Getting to Know: Steve "Hoot" Johnigan
4/9/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Sitting in a finance class as a senior at Texas A&M, Steve "Hoot" Johnigan started thinking, "One year from today, what am I going to be doing?"
"'Do I really want to put on a coat and tie and sit in an office trying to figure out what the market is doing?' I don't think that's me," he said. "I remember getting out of that class and walking straight across campus to change my major. 'You know what, I want to be a coach. I'd rather be poor and happy, loving what I'm doing, than making a lot of money and being miserable.'''
Not that he ever regretted the decision to switch from finance to a kinesiology major, but Johnigan "lost a lot of hours" and took another four years to graduate. What he gained, though, was a career in coaching that spanned four different decades in the college and pro ranks.
"If you have a good piece of clay, a guy with talent and ability, as a coach that's what you dream about," said Johnigan, now an Associate Director of Athletic Facilities & Operations, "because you can mold them into what you want them to be."
Johnigan, who turned 55 in January, transitioned to the facilities and operations area at Baylor after the baseball coaching staff was let go at the end of the 2015 season. He coached at Baylor for 20 years, including the last three as associate head coach, helping the Bears win three Big 12 championships and earning a trip to the 2005 College World Series.
"Being on the other side of it now, I can bring the coach's perspective to this group," said Johnigan, who also handles analyst duties on the baseball radio broadcasts. "They don't care how hard it is on you, they just want it done. That's the approach we have to take. We're servants for them. We've got to get things done."
Hoot's start in baseball came as a pitcher, shortstop and catcher for the Super Beetles, an 8-9-year-old Little League team in San Angelo, Texas, coached by his dad. He was also a football quarterback until the family moved to Bryan, where then-coach Merrill Green ran the veer offense.
"When you're running the veer, that defense wants the quarterback on his butt every time," he said. "So, I took the pelting. Boom! After that first year, I just decided to go baseball-only."
A three-year varsity letterman in baseball at Bryan High School, Johnigan played shortstop as a freshman at Bee County Junior College in Beeville, Texas, then switched to catcher halfway through his sophomore season when the starting catcher broke his ankle.
"That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, but the last time I caught was when I was with the Super Beetles," he said.
With no other options, Johnigan walked on at Texas A&M, where his mother, Barbara, was an athletic department secretary and academic advisor.
"That's how I ended up at A&M, because it was really the only option I had," he said. "We lived there, mom worked there, let's go to school there."
Although he started out behind two scholarship catchers, Hoot was a two-year starter for the Aggies (1984-85) with a career batting average of .352 that ranks among the program's best. He received the Wally Moon Award as the team's most improved player in 1984, then was a team captain as a senior when he was named to the Southwest Conference all-tournament team and got the Marion Pugh Spirit Award for his "never-say-die" attitude.
In a game against California, his first real test as a junior, Hoot threw out four would-be base-stealers. "We had a pitch-out, back-door pick called on the one I didn't throw out. I turned to throw to first base, and he was stealing second base, so that little hesitation cost me."
Not blessed with the strongest arm, "I could be quick and accurate," he said. "And, of course, the mental part of it. They always said I called a good game. . . . Still to this day, I say it's all about the pitchers. They've got to throw quality pitches. It didn't matter what fingers I put down, (A&M pitcher) Tom Arrington threw four quality pitches."
Switching degrees during his senior year, Johnigan hoped to stay on as a student coach so he could finish his degree. But, those plans changed when he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 25th round of the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft.
"Only time I had even thought of the draft was with the Army and Navy," he said. "So, I was excited. I had never flown before, and here I am flying to Batavia, New York."
Halfway through his third season in the minors, Johnigan got a chance to be third base coach at Waterloo, Iowa, and then spent the last month as the pitching coaching for the rookie league team in Kinston, N.C., working for former A&M coach Tom Chandler.
"I go there, and we win a championship," Hoot said. "We had a great team, and what a great experience that was, too."
All of a sudden, his vision had changed. "I'm going to get to the big leagues as a coach, a bullpen coach, whatever. Throw (batting practice), hit fungos, catch bullpens. That's how I'm getting to the big leagues."
With manager Pat Corrales fired during the '87 season and then the team being sold during the offseason, "all of a sudden, everything is shuffled up," Johnigan said. "I called (Indians GM Joe Klein) and he says, 'I don't know what to tell you. I don't even know if I'm going to have a job.'''
Following up on his original plans, Hoot went back to A&M to finish up his degree and work with baseball coach Mark Johnson as a student coach.
"First week of school, the new player development guy with the Indians calls and says, 'Hey, Steve, you ready to come back?''' Johnigan said. "Uggg, you've got to be kidding me. I told him my situation and said I couldn't do it. The whole time I'm in pro ball, I see how you can be gone in a heartbeat. . . . God always has a plan, so it worked out for the best."
He was a student coach on the Aggies' team in 1989 that was ranked No. 1 nationally before getting upset by LSU in the regional in College Station.
"We had one of the best teams in college baseball history," Johnigan said. "We take credit for Skip Bertman starting his legacy at LSU, because he came down to College Station with Ben McDonald and all those guys. They had to beat us twice on Sunday to go to Omaha. And long story short, they did, and they never looked back. We were shocked, because we hadn't lost two in a row all year."
Earning his degree in kinesiology from A&M in 1989, Johnigan stayed on as a graduate assistant coach, then went to Mississippi State for four years before joining Steve Smith's staff at Baylor in 1995.
"When he first called, I was like, 'I'm going to leave Mississippi State for that?''' he said. "Back then, we had a chain-link fence (around the ballpark)."
Without a guarantee from Pat McMahon that he was part of his future plans at Mississippi State when Ron Polk retired, Johnigan took the Baylor job in Smith's second year.
"Smitty let me run the offense, coach third base, coach the catchers and infielders. I had a lot more freedom," he said. "I did that for 20 years, and I had a blast. I watched the stadium being built, resurrected over here. It was fun seeing that. I watched this whole (athletics) complex just go up right before your eyes. It was unbelievable to see."
In a way, Johnigan said his time working behind the scenes at baseball helped prepare him for his job with facilities and operations.
"You kind of see where everything comes from, you see the other side, you see behind the scenes," he said. "Our volunteer was the guy who took care of the field, and it wasn't fair to him, because he had a family too. So, we'd stay and help him on the field, we'd clean up the stadium. We took ownership. This is our field, this is our stadium. Yeah, there's a department for that, but why do we need to call them when we can do it? And then just dealing with equipment people, dealing with travel, dealing with the bus companies. All that stuff helped me."
When Hoot returned to A&M as a student after pro baseball, he met his future wife, Donna Vaughn, a former basketball player at A&M. They were student workers together in the registration office, "and we started flirting with each other, shooting rubber bands at each other and different things like that."
"Our first date was horseback riding," Hoot said. "She grew up on horses, I didn't, but I wasn't going to let her know that. So, we went out horseback riding and saw each other every day after that."
They celebrated their 27th anniversary in December and have two sons, Zachary (24), who married Baylor All-American pole vaulter Annie Rhodes last summer; and Brycen (21), who's a student manager and bullpen catcher for the baseball team.
"To find a sweet girl like that from a godly home, I couldn't be happier for Zach," Hoot said. "Brycen is a sophomore and he gets to travel with the team. I couldn't be prouder of him as well. This is all they've known. He always loved the (catcher) gear back in those days. That's just how he grew up, he loved it."
So, what about the "Hoot" nickname? Where does that come from?
"It's from the old Petticoat Junction TV show," he said. "It was set in Hooterville, and we used to watch that show all the time. My brother started calling me, 'Hooter-Bill.' And then it eventually became Hooter, or just Hoot. The only one who calls me Steve is my mom. Donna's father, my father-in-law, didn't even know my real name for two years. Smitty called to the house one day and asked for Steve, and he thought it was a prank and hung up."
