Gene Schultz
Kee High School
Impact Statement
Schultz retired after 43 years, 11 State titles and is the winningest baseball coach in the nation.
Biography
The nation’s all-time leading winner with a 1,675-353-1 record, Schultz, 65, begins his 43rd season in the dugout this summer for Kee, a consolidation of Lansing and New Albin schools with an enrollment of just 155 students in grades 9-12.
The native of Winona, Minn., an All-State football and basketball player, turned down a $2,000 bonus offer from the Washington Senators to attend college, eventually graduating from Winona State University. Schultz inherited a meager 10-game baseball schedule, which he quickly expanded to a 40-game slate. Schultz guided the Kee Hawks to the first of 11 state titles in 1973.
That team, which finished 47-0, is one of just 10 Iowa teams to complete an unbeaten season. Schultz is one of just four Iowa coaches to lead four consecutive state title teams (1989-92), a run that included a 59-game winning streak. His teams also won summer state titles in 1980, 1981, 1986 and 2005 and fall titles in 1977 and 1978, and finished second in state nine times, most recently last summer. That finish earned Schultz Class A Northeast District Coach of the Year honors from the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association, which inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2006.
The National Federation of State High School Associations honored him as its National Coach of the Year in 2003. Schultz also was Kee’s boys basketball coach for 37 years, compiling a 367-389 record.
After being honored, Schultz coached for another two years before retiring after the 2014 season. With 45 years under his belt, he boasts 11 State Championships, 9 summer titles and 2 fall titles. He finishes with 1,754 victories and 398 defeats.
Photos
