Former baseball coach Waldo Sauter dies at age 90
Former Central Michigan University baseball coach, professor, assistant football and basketball coach Waldo Sauter died Wednesday morning at the age of 90.
Sauter was assistant coach of those three sports from 1957-62 before becoming the head baseball coach for eight years until 1970.
“Not only was he an outstanding coach, which made them fun to watch, he was real, he was dedicated to being a professor,” said former CMU Athletics Director Herb Deromedi, who was an assistant football coach while Sauter coached baseball.
In his last year of coaching in 1970 he was named NCAA regional Coach of the Year. He still stayed at CMU teaching physical education until 1986. Sauter was the first CMU coach in any sport to win 200 games, posting an overall record of 210-91.
“He was a gentleman,” Bill Theunissen said, the CMU baseball coach before Sauter from 1953-62. “He was a very conscious person and disciplined. He was liked by players and everyone.
“He will be sadly missed.”
Even after Sauter retired he never stopped going to CMU baseball games.
“He was one of the first ones to greet me when I came back to CMU, and the first one to greet me when I was hired as head coach,” said current baseball head coach Steve Jaksa. “He goes to the banquet every year, and is always at the ‘Meet the Chippewas.’”
Jaksa has known Sauter for 35 years. While Jaksa was a baseball player here in the 1970’s Sauter didn’t coach, but was around the program and was Jaksa’s physical education instructor.
“He always had a dry humor,” Jaksa said. “He epitomized Chippewa baseball.”
Jaksa said in recent years Sauter would sit in the press box for cold games, but when it was nice out he loved being outside around everyone.
“He always had encouragement and dry humor,” Jaksa said. “He knew it was very important, but said do the best you can. It was fun to talk to him about baseball in general. He had a keen mind and didn’t lose it. He always remembered games from previous years.”
Theunissen said he had no doubts when Sauter took over the program in his place.
“He was very successful,” Theunissen said. “He expected the very best you could do. He was straight-forward with you, ‘Do the best you can.’ And he was respected for that.”
Deromedi said it was admirable the way Sauter always came back to baseball games and was around the program.
“I always admired him as a gentleman and true professional,” Deromedi said. “He was admired by his colleagues too.”
Sauter was inducted into the CMU Hall of Fame in 1994.
“We’re going to miss him,” Jaksa said. “I feel really bad for his wife Judy. You know at some point it’d happen, you just hoped it didn’t.”
