Billy Wilhelm (June 11, 1929 – December 24, 2010) was an American

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

coach who was the head coach of the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

from 1958 to 1993. In his 36 seasons as head coach, Wilhelm had a record of 1,161–536–10. Before coming to Clemson, Wilhelm played several seasons of minor league baseball and served one season as an assistant baseball coach at

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

Playing career

Wilhelm played two seasons of college baseball at NC State, and he signed a professional contract with the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

organization in 1950, splitting that season between the Goldsboro Cardinals and the

Allentown Cardinals The Allentown Cardinals were a minor league baseball team. Affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals, they played in the Class B Interstate League The Interstate League was the name of five different American minor baseball leagues that playe ...

. Wilhelm then spent two years out of baseball from 1951 to 1952, when he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

in the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

. In 1953, Wilhelm returned from military service and had his most successful minor league season. In 96 games with the

Paducah Chiefs The Paducah Chiefs are a collegiate summer baseball team in Paducah, Kentucky. They are a member of the Ohio Valley League. The Chiefs has been the primary nickname for various Paducah teams, who began play in 1897. Early incarnations of the Padu ...

of the Class D Kentucky–Illinois–Tennessee League, he batted .291 and hit 14

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s. After the 1954 season, which he split between the Columbus Cardinals and the

, Wilhelm left the Cardinals organization. Wilhelm played the 1955 and 1956 seasons in the

Milwaukee Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

system, advancing as high as the Double-A

Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were Minor League Baseball teams based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. History Atlanta played its first ...

. He played his final season of professional baseball in summer 1957, with the

Greensboro Patriots Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the U ...

of the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

organization. He appeared in a total of 401 minor league games, hitting .212 with 21 home runs.

Coaching career

Prior to his final season of professional baseball in summer 1957, Wilhelm had served as an assistant baseball coach for the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the stat ...

in spring 1957. In September 1957, Wilhelm accepted the head coaching position at Clemson. In his first two seasons, Wilhelm led the program to two

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

(ACC) championships and its first two

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

appearances, in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

and

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

. In the next 13 season (1960–1972), however, Clemson made only one NCAA Tournament appearance, in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

. With the start of the ACC Tournament era in 1973, Wilhelm began a stretch of 11 regular season conference championships in 13 seasons (through 1985), including seven consecutive from 1973–1979. This 13-season period included three

appearances, in 1976,

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

, and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

. From 1986–1993, the final eight seasons of Wilhelm's head coaching career, Clemson won three regular season conference championships (1988, 1991, 1992), three conference tournament championships (

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, and 1993), and one College World Series appearance (

). Wilhelm's teams had winning records in each of his 36 seasons, and he won a total of 17 ACC Regular Season Championships and seven ACC Tournament Championships, both ACC coaching records, as of the end of the 2012 season. He also appeared in six College World Series. He coached 27 players who went on to play

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

Head coaching record

The following is a table of Wilhelm's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

Death and posthumous awards

Wilhelm died at the age of 81 on December 24, 2010, in Seneca, South Carolina. Following his death, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the

South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame The South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame is an athletics hall of fame in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is in the capital city of Columbia. References {{Coord, 34, 00, 19, N, 81, 02, 11, W, region:US:SC_type:landmark, display=title ...

in 2012.

Notes

References