A Flat(s) Legend
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For the last three baseball seasons, I’ve had the unquestionable privilege of calling Georgia Tech Baseball games on the radio for the Georgia Tech Sports Network.
Along with that, I’ve been welcomed into the program by so many people, but especially (now) 32nd year Head Coach Danny Hall.
On March 27th, just before welcoming in Clemson in for a big ACC weekend, Coach Hall announced that 2025 would be his final season leading the Georgia Tech Baseball program and is retiring at the end of the season.
Georgia Tech has been a fixture in the College Baseball fabric for many years and much of that comes from Head Coach Danny Hall that took over the Jackets in 1994 after a six-year stint as the head coach for the Kent State Golden Flash.
Since leading the Ramblin’ Wreck, Coach Hall just locked up his 4th ACC Coach of the Year award that was announced just after Georgia Tech secured the 2025 regular season ACC Championship.
Danny Hall has come from a widely branched coaching tree that begins close to home.
Coach Hall’s dad first instilled the love of sports in him and was his head coach in high school for both baseball and football in Coolville, Ohio.
Hall would then take his talents to Miami (OH) where he played for the (then known as) Redskins (now referred to as RedHawks).
At Miami (Ohio), Hall would learn under the tutelage of legendary member of the Miami (OH) “Cradle of Coaches” Bud Middaugh. After playing for Coach Middaugh, Hall would immediately start his coaching career in 1978 as a graduate assistant under Middaugh at Miami (Ohio). “DH” graduated from Miami (Ohio) for the second time with a masters in 1979 and would make his way to Ann Arbor to be an assistant for the Michigan Wolverines under…you guessed it…Bud Middaugh. Hall spent eight years on staff for Michigan before his first opportunity to lead a program came in 1988 to lead Kent State.
There are so many accolades that you could rattle off under Coach Danny Hall’s name in his 38-year head coaching career.
He moved into the 9th all-time winningest head coach in D1 College Baseball history this year with over 1,400 career wins and is second active only to now South Carolina’s Paul Mainieri who came out of retirement this past offseason.
He has taken Georgia Tech to three appearances in the College World Series in 1994, 2002 and 2006, so the accolades speak for themselves.
That said, there’s one accolade that you won’t find on a stat sheet but is the one that means the most to the skipper. It’s the family environment and culture he has established at Georgia Tech.
Each game you can find Coach Hall’s wife, Mrs. Kara, hosting numerous alumni in the Home Plate Club that are dying to get back to their next game at Mac Nease Baseball Park and Russ Chandler Stadium.
The family of Georgia Tech Baseball is widespread from Major League Baseball former superstars of Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, or Mark Texeira, to current big-league studs like Chandler Simpson, Kristian Campbell and more.
The Tech Baseball alumni success doesn’t only translate to professional baseball as it includes names like Ben King who graduated from Georgia Tech in 2024 and is now in medical school.
Doctors, lawyers, and financial experts are found frequently coming back to visit the program and the coach that brought them to the Flats. It doesn’t stop there however, because currently, you’ll see the current staff’s family and kids throughout the facility and wanting to be part of the program now and for a long time.
So while, you can look at a Hall of Fame sheet and know that Danny Hall has had an unquestioned impact on not only Georgia Tech Baseball but College Baseball as a whole on the field, rest assured that the impact that 17 has had beyond the diamond is profound, and that’s as much of a reason why the number was retired by Georgia Tech Baseball at the end of the regular season and 17 will forever only have “Hall” on top of it on a Jacket’s Jersey, and hopefully will be worn for the last time in College Baseball’s Heaven…Omaha.
