Hall of Fame
The dean of professional baseball managers, Smokey Alston has coached the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for 15 years. He has guided the Dodgers to seven National League pennants and four World Series Championships. He lettered three years in both basketball and baseball at Miami. Alston recall that his best game in baseball was when he hit three home runs and a double in a game against Youngstown.
The basketball game he remembers most was the one in which Miami defeated a heavily-favored Ohio U. team and he held its leading scorer to just four points. Following graduation in 1935, Alston signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. Most of his early career in professional baseball was as a player and a coach in the minor leagues. Four times in him minor league career he hit 25 or more home runs. In 1953 he was the surprise choice of the Dodger organization to be the new manager.
He wasted little time in assuring the Dodgers that he had been a good selection as he guided Brooklyn to a National League pennant and its first World Series Championship in 1955. Alston followed by winning pennants for Brooklyn in 1956 and for Los Angeles in 1959, 1963 1965, and 1966. His teams also captured World Series Championships in 1959, 1963, and 1965. Alston received an honorary degree from Miami in 1960.
