Ronald George Fraser (June 25, 1933 – January 20, 2013) was an American baseball coach best known for his tenure at the University of Miami from 1963 to 1992. Nicknamed the "Wizard of College Baseball", he led the Miami Hurricanes baseball program to over 1,200 victories—his teams set an NCAA baseball record with playoff appearances in 20 consecutive seasons and won College World Series championships in 1982 and 1985.[1]
Born and raised in Nutley, New Jersey, Fraser was a three-sport letterman at Nutley High School where he graduated in 1953.[2] He then attended Murray State College in Kentucky from 1953 to 1954.[2] Later, he played baseball at Florida State University from 1954 to 1956 as a relief pitcher for the Florida State Seminoles baseball team. At Florida State, he joined Theta Chi. He graduated in 1960.[2]
Fraser served in the United States Army for two years, during 1957 and 1958.[2] He was stationed in Germany and the Netherlands. He coached the Germany national baseball team at the 1958 European Baseball Championship,[3] and he managed the Netherlands national baseball team from 1960 until 1963.[4]
In 1963, Fraser took a head coaching job with the University of Miami,[4] a school which did not offer its baseball players a scholarship. Even though the school did not begin to offer scholarships until 1973, Fraser built a program. Some of the people Fraser brought to visit the school to bring publicity to the program were Major League Baseball (MLB) Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Stan Musial, as well as announcer Joe Garagiola.
In 1973, Miami started a record streak of consecutive postseason appearances in college baseball; the streak continued for 20 seasons under Fraser, and ultimately lasted 44 seasons, finally ending in 2017. Also in 1973, Mark Light Stadium was built in large part to efforts by Fraser to build a privately-funded stadium. In 1974, Miami was College World Series runner-up to the University of Southern California (USC), a perennial college baseball powerhouse.
The 1980s were a time of great change in Miami athletics.[according to whom?] The Miami Hurricanes football team won championships in 1983, 1987 and 1989. While the success of Miami football seemed to eclipse much of the success of the baseball program, Miami won its first two College World Series in 1982 and 1985.
While opponents' fans often criticized Hurricane football fans for not selling out the Orange Bowl. Mark Light Stadium was almost always a full house for Hurricane baseball games and Fraser's Hurricanes drew 1.27 million fans in the 1980s, the best in college baseball.
Fraser was inducted to the Hurricanes' sports hall of fame in 1983,[5] and the Ron Fraser Building, which houses the baseball offices at Mark Light Stadium, was named after him in 1986.[6] Fraser retired as coach of Miami baseball at the end of the 1992 season.[7]
Fraser coached the United States national baseball team at the 1992 Summer Olympics, which marked the first time that baseball was an official medal sport.[8][9] The team, per Olympic rules at the time, was restricted to amateur players only.[8] Fraser's 20-player squad of college baseball players included future major leaguers such as Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra, and Jason Varitek.[10][11] The team had a 5–2 record in pool play, then fell to Cuba in the semifinals, followed by a loss to Japan in the bronze-medal match.[8]
Fraser was inducted to the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.[1] He died on January 20, 2013, at his home in Weston, Florida, of complications from Alzheimer's disease.[12]
