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Princeton University Athletics
Tom O'Connell Inducted Into ABCA Hall Of Fame
January 03, 2004 | Baseball
Jan. 3, 2004
Tom O'Connell, whose 323 coaching wins rank second all-time with the Princeton baseball program, is a member of the the American Baseball Coaches' Association Hall of Fame Class of 2004. The induction ceremony was to be held Saturday, Jan. 3, at the ABCA convention in San Antonio.
O'Connell is a member of a five-man induction class, joined by Jeff Albies from William Paterson University, Billy Bock of Pine Bluff High School in Arkansas, Chuck Hartman of Virginia Tech and Gary Pullins of Brigham Young.
O'Connell coached at Princeton from 1982 until 1997, and his 323 coaching wins rank second with the Tigers behind only Bill Clarke, who won 564 in 34 seasons spread throughout the first half of the 20th century. O'Connell led Princeton to three league championships (two in the old EIBL and one in the Ivy League) and to three NCAA tournament appearances.
A native of Braintree, Mass., O'Connell played baseball at Connecticut, where he captained the 1955 Yankee Conference championship team. He then played briefly in the Kansas City A's organization and served in the Army from 1956-58 before starting his career as a highly successful high school coach in Massachusetts.
His first college stop was at Brandeis, where his teams won five Greater Boston League championships, made six NCAA Division III regional appearances and advanced to one Division III championship game.
He also served as the director of the Ted Williams Baseball Camp and director of the Princeton University Baseball camp.