Celebrating the Life and Legacy of UCR Hall of Famer Don Edwards
4/17/2024 9:36:00 AM | Baseball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – UC Riverside lost a beloved member of the Highlander family, Don Edwards, in early March. Â
Edwards, a UCR Athletics, Riverside and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Famer, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 7.Â
"Don's knowledge of the game of baseball was off the charts," former Highlanders head coach Doug Smith said. "He was a true student of the game. As a leader in our Physical Education/ Athletics Department, he was interested in every person's growth. He was a teacher and a coach. If you aspired to be like Don Edwards, you were going to be just fine. He was a true gentleman."
Edwards was instrumental in developing the first Highlanders baseball teams back in the mid 1950s after spending five years as a pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies' minor league system. Edwards took over coaching duties for the Highlanders prior to 1960 and saw pivotal success in 1966 when John Lowenstein, who would go on to a 15-year major league career with the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, became UC Riverside's first scholarship player that season.Â
Edwards and assistant coach Gary Adams came up with the idea to host an annual tournament featuring major Division I-caliber teams. From 1967 to 1991, the Riverside Baseball Invitational, or "RBI," was the marquee college baseball event in Southern California and hosted some of the top Division I teams from across the nation to take on the then-Division II Highlanders. Notable names to have played in the RBI include Barry Bonds, Craig Biggio, Hubie Brooks and Jack Morris. Â
Edwards coached the US National Team at the 1976 Pan American Games after serving on the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee for 10 years and retired in 1989 after a 30-year career at UCR as a coach, professor and chair of the school's physical education department.Â
One of 10 distinguished members of the UCR Baseball Wall of Honor, Edwards was inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame in 1994 and the UC Riverside Athletics and Riverside Halls of Fame in 2010. Â
A memorial service will be held at The Grove Community Church in Riverside at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 19. Â
