COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - When then-athletic director John Gagliardi offered Jerry Haugen '76 the head baseball coaching job at Saint John's University in the summer of 1977, it certainly wasn't the type of promotion that would put him in a new tax bracket.

"I think I got a $900 raise," said Haugen, who was already serving as an assistant coach on Gagliardi's football staff and as the Johnnies head hockey coach. "So I was really making the big money then.

"I told John that what I really wanted to do was to get rid of hockey and just coach football and baseball. He said it was kind of late for us to be hiring a new hockey coach. They'd have to go through a search, and he didn't know who they'd end up with. So I said OK and just went with it."

After all, it was another chance for Haugen - a football and baseball standout for the Johnnies during his own playing career - to continue being around a sport he loved.

"It certainly fit into my passions," said Haugen, who'd been an assistant under former coach Denny Lorsung, who left to take over the head job at St. Cloud State. "I don't know if I'd call it a dream job. But it was certainly something I knew I wanted to dabble in. My plan at that time was to eventually go to law school at William Mitchell (in St. Paul). But I remember my dad, who was a 1942 Saint John's graduate, telling me 'Son, you can always go to law school. How many opportunities do you get to go back and coach a couple of the sports you love?' That's when I really decided to take this and move on with it.

"Of course, I never did get to law school."

Impressive numbers and longevity
The bar's loss has been SJU's gain as Haugen has remained in Collegeville for almost five decades now - serving as defensive coordinator in football and as the head coach in baseball where he has led the Johnnies to three conference titles (1994, 1998 and 2018), four MIAC playoff championships (2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019) and 16 conference playoff appearances (including the past 14 seasons in a row).

He picked up his 900th career victory when SJU swept Northwestern in a nonconference doubleheader Wednesday (March 26) in Roseviile. He now boasts a career mark of 901-727-5, which places him fifth on NCAA Division III's winningest active coaches win list.

He is just the 27th coach in history at the Division III level to reach the 900-win mark.

"I was there for his 500th win and we had a banner and photos taken," said Jed Riegelman, a 2004 SJU graduate and a three-time All-MIAC outfielder. "That was (over) 400 wins ago. It's like a whole other career. But what hasn't changed is his love for the game. You don't stick around as long as he has if you don't love the sport, and he lives and breathes baseball. I think that's why he's been as successful as he has."

But all things must come to an end eventually and Haugen - who stepped down as SJU's defensive coordinator prior to the 2024 season - announced in December that the 2025 season would be his last, though he will serve as head coach emeritus in 2026.

In celebration of his career, the university has designated the Johnnies' MIAC doubleheader against Augsburg on April 26 as Jerry Haugen Day.
 
The event is open to the public – with special guests including the extended Haugen family, and alumni, parents, friends and student athletes. A social gathering with tours of the baseball clubhouse begins at 11 a.m. A retirement celebration is scheduled for noon with a lunch featuring ballpark food and beverages to follow at 12:30, leading up to the start of the first game at 1 p.m.
 
There is no cost to attend the event. RSVPs will be taken online, beginning Friday (March 28).

"While my memories of coaching at Saint John's will be cherished, I have decided it is time for a new adventure," Haugen said in the release that accompanied the announcement. "For someone to begin a new chapter, an old chapter must come to an end.  

"I would like to thank the coaches I have worked with. Their support and knowledge have been tremendous. I would like to thank my family for all the sacrifices they have made from my 110 seasons of coaching sports. They shared me with many teams and players, and I missed more of their activities than I care to mention. Without their support and love, I would not have been able to do what I enjoyed.  I love you all very much."

Huge impact
Two of Haugen's four children - sons Lincoln and Casey - went on to play for him at SJU. Casey earned All-MIAC honors as a catcher in 2007, while daughters Lindsay and Sarah were standout softball players in high school. Sarah went on to play at the College of Saint Benedict.

But if they inherited his love of sports, Haugen admits the life of a three-sport coach (after leaving hockey, he went on to serve as an assistant basketball coach under Jim Smith) was not easy on his family.

"I was gone a lot between practices and games," he said. "And this went on from the middle of August when my summer ended because of football all the way to the end of the second semester. I was busy all the time. They put up with a lot. Missing an ice show or even getting to graduations late. You name it. It's probably on the list."

Yet through his efforts, Haugen has made a huge impact on generation after generation of SJU athletes. In baseball alone, he's coached 134 All-MIAC performers and six All-Americans. 

Among that group was Jon Dold, a two-time All-MIAC pick, who led all of Division III with a .562 batting average in 1993 and was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 40th round of that year's MLB Draft – making him the first Johnnie to be drafted at the MLB level.

"He did a ton to help make me a better player," said Dold, who was a 2023 inductee into the SJU J-Club Hall of Honor. "He really focuses on teaching the fundamentals and my hitting improved a lot during my time there."

Bill Kauffmann, an All-MIAC infielder in both 1985 and '86, said Haugen had a drive to win that was contagious, but was also able to keep things in perspective.

"He doesn't like to lose, and I think it's that competitiveness that's helped sustain him for almost 50 years," Kauffmann said. "St. Thomas and St. Olaf had great teams back then, but we were right there with them. We gave them some tough games, and Jerry was as disappointed as the rest of us if we lost. But he knew how to keep things in balance. He'd say 'That was a tough loss. But the sun will come up tomorrow.' And that was important.

"He was a great teacher. He wasn't a rah-rah kind of coach. But he taught us so much about mechanics. I didn't know there were more than two ways to turn a double play until I got to Saint John's. He helped me turn into a pretty good second baseman. He knew how to develop talent and get the most out of the players he had."

Those sentiments are shared by Connor Cline, an All-MIAC pitcher and first baseman in 2012 and '13.

"There's no doubt he loves baseball and has a passion for it," Cline said. "When I was there, video was starting to become more elevated as a way to analyze pitching form and swing stances and he embraced that. He was really passionate about everything involving the game.

"And he was consistent, even in things like his walk to the mound. We used to mimic it a little. It was kind of a strut. Never too fast or too slow. It was always the same whether you were performing well or having a tough outing. It never changed."

Times-a-changin'
These days, the Johnnies - like most teams - take spring trips to warm-weather locales like Florida and Arizona - giving them a chance to get in games early in the season before the snow has melted in Minnesota. In the early days, though, escaping the winter meant driving (with Haugen at the wheel) somewhere south of the snowline - an approach that wasn't always successful.

"I can remember driving down to Kansas one year through a snowstorm and wondering what we were doing there," Haugen said. "In those days, travel was by van and we had no communication … no cell phones. We had road maps to guide us as we drove from East Central Oklahoma University to Oklahoma City or Wichita. I think we played in every little town in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. That would be our first time outside and those teams had played 15 or 16 games already. If we came back .500, it was a good trip."

These days, the artificial playing surface (Haugen Field) at Becker Park, the state-of-the-art baseball complex that opened in 2013, means Haugen's team is often able to play home games outdoors in March - either before or after their spring trips. 

The on-site clubhouse that opened a year ago features 51 lockers (plus six in the coaches' area), showers and bathrooms, a satellite training room, a laundry room, a meeting room, a coaches' office and a rooftop deck that can be used for viewing baseball games, as well as for tailgating prior to football games in the fall.

It's a far cry from the way things were when Haugen was a player for the Johnnies, or for much of his tenure as head coach.

"Going way back, long before I was here, the field was where the (Abbey) Church is now," Haugen said. "Then it was where the (Warner) Palaestra now stands. That opened my sophomore year and we moved across the road into the far corner (parallel to where the current field sits). That was a beautiful spot with the trees in the background, but there was no sun except in the late evenings. There's probably still snow back there now. We just had snow fencing at first. I can still remember going back for a fly ball, catching it and getting jammed in the rib by a stake.

"I'd seen plans for a baseball field on the other side, and a sprinkler system was already installed, so we moved in 1985. The soil there was a lot sandier and it was a better setup, but nothing like we have now."

"The guys who never played at that park never got to experience clearing rocks out of the infield," Kauffmann added. "At the end of every practice, Jerry made sure we spent five minutes picking up rocks. That was just part of our routine back then."

The new, stone-free facilities were made possible thanks to the generosity of the Becker family. Scott Becker '77 was a teammate of Haugen's in both football and baseball at SJU and served eight seasons as a volunteer assistant on the baseball coaching staff. In addition, he is a founder of Northstar Capital, a leading private equity firm based in Minneapolis.

"I've been very fortunate to have one of my best friends (Becker) in the right position to make this happen," Haugen said. "We wouldn't have any of this without him, and I probably would have retired 15 years ago."

"We've got a great product here," he continued. "Our location is great. We have a beautiful campus. There are a lot of positives, and the baseball complex is another way we try to give our student-athletes a great experience. It's made a huge difference. We've never had a permanent locker room before now. We ended up getting moved all over the (Warner) Palaestra over the years.

Success and legacy
Instead, the new facilities have helped usher in a new era of success. SJU has made four NCAA Division III tournament appearances since 2012, and three in the last 10 years. That included the 2016 team that advanced all the way to the regional championship round.

"I think back on the teams that have won conference tournaments and advanced to regionals and those are special years," Haugen said. "The atmosphere and fun with those guys just gets extended. At that time of year, school is out, so all we're doing is focusing on baseball. 

"We've been awfully close to advancing out of regionals over the years. But we've faced some tough teams. That region final against Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2016 was exciting. But even in the 90s (1994 and '98) we had some great battles against Wisconsin-Oshkosh. They won a national title in 1994 after beating us. I think that team had like seven MLB draft picks."

But while he will remember the victories and championships fondly, that isn't what Haugen hopes to be remembered for.

"I really haven't thought too much about what I want my legacy here to be yet," Haugen said. "But I guess I just want people to say our guys appreciated the game and played it the right way. I think if you talk to the other coaches in our league, they'd say we've done that. We haven't tried to dig anybody in the back. We don't recruit negatively. We just play the game hard and hopefully we win more than we lose.

"Then it's the relationships with the guys. It always means a lot when a guy comes back after graduating and talks about what a great experience they had here. Because in the end, that's really what it's all about."