AUBURN, Ala. – When you've coached a combined 72 seasons of Southeastern Conference baseball, your stories, jokes and memories make for a fun evening.
Legendary SEC coaches Hal Baird, Ron Polk and Keith Madison entertained 600 guests Saturday at the Auburn Baseball Diamond Club's 18th preseason banquet.
Between them, they earned 2,589 victories as SEC coaches and made 12 trips to Omaha for the College World Series.
Today's SEC, with sprawling facilities constantly being constructed and upgraded, and a television and digital network broadcasting and streaming virtually every game, scarcely resembles the league they entered.
When Polk took over at Mississippi State in 1976, he was the SEC's first full-time head baseball coach. Before then, baseball coaches also coached football, managed equipment or were athletic trainers.
When Madison, then Polk's 26-year-old graduate assistant, became Kentucky's head coach in 1979, the coach he replaced in Lexington was a full-time insurance agent who coached baseball on a part-time basis.
600 Auburn baseball fans attended Saturday's banquet at Auburn Arena
After reminiscing about how far the SEC has come, the coaches shared memories of the most dominant SEC baseball player they ever saw, with Auburn's Tim Hudson and Gregg Olson, who were both in attendance, earning mentions.
"Nobody could hit Gregg Olson's curveball," Madison said. "Nobody could get Frank Thomas out."
Baird mentioned John Powell's 17-strikeout performance against Arizona in the 1993 NCAA Stillwater regional as the most impressive outing he witnessed.
Over the course of a season, Hudson's magical 1997 included a 15-2 pitching record and at the plate, 18 home runs and 95 RBI.
"It was like having two All-Americans in one player," Baird said.
There were Bo Jackson stories, and the saga of Olson's recruitment from Omaha, Nebraska. Madison recalled telling former Auburn catcher Casey Dunn, "You're one of the best leaders I've ever coached against."
There was the time Polk got thrown out of all three games in his last visit to Kentucky. The time Madison returned to Starkville as a young coach, incredulous that the home-plate umpire, despite a downpour, kept deferring to Polk's resistance to end a game MSU trailed.
"That umpire was my next-door neighbor," Polk said.
Coach Baird credits Ron Polk for the SEC's baseball preeminence
After all the laughs, observations and remembrances, the trio ended the event by speaking directly to the 2019 Auburn Tigers, who begin the season Friday at 6 p.m. CT at Plainsman Park against Georgia Southern.
"Believe," Madison said. "Believe in yourself. Believe in your teammates, and believe in your coaches. If you get those three things going on, you're going to have a great year.
"If any one of those things is lacking, it's not going to be a good year. Be thankful. One of the things I've learned in my life in later years, the more thankful I am, the happier I am. If you want to be happy, be thankful.
"Be thankful for the gifts that God has given you to play this great game. Be thankful that you're in a place like Auburn where there are over 600 people here who really care about you, that want to see you have success. Be thankful to be in the best league in the country. Be thankful that God has blessed you with the abilities you have."
A volunteer assistant coach at UAB, Polk booked 41 speaking engagements this winter, turning down 50 more requests because of scheduling conflicts.
"Stand up. Make a difference," Polk said. "Make a difference in your teammates' lives, your coaches' lives. Treat people with respect. Enjoy the game. Enjoy the national pastime. Enjoy the fact that you're in the Southeastern Conference. Don't be A player. Be THE player, the best you can possibly be, every day that you put that War Eagle uniform on."
Displaying his renowned eloquence, Baird delivered the final word.
"Thank your lucky stars that you are where you are," Auburn's winningest coach said. "And that every day, you have had Butch Thompson to play for, and the hitters have someone like Gabe Gross to work with, and the pitchers have someone like Steve Smith to work with.
"I can assure you. You have made great decisions. You are unbelievably fortunate to have that man [Coach Thompson] and this coaching staff to work with you every day. This is the finest coaching staff I've ever seen."
Jeff Shearer, Hal Baird, Ron Polk and Keith Madison
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer