Tom Lee, 90; Was Cal Poly Baseball/Boxing Coach - Played In Cincinnati's Minor Leagues
Bill Schenley
Tom Lee, a Mustangs Athletics Hall of Famer,
Taught Boxing at the University For 12 Years
FROM: The San Luis Obispo Tribune ~
By Brian Milne
Tom Lee, a legendary Cal Poly coach, instructor and
member of the Mustangs Athletic Hall of Fame, died at his
San Luis Obispo home Thursday. He was 90.
Lee, father of Cal Poly baseball coach Larry Lee, retired
from the physical education and recreation department in
1988 after 36 years of coaching everything from boxing to
baseball.
"He touched a lot of student-athletes' lives," said Cal Poly
Hall of Fame member Vic Buccola, one of 50 former boxers
who attended a reunion recognizing their coach a year ago.
"He had a big impact on their lives, and you really saw that
at the boxing reunion last year. It was a very emotional time
for all of us, and it really showed how much Tom Lee had
affected the lives of so many athletes."
Lee, who celebrated his 90th birthday Nov. 6, came to
Cal Poly in 1952, when he was hired to coach the varsity
baseball, freshman football and boxing squads.
He coached the three sports until the late 1950s, when
then-athletic director LeRoy Hughes asked him to choose
between baseball and boxing. He chose boxing, a sport he
had loved since his Golden Gloves days in Montana and
North Dakota.
Lee coached the sport for 12 years until it was discontinued
in 1963. He produced one national champion, five Pacific
Coast Intercollegiate champions and 25 NCAA Boxing
Coaches Association champions. Among his former boxers
are Cal Poly Hall of Famers Donald Adams, Frank Loduca
and 1957 national champion Eduardo Ochoa.
"It was a very popular sport at Cal Poly," Lee told The
Tribune at the time of his retirement. "And it was very much
needed in our society if supervised and controlled properly.
It teaches young men a lot of values."
After his retirement, Lee was active in the community and a
fixture at Cal Poly baseball games after his son took over
the program in 2002.
"I'm in coaching because of him," Larry Lee said. "I didn't
know any different growing up. As a family, we just grew
up in that environment.We always had sports in my backyard,
and after you were done playing, you coached.
"He was a genius in a lot of ways. You're never going to
measure up to him, but you just try to follow the lessons that
he provided."
Tom Lee also had a background in baseball, playing
alongside Satchel Paige on the inaugural semi-pro world series
championship team in 1935, spending three seasons in the
Cincinnati Reds farm system and coaching Cal Poly's baseball
program in 1953 and 1955.
His three sons - Mike, Terry and Larry-all starred at
San Luis Obispo High School and the "Brothers of Summer,"
as a Tribune headline noted in March 1990, went on to play
professional baseball and coach at the prep and collegiate
levels.
"I thought it was my duty as a father to see that they were
coordinated enough and have self confidence in themselves,"
Lee said in 1990. "In spor ts, I always thought it was an
important way for them to have those small successes - and
you build on those successes."
His oldest son, Mike, played Class-A baseball for the Giants,
coached softball at Cuesta College and is now the softball
coach at San Luis Obispo High. Terry was a No. 1 draft choice
of the San Francisco Giants. Larry played minor league ball
briefly in the Seattle Mariners organization before coaching the
Cuesta baseball program for 16 seasons. He is entering his sixth
season at Cal Poly.
"After his coaching days, he lived through his children and
grandchildren," Larry Lee said. "He taught us a lot of lessons
throughout our lifetimes.
"He's left his mark on a lot of people throughout the years and
has been a friend to a lot of people in the community as well as
a teacher, mentor and coach."
Born in Miles City, Mont., on Nov. 6, 1917, Tom Lee was
drafted by the U.S. Army in the early 1940s and served in
an artillery unit in the European Theater in World War II
under Gen. George Patton.
After the war, Lee married Anne Mikulich. They had four
children, including daughter Renee, and nine grandchildren.
Anne Lee taught physical education and coached at San Luis
Obispo High School for 32 years before her death in 1990.
"Both my parents were tireless," Mike Lee said. "They set a
great example that you have to work for what you want.
My father would always walk off the field, the court or out of
the gym and make sure he would be home by 6 for dinner
and to help us with our homework.
"Then he'd go to the pool and teach swimming three nights
a week. He did so many things, and I know Dad's spirit will
remain with Cal Poly along with a lot of other places."
A funeral service for Lee is scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m.
at the Old Mission Church in San Luis Obispo.