A”.  This meant that the school had to re-charter the high school from a four-year high school to a three-year high school.  Freshmen, therefore, were not counted as part of the high school, so when it came to baseball season, no freshmen were allowed to play JV since they were considered junior high students. 

               Rossford’s Athletic Director, Bud Gladieux knew that Baumgartner had played baseball so he convinced him to work with a group of 8-10 freshmen that wanted to play.  Gladieux told him that there would be no games, just practices to teach fundamentals so that these kids could remain part of the baseball program going forward.  Baumgartner agreed and the rest is history. 

               On his first day, though, the beginning was not that illustrious.  “At the time the only field we had was the field down at the marina where the varsity and the JV played.”  Baumgartner asked where his team was supposed to practice, and all Bud Gladieux told him is: “Ask the kids.  They’ll show you where to go.” 

               That first day of practice, burdened with two duffel bags of gear, Baumgartner followed his team to a ramshackle practice field on Wales Road, an area that is now the city’s dump.  Getting to this field was no easy task.  According to Baumgartner, the walked down to Beech Street and then cut across Grassy Creek by way of a giant concrete tile that served as a tunnel under the rail yard.  The creek followed through the tile and just above the water line was a smaller tile, perhaps just two feet wide.  The players and Baumgartner walked across this smaller tile through the giant tile.  Once they came out the other side, they had to hike up a steep hill to what used to be an old softball diamond.  “And that’s where we had practice every day,” Baumgartner said, and then added with a laugh that only about three of those players from that group went on to play varsity when they were seniors. 

               The next year, Baumgartner served as an assistant coach to the legendary Brick Long; but in 1969 he took over the head coaching responsibilities for the Bulldogs, a position he then held for the bulk of his 30-year teaching career. 

               What he liked best about coaching was teaching the fundamentals.  “I liked being with the kids.  I was happy in the classroom and coaching was the same way,” he said.   But while he liked coaching, Baumgartner admits that baseball isn’t always his favorite sport.  “Compared to football and basketball baseball is a slow game, and it’s not an easy game, especially when it comes to hitting.”

               That being said, though, Baumgartner still maintains a tremendous respect for a game to which he dedicated his career.  “It’s like life.  It’s like anything,” he said.  “It teaches you that it’s not easy.  You have to work at it.  You have lots of failures and hopefully successes, but you learn that you have to keep working at it and that you always need to do your best.”

               His advice to young players is simple.  “You might make an error or you might strike out, but you need to dust yourself off and get back after it.”  He then added, “Do it so you can be part of something.  Play sports so you can be with your friends and have the kind of experiences that are associated with sports, so you can have the camaraderie of working toward a goal together.”

               As Head Coach of the Bulldogs, Baumgartner’s teams won nine NLL championships, 12 Sectional Championships, and 4 District Championships.  He also had one team finish as a regional runner-up.  “We won because we had a lot of good kids,” he said. 

               Eventually, Baumgartner also served as Varsity Bowling Coach.  One only needs to look at the championship banners in the field house to see that boys’ basketball, baseball, and bowling are the most successful programs in school history.  “Bowling was fun, too.  We had some good bowlers and won a few championships there,” said Baumgartner. 

               Baumgartner still resides in Rossford with his wife, Pat. His three children graduated from Rossford, and he now enjoys spending time with his grandchildren and catching up with plenty of friends.

The varsity ball diamond at Rossford now bears his name: the Jerry Baumgartner Diamond, a simple gesture for a man that has done so much over the years for Rossford athletics. Despite being retired for several years; Baumgartner still attends as many Rossford sporting events as possible and regularly takes up sentinel for the baseball Bulldogs in his folding chair positioned behind home plate and wearing his honorary Rossford letter jacket.      

               When asked about any advice he might have for young coaches, he said, “Make it fun.  Keep it fun.  You got to be the bad guy some time, but you have to make it light and not all business.”  For a coach that enjoyed teaching the game to anybody who wanted to play it, that seems like great advice. 

Submitted by Michael Krieger