Legendary Pima College baseball coach Rich Alday was posthumously inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame during a ceremony Friday at Washington, D.C.
Alday, who coached the Aztecs from 1974-1989 and 2018, is part of the ABCA Hall of Fame Class of 2025 that was announced during the banquet at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center.
Alday was inducted along with Dave Jarvis of Belmont (Tenn.) University, Dave Johnson of Ephrata (Wash.) High School, Costa “Pop” Kittles of Florida A&M, Charlie Migl of St. Mary’s (Texas) University, Dunn Muramaru of Mid-Pacific (Hawaii) Institute, Jim Schlossnagle of Texas and Larry Turner of Owasso (Okla.) High School.
The inaugural Hall of Fame class was inducted in 1966 and has more than 350 individual members honored.
A candidate qualifies after serving as a head coach and being a member of the ABCA for more than 15 years.
Also, the honored individual has “made professional and personal contributions to the ABCA, have significantly contributed to the advancement of baseball at the local, national or international level and should be presentative of high moral character and ethical standards, excellence and leadership,” according to the ABCA Hall of Fame nomination criteria.
Alday accumulated 517 wins in 17 combined seasons as the Aztecs’ coach. He led the Aztecs to an NJCAA national tournament runner-up finish in 1985 and five ACCAC championships. He was also a three-time ACCAC Coach of the Year recipient (1981, 1983 and 1985).
He coached the New Mexico program to 515 wins over 18 seasons.
He also amassed 107 wins and two state championships for Ironwood Ridge High School’s softball program in three seasons.
Alday served as a bench coach for Team USA in their gold medal victory in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988 and was an auxiliary assistant coach for their bronze medal team in Atlanta for the 1996 games.
A 48-year lifetime ABCA member, Alday was inducted in the Pima County Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Pima Community College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.
Alday passed away on Jan. 6, 2021, at age 71 from complications with cancer treatment.
He was a fixture in Tucson sports since he was an all-state quarterback at Tucson High School in 1965.
“Coach Alday was not just a great college baseball coach but was an even better human being,” Pima athletic director and baseball coach Ken Jacome said. “Coach was my mentor and gave me an opportunity to coach at the (NCAA) Division I level with him at the University of New Mexico. The program at Pima owes so much to him and we honor him regularly.”
Pima’s media-relations department contributed to this report
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