Jack Dunn (born May 31, 1929) is Portland’s “Mr. Baseball”. He coached the game for 39 years at Portland State University and Cleveland and Wilson high schools.
Dunn’s Portland State teams constantly punched above their weight, particularly when playing in the Pac-10 Northern Division against Oregon State, Washington and Washington State.
He retired in 1994 from Portland State University after 20 straight winning seasons. At PSU, Dunn compiled a record of 630 wins against 439 losses (.589) as the head mentor. He never had a losing season at Portland State.
The Vikings won the 1984 North title and placed in the upper division eight times in their last eleven years. PSU also won the North NCAA Regional playoffs. The Vikings also won the NorPac in 1977, qualifying for regionals. In 1984 and 1986 Dunn’s teams won 39 games, the state’s collegiate record at the time.
He had an equally successful 19-year career guiding Portland high school programs at Cleveland (14 seasons) and Wilson (5 seasons). He is the only coach to win PIL championships at two different Portland high schools. Dunn’s Watco Electric American Legion teams were among the top programs in the Pacific Northwest including a second-place finish in the 1972 Northwest Regionals and 3rd place finish in the 1973 America Legion World Series.
Forty of Dunn’s players signed professional baseball contracts. In 1995, Coach Dunn received the Oregon Sportswriters Distinguished Service Award for Sports.
Before dedicating his life to teaching and coaching, Jack played ten years of professional baseball in the Los Angeles (Brooklyn) Dodgers organization.
Jack has also, literally, written the book on baseball, several, in fact. “From The Third Base Coach’s Box” is a great textbook for young coaches of the game.
Jack Dunn is a member of the PIL and Portland State University halls of fame.