While looking through the Official NCAA Baseball Guide of 1973 for some unrelated material, I stumbled across a stat that I had not included in any of my previous updates on the good old days when HBCU’s dominated NAIA baseball.
Inadvertently left off my list of yearly leaders was Southern University, with its lofty .334 team batting average leading the small school division in 1972.
And it is not a wonder the Jaguars were a hitting machine with the likes of Dale Brock and Danny Goodwin, both of whom would be named to the prestigious Team USA in 1973.
Dale Brock (l) Danny Goodwin (r)
Brock, the cousin of pro baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock, posted a .348 average in 1972 and led the team with eight home runs. Goodwin, who went on to become a two-time All American and the only ballplayer ever to twice be tabbed as the number one pick in the MLB draft, hit .364. Both Brock, an outfielder and Goodwin, a catcher, were freshman in 1972.
However, the team leader on offense was an upper-class outfielder named Roger Cador. If the name sounds familiar, it should. Cador went on to become the highly successful head coach of these same Southern University Jaguars. Entering into his 21st season in 2010, Coach Cador had compiled a 645-334-1 record.
Roger Cador in 1972
But in 1972, leading the team with a .393 batting average (two years before aluminum bats came on the scene), Roger Cador had dreams of pro baseball, not coaching. As a 10th round selection of the Atlanta Braves in 1973, Cador spent four seasons in the minor leagues before turning to coaching. Dale Brock was drafted three times, the last being a third round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 1975. Brock played two years of minor league ball. Danny Goodwin was the first player picked in the 1975 MLB draft (by the California Angles) and played seven seasons in the Majors, mostly as a designated hitter and part-time catcher.