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The Titan baseball tradition is alive and thriving, thanks to Head Coach George Horton, the 2003 Baseball America National Coach of the Year. In the seven years since Horton, 50, took over for Augie Garrido (after six years as Garrido’s associate head coach), the Titans have posted a 309-132-1 record, celebrated a Big West Conference title five times (by way of tournament or regular season crown) and made three trips to the College World Series. They have almost always been ranked in the national Top 25 polls and briefly ascended to the top spot in the polls in 1999, 2001 and 2003. Horton's .700 winning percentage is fifth among active Division I coaches (minimum five years). Of the 24 teams – many of which are nationally prominent – that Horton has faced five or more times, only two (Stanford and Wichita State) have managed winning records against Fullerton. A recent study by Boyd’s World – a web site devoted to the statistical analysis of college baseball – found Fullerton to have the second-best standard of success over the past five seasons and the third best over the past three seasons. Horton authored a storybook season in 2003, guiding the Titans to one of their best starts in program history (15-1) and leading them to a program-best record of 31-3 at Goodwin Field. After sweeping through the regional at Goodwin Field, the Titans beat Arizona State – the top offensive team in the country – in a super regional to advance to Omaha for the 12th time in their history. Fullerton quickly shot out to a 2-0 record in Omaha before Stanford knocked off the Titans twice en route to the championship series. Nonetheless, the Titans finished as the consensus No. 3 team in the nation for the second time in the past three years. For the Titans’ efforts, Horton was named the National Coach of the Year by Baseball America, the highest reputed baseball publication. He will be honored in December at the 2003 Baseball Winter Meetings in New Orleans. The two-time Big West Conference Coach of the Year has been at his best in series play. Heading into 2004, Fullerton owns a 79-21 overall record in three-game regular season series and the Titans have won 50 of 61 (82 percent) Big West Conference series. Fullerton has been swept just four times while the Titans have recorded 43 series sweeps. Perhaps an even bigger credit to Coach Horton has been his success on the road: the Titans have won 26 of Horton's 30 conference series away from Goodwin Field. Horton, who is one of nine men to have appeared in Omaha as a player and a head coach, has seen 46 Titans selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft during his tenure, including nine in 2001 and 11 in 2003. Aaron Rowand was a "sandwich" pick in 1998, Adam Johnson was the second overall selection in 2000 and Chad Cordero was the 20th overall pick in last June’s amateur draft. Already, nine former Titans who played for the current coaching regime have ascended to the Major Leagues, including Cordero, who has pitched exceptionally well in relief this year for Montreal, just two months after leading the Titans at the College World Series. Horton's Titans also carried the Fullerton flag to Omaha in 2001, when they secured a berth at home for the first time and carried the national No. 1 seed to Rosenblatt Stadium. After holding off local favorite Nebraska in the opener, the Titans lost a pair to Stanford with a win over Tulane sandwiched in between. The Titans finished No. 3 in all three national polls. Under Horton's eye, the 2001 squad posted several memorable moments during the regular season as well. They won 24 of 25 over one stretch and became the first team ever to sweep a three-game series against eventual national champion Miami at Mark Light Stadium. The 2000 Titans, the unanimous preseason pick to win the conference and the consensus No. 2 team in the country, had a two-game lead on Nevada with three games to go in the Big West race. But the Wolf Pack swept Pacific in the final series and Fullerton lost two of three to Long Beach State, so the Titans had to settle for a co-championship. However, the Titans did host a regional for the first time, which was won by USC. In 1999, the Titans again went 25-5 to win the BWC by four games. They swept three games at the Notre Dame Regional and then overcame an assortment of disadvantages to triumph in three games in the Super Regional at Ohio State to qualify for the school’s tenth College World Series, where they went 1-2. In 1998, the Titans used a remarkably balanced squad to start strong and then dominate the Big West Conference regular season with a 25-5 record. But they stumbled at home in the Big West Tournament and then ran into a powerful buzz saw in Baton Rouge in the NCAA regionals, placing second at 3-2 with a pair of losses to the host LSU Tigers. In Horton’s debut season in 1997, the Titans struggled to a 23-19-1 start, but then rattled off 15 victories in their final 18 regular season games. They lost the opener of the Big West Conference post-season tournament at home to Pacific ace Dan Reichert, but then came back to win four games in a row at Blair Field. They swept a doubleheader on the final day against host Long Beach State to capture the league championship and the automatic NCAA tournament bid. At Stanford, the Titans went 1-2 to place third, losing to Santa Clara and Fresno State. Horton fulfilled a lifelong dream of being a Division I head coach when he was promoted to replace Garrido, who left to take over the program at the University of Texas. A 1978 CSF graduate, Horton had returned to the campus in 1991 when Garrido came back after a three-year stint at Illinois. In the next six years the Titans posted a 264-99 record and made three trips to the CWS, winning the 1995 crown with a phenomenal 57-9 season. Horton had input on virtually every aspect of the Fullerton program with his primary concern being the development of the pitching staff. His organizational skills, patience as a teacher and his attention to detail provided the backbone of the Titan coaching staff. During the years Horton was responsible for the pitching staff, nine pitchers received All-America honors and James Popoff (1992), Matt Wagner (1994) and Ted Silva (1995) won Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year honors. Dan Naulty became the first Titan pitcher under Horton’s guidance to reach the major leagues when he made the 1996 opening-day roster for the Minnesota Twins. He later earned a World Series ring in 1999 with the Yankees. Another Horton product, Brent Billingsley, made two appearances for the Florida Marlins early in the 1999 season. Eleven more of Horton's former pupils – both pitchers and position players – have ascended to the Major League ranks over the last few years. Horton also worked with Phil Nevin (San Diego Padres), who in 1992 was the Golden Spikes Award winner, Baseball America player of the year, baseball’s No. 1 draft pick (by Houston) and the College World Series MVP. Nevin has gone on to a successful pro career as have former Horton pupils Mark Kotsay (San Diego Padres) and Jeremy Giambi (Boston Red Sox). Kotsay and Nevin along with Brian Loyd and Jason Moler – all tutored in part by Horton – were Olympians and Kotsay was chosen the college player of the decade by Baseball America. Horton began his head coaching career at Cerritos College in Norwalk, where he guided the Falcons to three junior college state championships in six years. He compiled a 226-53 record and won the California titles in 1985, 1987 and 1989. Each of those years he was selected National Junior College Coach of the Year. His best season was 1987 when the Falcons went 46-5. He had a South Coast Conference record of 102-28 (.785) and was a four-time South Coast Conference Coach of the Year (1985, 1987, 1989 and 1990). He had many players graduate to the major leagues including Brian Hunter, who played for the Atlanta Braves in the 1991 World Series. Other names include Mike Benjamin, Craig Worthington, Ever Magallanes, Al Osuna, Joel Adamson, Dan Patterson, Luis Medina, Jeff Hearron, Naulty and Olympian and major leaguer Bret Barberie. Horton was a player on the Cerritos College teams in 1972 and 1973. As the Falcons’ team captain in 1973, he won the Dallas Moon Award and was a member of the state championship team. Horton played two seasons for Garrido at Cal State Fullerton in 1975 and 1976 and won All-PCAA honors as both a junior and a senior. He was on the first Fullerton team to go to the College World Series in 1975. He batted .308 as a junior and .290 as a senior while playing first base. He graduated in 1978 and went on to earn a master’s degree in 1980 at Cal Lutheran. Horton’s coaching career began as an assistant at Cerritos in 1976-77 and he went to Los Angeles Valley College the following three seasons where he coached with former Long Beach State Coach Dave Snow. In 1980, he moved back to Cerritos as an assistant to Gordie Douglas before taking the head job in 1985. In addition, he coached during the summer for the Fairbanks Goldpanners (1981 and 1983) in Alaska and the Hutchinson Broncs (1982) in Kansas. A few famous names played for him on those summer teams such as Shane Mack, Oddibe McDowell, Joe Magrane, Dan Plesac, Phil Stevenson and Roger Clemens. In 1994, Horton was inducted into the California Community College Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He was also inducted in the Downey High School Hall of Fame last May. Horton was born on Oct. 5, 1953. The Yorba Linda resident and his wife, Francie, have four daughters: Michele (24), Heather (20), Loyal (15) and Rebecca (12), and two granddaughters: Angelica (4) and Alyssa (2).
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