A Beech Bluff native, Greg Goff is honored for his accomplishments as a collegiate baseball coach and as a pitcher at Delta State University, Jackson State Community College and South Side High School.
Goff, 53, is presently head baseball coach at Purdue University. He begins his fifth season as coach of the Boilermakers and 19th season as a collegiate head coach. He has 544 victories as the leader of a program entering this spring. He is averaging more than 30 wins a year, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. His teams have won 40 or more games six times, and he has a .562 winning percentage.
Raised in Beech Bluff by his parents, James Goff and the late Cora Goff, he is a 1988 graduate of South Side High School, where he was an all-district pitcher and played second base. The righthander helped the Hawks win the district, and he struck out 16 against McKenzie in one game.
“I couldn’t move the next day,” he said, laughing.
Goff was a walk-on player at Jackson State Community College but was eventually awarded a scholarship as a pitcher. He had a 5-2 record his second season which led to a scholarship at Delta State University in Mississippi.
He played two seasons there, earned his bachelor’s degree in 1994, and became a graduate assistant. He earned his master’s degree in administration at DSU in 1996 and became the Statesmen’s pitching coach in 1997. He spent two seasons at Southeast Missouri and four seasons at Kentucky as a pitching coach.
“I kind of made my living doing that at first, and I was really fortunate at Kentucky because we had some really good arms,” Goff said. “That gave me a chance to get noticed nationally.”
At Kentucky, he coached eventual Cy Young Award winner Brandon Webb and eventual Phillies 2008 World Series winner Joe Blanton.
Goff was the pitching coach at Kentucky when he landed his first head job on the collegiate level in 2004 at Montevallo (Ala.), where his teams compiled a 152-84 record in four seasons. His 2006 Montevallo team won the Southeast Region and finished third at the Division II College World Series.
After Montevallo he has been head coach at Campbell University in North Carolina, Louisiana Tech, Alabama, and Purdue. His teams have had a losing record only seven times, and four of those seasons were his first at a respective university.
Goff’s Campbell team was 49-10 in 2013, and in his final season there (2014), the Camels qualified for their first NCAA Regional in 24 years. At Campbell, Goff signed Ryan Thompson, who is presently a reliever for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Goff has coached 12 players who made it to the major leagues and has had 59 players drafted by Major League Baseball.
After seven seasons at Campbell, Goff led Louisiana Tech two years and took the team to its first regional appearance in 29 years. That led to his hiring at Alabama. But he was fired after one season when the Tide won only five conference games and finished 19-34-1 in 2017.
“That hurt me and humbled me,” Goff said. “It taught me to communicate better and changed my relationships with players and my family. My job consumed me so much, and that helped me realize what’s really important in life. I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t been through that experience.”
Goff went to Purdue as an assistant coach in 2018 and became the Boilermakers head coach two years later. He has an 82-85 record entering this season.
Goff and his wife Tina will be married 30 years in June. They have four daughters – Kara, Kiley, Kolby and Kenzie. Asked about the preference for names beginning with K, Goff laughed and said, “I was a pitching coach and pitcher, so I just like Ks, for strikeouts.”
“Baseball has been such a blessing for me, and I thank the good Lord for it,” Goff said. “I wouldn’t trade anything for being raised in Jackson where manners and respect mean something. I was surrounded by good people and good coaches, and that helped shape who I am today.”
Greg Goff joins Drae Bowles, Audrey (Hazlehurst) Davis, Joe Holloway, and Joshua Holmes as the newest members of the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame, when the 38th class is inducted at 6:30 p.m., April 11, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
Mike and Jan Kelley will be the recipients of the 2024 Billy Schrivner Distinguished Service Award, and Brevin Knight, broadcast analyst with the Memphis Grizzlies, will serve as guest speaker.
For tickets and table information, call Beth Sedberry at 731.616.8558.
(PHOTO: Greg Goff)
