Former Stanford baseball coach Mark Marquess, who won 2 College World Series titles, dies at 78

Stanford coach Mark Marquess cheers on his team during a baseball game against California in Stanford, Calif., on March 2, 2007. (Darryl Bush/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

STANFORD, Calif. — Mark Marquess, a National College Baseball Hall of Famer who coached Stanford to a pair of national titles over 41 years beginning in 1977, has died. He was 78.

The school announced Friday that Marquess died, but provided no details on the cause.

A fixture for more than four decades in the dugout at Sunken Diamond on campus, Marquess guided the Cardinal to consecutive NCAA championships in 1987 and ’88.

Long known as “9” for his No. 9 jersey, he retired in 2017 and ranks as the fourth-winningest coach in Division I history with a 1,627-878-7 (.649) career record.

Marquess typically arrived on campus in the wee hours of the morning when most were still in bed, then would go to sleep early to get ready for the next day.

As the wins piled, Marquess remained humble and grounded — he certainly wasn’t keeping track of where he ranked among the best of all-time — determined never to get too high or too low.

“Really, I don’t think about it,” Marquess said in early 2008. “It’s just a matter of you get busy and as a coach you worry about the next one. You worry about the ones you lost, too much. ... When I think about it, it just means I’ve been coaching a long time.”

A former first baseman, he played both baseball and football for Stanford when he arrived at the university in 1965. Marquess would go on to become a three-time NCAA Coach of the Year — in 1985, ‘87 and ’88 — and a nine-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Along with the two College World Series titles, Stanford made 30 NCAA Tournament appearances, reached six NCAA Super Regionals and won 18 regionals during his tenure. The Cardinal also won the conference regular-season title 11 times.

“This man was Stanford baseball,” said David Esquer, Stanford’s current coach who played for Marquess on The Farm. “He was my coach, and like a father to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. This is a great loss for the Stanford community, the Stanford baseball family and myself. I love that man.”

Marquess was also a member of the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches’ Association Hall of Fame and the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.

Marquess, who played in the Chicago White Sox organization from 1969-73 and reached Triple-A, also coached USA Baseball to an Olympic gold medal in 1988 when the sport was a demonstration event in Seoul, South Korea.

He always loved his role in the the college game and so appreciated working at someplace like Stanford, taking great pride in not only finding players himself along with his staff but also developing them — many into future pros.

“One of the things, at the professional level a manager can say, ‘Well, I’m just not getting the players, it’s the general manager.’ You can put blame elsewhere,” Marquess said. “In our game, I recruit them, I do everything, so it all falls to me. You can’t blame it on somebody else. The nice thing about Stanford is it kind of sells itself academically, the campus. I mean, what’s not to like?”

Janie Mccauley, The Associated Press