Southern Jaguars baseball

The Southern Jaguars baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The team is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The team plays its home games at Lee–Hines Field in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Background The Jaguars have more SWAC titles than any school. They also have more national and black national titles than any SWAC school. Though Southern was forced to discontinue its baseball program during the uncertain times of the Great Depression and World War II years (specifically from 1932 to 1947), its program was largely stable in the subsequent post-war decades; only four head coaches coached Southern between 1949 and 2017. In 1959 Southern, led by future National Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock, became the first historically black college or university (HBCU) to win the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship. In 1987 Southern became the first HBCU to win a game in an NCAA Division I regional tournament by defeating #2-ranked Cal State Fullerton. In 1996 Southern became the first HBCU to win a game in an NCAA Division I play-in series by defeating Austin Peay. In 2003 and 2005, Southern won blackcollegebaseball.com black national championships; in 2019 Southern won a third black national championship, this time designated by blackcollegenines.com, for its Large School Division. Head coaches Robert Henry ("Bob") Lee, a graduate of LeMoyne College, served as head coach between 1949 and 1962, before moving on to become coach of the football team. He compiled a 207–51 (.802) overall record as baseball coach. In addition to coaching Brock and the 1959 team to an NAIA national title, he also led the Jaguars to the 1960 NAIA World Series and 2 official and 4 unofficial SWAC titles (for the 1949, 1950, 1955, and 1956 seasons). The Jaguars' baseball stadium is named in part for him.