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Mike Fox embraces former player Garrett Gore in celebration of a North Carolina baseball victory.
Times-News
[Photo courtesy of UNC athletics], Times-News
CHAPEL HILL — Though the ultimate prize proved elusive time and again, Mike Fox’s run as North Carolina baseball coach achieved a gold standard in many ways.
He retired Friday after 22 seasons in charge of his alma mater, ending an era that made him the winningest active coach on the highest level of college baseball, along with the most successful in the Tar Heels’ baseball history, while leading the program to seven College World Series appearances.
Fox, a former walk-on as a North Carolina player in the 1970s, took the reins of the Tar Heels in 1999. His teams won nearly 950 games, claimed three Atlantic Coast Conference championships and turned reaching the CWS in Omaha, Neb., into an almost routine occurrence that included four straight trips from 2006-09, a feat unmatched in the ACC.
Assistant coach Scott Forbes, a longtime Fox lieutenant of 19 seasons, will be promoted to replace Fox, North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham said Friday.
The 64-year-old Fox, an Asheville native, used “one of the greatest blessings of my professional life” among his comments, as he described the job he held for more than two decades.
“I have been in love with the University of North Carolina since I was a young boy,” he said. “To see my dream of becoming a Tar Heel student, player and coach is hard for me to even comprehend.
“The experiences I have been so fortunate to live out and the relationships I have made as a player and coach have gone way beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Those experiences have exceeded even my dreams to this very day.”
Fox concludes his 37-year career as a head coach with a record of 1,487-547-5, a winning percentage of better than 73 percent. He spent 15 seasons as the coach at North Carolina Wesleyan, a Division III program, before taking the top job in Chapel Hill.
His Tar Heels teams went 948-406-1. He either played in or was the head coach for each of North Carolina’s 18 all-time victories in the CWS. The Tar Heels advanced to Omaha in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2018, but never left having collected a national championship.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak that shut down this past college baseball season, North Carolina averaged nearly 45 victories per year and produced five 50-win seasons under Fox, setting a school record with 59 victories in 2013.
“Mike’s impact on college baseball has been legendary,” Cunningham said. “He has connected generations of players and fans to Carolina baseball.”
Major League Baseball teams drafted 105 of Fox’s players out of North Carolina, including 15 first-round or supplemental round picks. He coached 27 Tar Heels who have played in the big leagues. North Carolina had 37 players receive first-team All-ACC recognition and 32 players landed All-America honors during Fox’s tenure.
Lights-out pitcher Andrew Miller (2006) and hitting machine Dustin Ackley (2009) earned National Player of the Year distinction as Tar Heels. Ackley set the career record for base hits in CWS history.
“Over the past five months I have come to realize more than ever the importance of family,” Fox said, before mentioning his wife, Cheryl. “For the first time in almost 40 years the time without coaching allowed me to truly experience family once again. Cheryl and I gained another grandbaby, and because our daughter and son-in-law live very close, we are able to experience the joy of children daily. I have also been able to spend more time with my son and his wife. It has been a blessing.
“Life slowed down for Cheryl and me, and we discovered the enjoyment of a simpler life. Thankfully I am healthy, and I feel this is the right time to step away from the rigors of coaching. I will miss the players, coaches, co-workers and our great fans, but it is time for me to be a full-time husband, father and grandfather, and do other things with my life.”
Mike Fox's baseball teams at North Carolina reached the College World Series seven times.
Times-News
[Photo courtesy of UNC athletics], Times-News
