Cal Poly’s Larry Lee Named Inaugural Recipient Of The Wayne Graham Award For Teaching Excellence
OVERLAND PARK, KAN. - Longtime Cal Poly Head Baseball Coach Larry Lee has been named the inaugural recipient of the Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence by the College Baseball Foundation (CBF).
The Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence is presented annually to the coach, at any college level, who demonstrates the qualities of teaching, developing and coaching college baseball players that prepare them not only on the field and in the classroom, but for life after their baseball careers.
In his combined 39 years as a head coach at Cuesta College and Cal Poly, Lee has achieved far more than 1,173 combined career victories and a lengthy list of championships and accomplishments. Most importantly, he has changed the lives of his players by investing in them and teaching them the game he loves.
The award is voted on by a panel of coaches, players, umpires, and administrators who possess significant background and experience in the sport. Among those currently serving on the committee are college baseball coaching legends, including former Oregon State Head Baseball Coach Pat Casey, current Rice and former Texas Head Baseball Coach David Pierce and former Wichita State Head Baseball Coach Gene Stephenson.
“I have had an opportunity to get to know and observe Larry as a coach and a teacher over the last few years,” CBF Vice Chairman Rick Greenspan said. “His qualities embody what Wayne Graham stood for… a teacher of fundamentals, a disciplined approach to learning, a historian of the game, and one possessing a relentless desire for improvement. He is the perfect inaugural recipient of this prestigious award.”
Lee, who recently completed his 23rd season at the head coach of Cal Poly. has elevated the Mustang baseball program to a level of play that has reached the upper echelon of the NCAA's Division I West Region. He is the Big West record holder for career wins, both overall and in conference games, has earned four NCAA regional bids and 19 top-four finishes in 22 Big West seasons.
Lee ended his 23rd season at the helm in 2025, having led Cal Poly to fourteen 30-win campaigns, a 713-552-2 mark (56.4 winning percentage) and 19 top-four Big West finishes, including three consecutive second-place endings from 2017-19. Aside from the 2020 pandemic-shortened campaign, the Mustangs have averaged 33 victories per season under Lee’s guidance.
Lee’s 713 career victories following the conclusion of the 2025 season rank No. 38 among active head coaches in NCAA Division I and fifth in the West Region.
"It is an honor to be the recipient of the inaugural Wayne Graham Teaching Excellence Award,” Cal Poly Head Baseball Coach Larry Lee said. “Coach Graham epitomized the qualities of teaching how to play the game correctly, the development of talent, and the understanding of how to win games at any level. He was one of the best to have ever done it. Coach Graham is highly respected by so many in our profession for his leadership, how he conducted himself on and off the field, and the success he enjoyed at all levels of the game."
In 23 seasons with the Mustangs, Lee has produced 60 first-team All-Big West players, 13 All-Americans and 12 freshman All-Americans. A total of 85 Cal Poly players coached by Lee have signed professional baseball contracts, including 83 in the last 19 years. In addition, a total of 39 Mustangs have been drafted in the first 10 rounds of the MLB Draft and 15 of his players have reached the Major Leagues, including his son Brooks Lee of the Minnesota Twins.
“I’ve known Larry for many, many years and have gotten a chance to compete against his teams,” former Oregon State Head Baseball Coach and Graham Award Selection Committee member Pat Casey said. “He is first class in the way he goes about his business and the way he represents college baseball as a head coach. He is a blueprint for how to do it the right way. His teams are always 100 percent fundamentally, mentally and physically prepared. Coach Lee’s teams always compete and they have done so over an extended period. He has had tremendous success at Cal Poly, even while going against major programs on the West Coast when they were at their peak. Larry Lee is the epitome of what we all should be looking for in a college coach.”
Cal Poly has finished first in the Big West Conference twice (2014 and 2025), second seven times (2005, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022) and third-place finishes in 2011 and 2024 with Lee at the helm. The Mustangs have earned 35 or more victories nine times, including a trio of 40-win campaigns, and have earned a quartet of NCAA Division I playoff berths under Lee.
“Larry has built a model program at Cal Poly,” Rice Head Baseball Coach and Graham Award Selection Committee member David Pierce said. “He has a ton of respect around the country, not only for the success on the field, but for the standard of excellence he represents to his administration, his team, and throughout the country. He is a fixture in college baseball and an exceptional choice for the first Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence.”
An assistant coach on the 2017 USA Baseball College National Team which won each of its friendship series against Chinese Taipei, Cuba and Japan for the first time since 2002, Lee was manager of Team USA in 2023, which swept Chinese Taipei 5-0 and won two of five games against Japan. Eleven former Mustangs, seven coached by Lee, have been invited to try out for Team USA with six advancing to play in friendship series, including catcher Ryan Stafford in 2023.
The 2014 Big West Conference Coach of the Year arrived at Cal Poly in July 2002 after 16 highly successful seasons as head coach at nearby Cuesta College. Lee was inducted into the California Community College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Lee led Cuesta to the California Community College State Final Four on four occasions, all in the last 11 years of his 16-year tenure. The Cougars reached the state’s Final Four in 1992, 1997, 2001 and 2002 and qualified for the Southern California Regionals each of the last six years, including a No. 1 seed in 1999 and No. 2 in 2002.
Lee's overall record at Cuesta was 460-241-3, including a state-leading 44 wins in 1997. His teams qualified for the regionals 11 times in his last 13 years, Under Lee's leadership, Cuesta claimed nine Western State Conference titles, including six in a row (1997-2002), and averaged 38 wins during that six-year stretch. His teams produced a 267-119 record in conference games and Lee earned conference coach of the year honors eight times.
During Lee's tenure at Cuesta from 1987-2002, he produced 26 all-state players, three Southern California Players of the Year and numerous professionals. In 11 postseason appearances, Lee's teams at Cuesta compiled a 34-28 win-loss record.
Before becoming head coach at Cuesta College in 1987, Lee served as an assistant coach for the Cougars for two seasons (1984-85) and at Cal Poly for one year (1986).
Wayne Graham Teaching Excellence Award Winners will also be recognized at the future College Baseball Hall of Fame being designed by the world class architects at Populous at the iconic Museum at Prairiefire in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.
About the Wayne Graham Award
The Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence is presented annually as a tribute to Graham, the longtime Hall of Fame college baseball coach at Rice University. Widely considered one of the greatest teachers in the history of college baseball, Graham’s legacy extends well beyond his own distinguished record. His influence on the game and the thousands of players, coaches, and others he mentored within college baseball is immeasurable. Graham passed away in September 2024 at age 88.
Graham compiled a 1,173–528–2 record in twenty-seven seasons at Rice. When he took over the program in 1992, Rice had never won a conference championship in its previous 79 years.
He led the Owls to 23 consecutive NCAA appearances from 1995-2017, to 11 Super Regionals in the first 15 years of the expanded playoff format (1999-2013), guided Rice to seven appearances in the College World Series in 12 years and gave Rice its first NCAA team championship in 2003 when Rice downed Stanford 14-2 to claim the College World Series title.
Graham coached five national players of the year, 28 first-team All-Americans, seven conference players of the year, six conference pitchers of the year, 19 first-round draft picks—including the first overall pick in 1997 in Matt Anderson and sending 41 players to the major leagues.
A campaign was launched by the CBF to endow the Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence. Proceeds from the endowment will help support the presentation of the award. Those interested in supporting the endowment may send a financial gift to: Wayne Graham Endowment — cbhof (cbhalloffame.org)
