The Lane College Athletics Department has announced the hiring of legendary baseball coach Donny Crawford to lead the baseball program. Crawford turned Stillman College into a baseball powerhouse over the 11 years he manned the program.
While at Stillman, Crawford had 272 career wins while claiming the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship (SIAC) title and coaching his team to the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournaments in 2007-2009 and 2011-2014. In 2010 and 2015 the Tigers would finish as runner-up at the SIAC tournament.
In 2012, the Tigers went undefeated (21-0) in SIAC play while claiming the conference title and another trip the NCAA DII Regionals. The 2012 season also saw the Tigers’ SIAC winning streak grow to 39 games and capture its fifth conference tournament title in the last six years while Crawford was named coach of the year. The Tigers wrapped up the season with wins in the NCAA South Regional for the first time in program history. Stillman was defeated by eventual NCAA runner-up Delta State in the South Region Championship series.
Crawford’s hiring shifts the balance of power in the SIAC in Lane’s favor. He is also known for fielding some of the best student athletes in the conference during his tenure. Crawford will build Lane and expand the program.
After Stillman, Crawford served as coach at Gordo High School where the team won the 2017 Alabama 3A State Championship and made the semi-finals in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. Prior to Stillman, he was an assistant at the University of Alabama.
In the podcast, Black College Nines talks to Coach Crawford about his hiring, what his plans are to build the Lane baseball program, recruiting, getting the community involved, the support of the administration, and coaching his winning ways.
The podcast also includes the controversial and false claims logged at Crawford by actor Chris Rock that led to his resignation after being pressured by the Stillman College administration in 2015.
The 2021/2022 Lane Baseball team had lots of talent, but no pitching. Those kids had to deal with a head coach who fired the assistants that recruited them, who was tuned out and hardly held practices. They didn’t play in the stadium everyone thinks they played in because they waited too late to fundraise. Instead they played on a very poor old unused high school field with dilapidated bleaches and trees/bushes for bathrooms. The players got together and took their concerns to the AD, and the coach was let go. In return, a new one was hired and cut all of their scholarships sight unknown without calling any of them. Worse that what the Grambling volleyball coach did. Now they are all scrambling in the transfer portal. Terrible what they did to those kids. Shamefule