He has labored at UConn since 1962 and his 24-year stint because the Huskies’ baseball coach led to 2003. He’s 84, nonetheless sharp and current, a college’s treasure.

A quasi-retired Baylock began working with the soccer program simply earlier than Randy Edsall led the Huskies to a bowl for the primary time in 2004. He’ll be on the sideline Monday when the Huskies close Jim Mora’s first season by ending a six-year bowl absence.  

“Getting again to the place we needs to be, experiencing all the great things,” Baylock Mentioned, proudly. “To observe us harm for some time and to be again once more, simply seeing the youngsters – nice attitudes out right here. That’s what Jim has completed. It’s a 360 on the angle. No pickle pusses out right here.”

Baylock was generally known as “The Bear” again within the Sixties and Seventies as a UConn soccer assistant coach and he’s largely known as “Coach Baylock” now. Most every part he does takes place out of the general public eye however is felt by those that come and go from this system.

Because the soccer group’s director of alumni and group affairs, Baylock is each a hyperlink to the previous and future, preserving former gamers concerned with this system and its present gamers. He doesn’t use a pc or electronic mail. He writes hundreds of letters and makes hundreds of cellphone calls a yr.

His job is all about relationships.

Handy, as a result of constructing these comes so naturally to him.

Tyler Phommachanh, UConn’s redshirt freshman quarterback, made his approach over to the sideline and greeted Baylock, who shook Phommachanh’s hand and mentioned, “Hey, adopted son.”

“I am taking this man residence with me,” Baylock joked. “He makes me comfortable. He is all the time smiling. I instructed him he ought to come dwell in my home. What child.”

That interplay reminded Baylock of one other, possibly eight years in the past, when former UConn cornerback Jhavon Williams was on crutches. Baylock gave Williams a trip someplace.

“He mentioned, ‘Why are you doing this?’ ” Baylock recalled. “I mentioned, I don’t coach you guys. I’m like Grandpa. Grandpas care for their grandchildren.’ He mentioned, ‘Can I name you Grandpa? I mentioned, ‘Certain,’ so each observe, he’d see me standing on the sideline and yell, ‘Grandpa, I’m going to be primary in each drill. I need you to be proud.’

“At some point, I’m strolling by Gampel Pavilion and right here comes Professor Gramling from Enterprise. I mentioned, ‘Hey Larry, I’d such as you to satisfy my grandson, Jhavon.’ Larry says, ‘You guys do not look something alike.’ Jhavon mentioned to him, ‘We’re linked by the guts.’ You possibly can’t purchase that.”

What Baylock has at UConn priceless. It’s his place. These are his individuals. The Huskies’ soccer success this season has been constructed on the youthful power of its gamers and Mora’s teaching employees. And it has given one of many oldest members of the campus group his newest thrill.

Baylock hasn’t traveled a lot for the reason that pandemic hit. He mentioned he’d somewhat die from a foul ball to the pinnacle than from COVID. He shrugged. There’s no approach he was going to overlook this bowl recreation.

“He is superior,” Mora mentioned after observe. “He’s a historical past e book. He remembers the title of each participant that is ever performed right here and stays in touch with them. He is a exceptional individual on so many ranges. He is all the time supportive. To have him right here this week has meant loads, simply to see him round. It form of, to me, reinforces the idea of household, of a soccer group and a program actually being an prolonged household.”

Baylock, with out exaggeration, has in all probability thrown extra batting observe pitches than any human being in historical past. He still tosses for the team at Eastern Connecticut in Willimantic a few times a week every spring. He has lived in the identical home since 1964, the primary yr he took on a twin position as an assistant coach with each the UConn baseball and soccer groups.

“I paid $16,500,” mentioned Baylock, whose spouse of 52 years, Barbara, generally known as Mama Bear, died in 2015. “The realtor instructed me I can get $300,000 for it. How’s that, huh? No, I am not going wherever. Folks say, when are you going to cease? I say, line drive to the brow, buried beneath the mound, reincarnated as a foul pole.”

Baylock watches a church service on TV every single day at 8 a.m. earlier than heading to campus round 9. There, he makes his calls and writes his notes and dives deeper into his initiatives. He all the time has one. Among the many newest was to realize permission to take possession of any duplicate pictures from archives that return to the Nineteen Fifties. 

“I mail them to the fellows, ‘Thought you would like this,’ ” Baylock mentioned. “And so they say, ‘Oh, my God, the place did you discover that? I’ve acquired it in a body and I confirmed my grandson.’”

Baylock then reached right into a bag he was carrying across the stadium Sunday and pulled out a blue UConn soccer cap. A patch on the aspect reads, “Alumni Huskies.”

“I’ve acquired 600 of those out,” Baylock mentioned. “The one approach you may put on one is for those who performed for UConn. Then for those who go to a recreation and see one other man with one on, it is ‘Hey what yr did you play?’ Simply preserving them within the loop. I coached a variety of them.”

There’s a little bit of a void Baylock’s life. Dee Rowe, the opposite UConn legend and amongst Baylock’s closest mates, died in January 2021. He was 91. Over espresso and cupcakes, Baylock and Rowe would sit within the UConn bookstore for hours at a time, calling one another Monsignor and Pope.

“I miss that man,” Baylock mentioned. “Day by day, individuals would say, ‘Dee, it is so good to see you.’ He’d say, ‘I like being seen and never considered.’”

These days, Baylock often spends these early-afternoon hours sipping espresso by himself. He’s additionally taken a liking to strolling campus and coming into a unique constructing every single day to speak with … whoever is there.

He writes newsletters which might be mailed to 1,300 former UConn soccer gamers 5 instances a yr. Each is accompanied by a private, hand-written be aware. He’s completed this for years. Alongside the way in which, he has organized occasions, tutored gamers, led outings and a lot extra. He remembers Dan Orlovsky being significantly keen on visiting a kids’s hospital.

His subsequent undertaking is to steer Mora’s thought of creating a mentorship program, during which each UConn soccer participant shall be paired with a UConn soccer alumni who would possibly present profession recommendation and alternatives.

On the soccer group’s annual awards banquet final month, Mora introduced that three gamers annually – one offense, one protection, one particular groups – could be honored with the brand new A.B. Service Award. Baylock didn’t know that was coming.

“I used to be crawling beneath the desk,” he mentioned. “I am sitting there with Andre Dixon and Bryant Shirreffs and people guys. I don’t prefer to be in that scenario, the highlight. It’s simply, get the job completed.”

That’s what he all the time instructed athletes.

When Baylock got here to UConn within the days of Rick Forzano and Lou Holtz, he was put accountable for instructing research abilities to freshman soccer gamers, three hours an evening, 4 nights every week, in Monteith Corridor. It started extra formally in 2003, with a suggestion from Edsall and then-athletic director Lew Perkins that Baylock might assist the soccer program transition to what was then generally known as Division I-A in 2003 as a liaison between this system {and professional} scouts.

He was requested to work 900 hours that yr. He put in 2,000.

“I simply loved doing it,” he mentioned, and he stored milling about, one other day beneath the solar with the individuals he tries to look out for.