Former Columbus High School baseball coach Bobby Howard will be one 11 inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January 2018.
In addition, Howard will also be inducted into the Baseball Coaches Association (BCA) later this year at its annual convention, scheduled for Nov. 3-Dec. 3 in Phoenix.
The state’s all-time winningest coach has a career record of 985-296. He left Columbus High in 2015, then spent the past two seasons coaching across the Chattahoochee River in Phenix City, Ala. at Central High School. Howard accepted the head coaching position at Cartersville earlier this summer before resigning. He told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that “economically, it was not feasible and it just didn’t work out.”
He achieved his greatest success at Columbus High where he spent 31 seasons.and guided the program to 12 state championships. He also coached at Kendrick and Jordan.
Howard is part of an ABCA class that includes St. John’s head coach Ed Blankmeyer, Belhaven’s Hill Denson, Prairie High School (Wash.) head coach Don Freeman, Lamar University’s Jim Gilligan, State College of Florida’s Tim Hill Sr., Arizona head coach Andy Lopez, Desert Vista High School (Ariz.) Stan Luketich, New York Yankees director of international player development Pat McMahon, Gaither High School (Fla.) Frank Permuy and Ashland University’s John Schaly.
“I feel honored and blessed, first of all,” Howard told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “There are a lot of layers to one of those elections like that. You have to have great players, great assistant coaches, great parents and great administrators who support you. You’ve got to have great recommendations and strong baseball people to recommend you.”
Howard also spent one season coaching at Middle Georgia College in 1997 where he won more than 40 games.