April 6, 2017
Jamie Clark, who served as East Central Community College head baseball coach from 1988-2001, will be posthumously inducted into the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame during ceremonies scheduled April 25 at the Hinds Community College Muse Center in Pearl.
Tickets are $35. For more information, contact David LeBlanc, director of alumni relations and the foundation, at dleblanc@eccc.edu or call 601-635-6327.
Clark, who began his tenure as head baseball coach at East Central Community College in 1988, led the Warrior program through the 2001 season, amassing an overall 365-302-1 record and winning the college’s first baseball state championship in 1998.
The college was considering dropping the baseball program before Clark was hired and brought the sport to prominence among the two-year college ranks.
After a 17-25 start his first year at the helm, Clark’s teams had 11 consecutive winning seasons with the most wins coming in 1997, when the Diamond Warriors–led by former major leaguer and fellow Hall of Fame member Marcus Thames–posted a record 40 wins and finished state runners-up.
Although his teams would appear in five region tournaments, his goal of a Region 23 title would not be achieved during his lifetime as the long-time coach was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor prior to the 2001 season and lost his battle to cancer at age 49 later that year.
The ECCC baseball stadium was named in his memory the following year and his jersey No. 41 was also retired and is prominently displayed in the lobby of Brackeen-Wood Physical Education Building. A replica is also displayed on the right field fence at Clark Stadium. Clark was inducted into the ECCC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.
Accepting the award on behalf of Clark will be his widow, Audrey Clark Mason of Austin, Texas.
