Longtime St. Scholastica baseball coach dies of cancer
St. Scholastica baseball coach John Baggs, who led the team for 17 years and compiled a 531-197 record, died this morning after battling a rare form of cancer. He was 43.
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Longtime St. Scholastica baseball coach John Baggs died this morning after a four-month battle with a rare form of cancer. He was 43.
Baggs, a Chicago native, was 531-197 in 17 years with the Saints, raising the program from relative obscurity to national prominence. Baggs was diagnosed with cancer Oct. 24 and was being treated for cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts. He died about 6 a.m. in hospice care at his home in Piedmont Heights, according to St. Scholastica assistant coach Joe Wicklund.
Baggs, the winningest coach in the history of St. Scholastica sports, is survived by his wife, Colleen; son, Maddux, 8; and daughter, Josie, 3.
“It’s been a difficult day,” former Saints athletic director Tony Barrett said. “There is a pall over campus.”
Barrett, a St. Scholastica economics professor, canceled his class today and arrived at the Baggs’ residence at 7 a.m. He was there throughout the afternoon.
“I don’t have any experience or rule of thumb in dealing with this sort of thing, but we could tell in recent days that his health was failing fairly rapidly,” Barrett said. “Fortunately, the coaches, family and friends were able to come in from out of town to see him in the last couple days.”
Despite mourning, the Saints are expected to play their doubleheader starting at 10:45 tonight against Wisconsin-La Crosse at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Baggs, a 10-time Upper Midwest Athletic Conference coach of the year, guided the Saints to 12 straight conference titles. He also taught feature writing.
St. Scholastica held an on-campus prayer service this afternoon.
“Dealing with John was great,” Barrett said. “Look at his program. How could it not be great? He took care of things, was low maintenance and ran one of the best baseball programs in the country. I never heard a complaint. Nothing. He ran the ideal athletic program.”
Information should be available Wednesday about funeral arrangements, which will be handled by Dougherty Funeral Home.
Tags: john baggs, st scholastica, college of st scholastica, sports, news, baseball, saints, duluth, obituaries
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Fred d.
02/25/2009 8:20 PM
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02/25/2009 8:19 PM
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kevin l m.
To Colleen and the children, all the players past and present, It is a sad day for me to hear of the passing of a great husband, father and coach. And A man that I came to admire for the zest that he had to be an excellent teacher and coach, not to mention a caring human being. I was lucky to have known John for the 8 years that I drove the teams to their games in all directions of the U.S. from short trips to those long drives to Columbus. John instilled pride and respect in his players and it showed each and every day. He taught his guys how to be the best they could be, in both sports and life itself. And what they learned from the Coach will no doubt be passed on to future generations of student/athletes. Rest in peace my friend. Kevin Moore(the Roadboss)02/26/2009 12:18 AM
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