April, 1985: Ronald Reagan was president. Bill Allain was Mississippi’s governor. John C. Stennis still represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg was the reigning National League MVP. Madonna’s “Material Girl” was No. 1 on the hit charts. The Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson were well on their way to the NBA Championship.

Yes, and on April 10, 1985, William Carey College (it would not become a university until 2006) named Bobby Halford as its next baseball coach, beginning in 1986.

Last week, more than 40 years later and at the age of 72, Halford coached the Crusaders to his 1,374th victory, thus passing Ron Polk to become Mississippi’s all-time winningest college baseball coach. He has won two more games since. Polk won 1,373 college baseball games at three different schools, including two stints at Mississippi State.

“That’s a lot of games, a lot of winning,” Polk said of Halford’s achievement. “What’s really amazing is that he did it at one place, one school. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I am happy for Bobby.”

Said Halford of Polk: “He was the master. He set the bar in Mississippi baseball for all the rest of us.”

Younger fans might be surprised to learn there was a time when Mississippi State and William Carey competed against one another in baseball. Polk started that. In fact, at State, Polk played games against Carey, Delta State, Millsaps and Mississippi College. He played Jackson State at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson. 

“I just thought it was good for baseball in Mississippi,” Polk said. “People would ask me why we would go to Hattiesburg and play a couple games at Carey. Well, we had a lot of alumni in south Mississippi who got to see us play. Plus, Carey played good baseball. Most of those were really good, competitive games. There wasn’t a lot of travel involved. But the main thing was, I just thought it was good for baseball in a state where baseball needed to grow.”

Nearly four decades later, Knight remembers those games against Polk’s SEC powerhouse teams, including the day when the great Will Clark hit one far over the light poles at the old Carey ballpark. 

“They were the best coached teams I ever played against,” Halford said. “His guys were so professional, fundamentally so good and so organized. Sometimes, I felt like the pupil coaching against the master.”

And, sometimes, the pupil won. After losing 11 straight to the Bulldogs, Knight’s Crusaders won two of the last four meetings in 1992 and 1993 in Starkville.

“We’ve had some really good baseball teams,” Halford said. “We’ve had some teams that would have been very competitive in D1 at the mid-major level.”

That’s probably true of this spring’s Carey Crusaders, the Southern States Athletic Conference regular season champions, who have won 38 games and lost 12 and will host a four-team bracket beginning Monday in the NAIA National Championship tournament at Milton Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg. Top-seeded Carey will play Indiana-Southeast in the first round. The winner will advance to the NAIA World Series at Lewiston, Idaho

William Carey’s impressive baseball tradition precedes Halford’s tenure. The 1969 Crusaders, coached by the late John O’Keefe and featuring Petal natives Jim Smith and Junior Broome, won the NAIA World Series. In 1971, O’Keefe recruited a speedy centerfielder off Meridian High’s state championship team, and Halford became a four-year starter and standout for O’Keefe and then Johnny Stephenson, the 10-year Major League veteran who succeeded O’Keefe. In 1976, young Halford joined Stephenson’s staff as a graduate assistant. So, counting his playing days, Halford has been at Carey 53 years – and counting.

Said Ron Polk, “It’s hard for me to believe that some Division I school hasn’t come along and hired him during all that time.”

Halford, a devout Baptist working at a Baptist school, has had opportunities at bigger programs but puts it this way: “I just feel like the Good Lord always knew where I needed to be. This school, this community has meant so much to be.”

And when you get right down to it, Hattiesburg is a terrific place to be a college baseball coach at any level. You are surrounded by high schools with remarkable baseball tradition: Oak Grove, Sumrall, Petal, Hattiesburg, Purvis, all the Jones County schools and more. Three of the nation’s best junior college programs – Pearl River, Jones and Gulf Coast – are within an hour’s drive. What’s more, sparkling Milton Wheeler Field, named for the late Carey history professor and baseball fan who left an endowment that still benefits Carey baseball, is surely among the best small college facilities in the nation.

The obvious question for Halford: How much longer to you plan to coach?

“I don’t golf, I don’t fish or hunt; this is what I do,” Halford answered. “I love it. I love doing what I do and I love doing it here. Why would I quit as long as that’s the case?”

Why, indeed?

•••

About Bobby Halford, did you know:

• Early on, Halford also served as Carey’s women’s basketball coach and athletic director. He was Carey’s first women’s basketball coach and coached for 10 seasons, winning 152 games, losing 112 and winning one conference championship.
• Halford’s first Carey baseball team in 1986 played 13 games against NCAA Division I teams. They opened the season against Vanderbilt in Hattiesburg, losing 6-4. The losing pitcher that day was Larry Knight, who would go on to coach Hattiesburg and Sumrall High Schools to a combined nine state championships.
• As a freshman centerfielder in 1972, Halford batted against Southern Miss great Ray Guy, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer. Guy threw a no-hitter. “Best I ever faced,” Halford said. “He was Max Scherzer before Max Scherzer. He was mid-to-upper 90s and that slider was absolutely filthy.”