Gene EtterThe "gentleman genius" is retiring.
The dean of Chattanooga baseball coaches, Gene Etter, told his Baylor School team Friday afternoon of his plan to retire at the conclusion of this season.
"He's a gentleman genius," opined Steve Garland, the current East Hamilton and former Soddy-Daisy baseball coach. "Most people that don't know him well are going to remember him as the guy that won a lot of games at Baylor. There always has been comment about his genius, but I always think about how much of a gentleman he is. He has always won and lost with grace."
Etter actually reached the decision after the 2014 season and shared it then with headmaster Scott Wilson and athletic director Thad Lepcio. It also was his decision to announce his move now rather than wait till season's end.
"So many times when a guy resigns at the end of the season, I believe most people think that guy actually got fired," Etter said.
He is, though, going on his own terms after devoting more than half of his 75 years to Baylor as a teacher and coach.
Now in his 41st year as Baylor's baseball coach, Etter has two state championships (2003, 2006) and numerous region and district championships to his credit. He also has approximately 850 wins -- second-most all-time in Tennessee.
"The game has changed from small ball to home run ball and back, and he's been consistent throughout -- always won. He's one of the best there is," said Chris Richardson, who served as Etter's assistant for six years before taking over the baseball program at McCallie and getting the Blue Tornado into four state final fours. "He is one of the smartest baseball people I've ever met. He studies film and knows hitters. He has a good feel for situations, and with him calling pitches his pitchers most often kept hitters off-balance."
More than a baseball coach, Etter was respected as an educator. For a while he coached freshman basketball, and among his former players is Wilson.
"He taught me (Algebra I) and coached me, and he was exceptionally good at both," the headmaster said. "He has a great love of young people, and we recognized that even then. I remember he took me to a Howard-Riverside basketball game back when I was impressionable, and I remember him saying he wanted to show me what great basketball was like."
Wilson used two words to describe Etter's relationship with the academic side of Baylor's family: "Universal respect.
"He has so much class and he's been so much of a professional his entire career."
Etter also was a football assistant under his dad, legendary Red Etter, and older Tennessee football fans will remember Gene's dashing 76-yard touchdown run that enabled the Volunteers to upset Ole Miss in a late 1950s game. He also was a professional baseball player in the Chicago Cubs organization and married his wife, Eddie, at home plate prior to a minor league game while playing for the Cubs' affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth.
There also is that fact that Etter was a pretty fair card player in his day. As Wilson put it, there is an "urban legend" that Etter had been banned from Las Vegas.
Etter owned up Friday afternoon. No Las Vegas casino ever banned him, he said, "but there were a half-dozen or so that told me I could no longer play blackjack in their establishment."
That is just one side of the cerebral Etter, who never once in his career has been ejected from a game.
"I've never seen him argue -- discuss or question, yes, but never argue -- and I've never even seen him be demonstrative when asking about an umpire's call," Garland said.
Etter is, as Lepcio observed, a great teaching professional example.
"When you think about the number of kids he's coached and taught, he's had an impact on thousands of kids," Lepcio said. "I told them no one loves them more than Gene and Eddie Etter. He has been inducted into untold halls of fame, but the level of respect and admiration from kids and parents and from his professional colleagues is remarkable."
The school will begin advertising the position Monday.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.