BY GEORGE WATSON l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

In 38 years of coaching, Larry Hays’ view of Texas Tech and LCU meeting on the baseball field varied depending on which uniform he was wearing at the time.

Those uniforms – or at least the familiar No. 27 on them – will be permanently retired on Monday in a game pitting the two squads for the first time in 16 years. Before the Red Raiders and Chaparrals meet at Dan Law Field at 6:30 p.m., the man who defined collegiate baseball in Lubbock for the past four decades will be honored in a pregame ceremony, and his No. 27 will be forever taken out of circulation.

Hays, in his naturally unselfish, attention-deflecting manner, was humble as the day of the ceremony approached.

“You have to appreciate it,” said Hays, who announced his retirement in June after a combined 38 years coaching at the two schools. “I really appreciate (Tech head coach) Dan Spencer for doing this … and for him to schedule a game with Lubbock Christian says a lot about him. I think it is for the right reasons. You just hate for all this to happen when they’ve got a game going on. That ought to be the main thing instead of this sideshow.”

Hays put both programs on the map and neither has been a sideshow since. From 1971 to 1986 he compiled a record of 695-381 at LCU, winning the 1983 national championship and finishing in the top eight in 1977 and 1980-82. He took over a struggling Tech program to start the 1987 season, and within eight years has the Red Raiders in the NCAA postseason.

Former Texas Tech head coach Larry Hays will have his number retired on Monday when the Red Raiders play Lubbock Christian. Hays won 1,509 games while coaching at Texas Tech. (Zach Long/AVALANCHE-JOURNAL)

By the time he left, he had guided Tech to a Southwest Conference championship, two Big 12 Conference titles and eight straight NCAA playoff appearances. He also produced 36 all-Southwest Conference performers, 18 first-team all-Big 12 players, 14 consensus all-Americans and six USA Baseball national team selections. He finished his career as the fourth-winningest coach in NCAA history with a combined record of 1,509-860-4 and sent 84 players to pro baseball, 17 of whom have made the Major League level.

But about a month after the 2008 season ended, Hays announced he was stepping down and turning things over to Spencer, whom he brought into the program last year as assistant head coach, later to become head coach designate. One of the first things Spencer did was what Hays was reluctant to do at Tech, and that is schedule LCU.

Part of that reluctance was because, especially with some of his better teams, he didn’t want to do anything to derail the Chaps’ progress during a season, and part of it was because with RPI numbers and the NCAA looking at strength of schedule, it didn’t help the Red Raiders at all to schedule an NAIA school.

“At Lubbock Christian I thought it was great and I always said it was good for baseball and good for the community,” Hays said. “It was a game I looked forward to and I saw all the positives from that standpoint. When I went to Tech I didn’t want to do it from day one because of the feelings I have for Lubbock Christian, and I didn’t think personally that I could handle that.

“With the RPI the way it is now scheduling is so important and you want to play a team with as high an RPI as you can. There’s just no way for Tech where it’s located to have good RPI games at home. You have to know for a fact you’re going to win, and Lubbock Christian is too good of a team to fit that idea. That’s why I appreciate Dan doing this and appreciate both programs. I’m proud of them both.”

In retirement, though, Hays has managed to stay busy – although at times he finds himself “just piddling.” Getting back to his days as a fastpitch softball pitcher, Hays has tossed batting practice for his son Shannon, the head coach of the top-ranked LCU women’s team, and he also drove a bus for them as they traveled to a tournament in Tucson.

“Getting in at 2:30 in the morning from Tucson … I’ve got to get some employment where people just leave me alone,” Hays joked.

Hays, who says he has been to several Tech games, mostly sitting out of sight down the left-field line, has also been active in fundraising to help renovate Dan Law Field.

His will be one of just three numbers retired by Tech, joining former shortstop Brooks “Gator” Wallace, the namesake of the College Baseball Foundation’s Brooks Wallace Player of the Year award, and former pupil Clint Bryant, the former Monterey standout who played for Hays from 1993 to 1996.

“I don’t deserve to be up there with those guys. They did real things,” Hays said. “Being up there with those two shows how lucky a guy can get.”

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COLLEGE BASEBALL/Texas Tech, LCU to retire longtime coach’s No. 27