NORFOLK, Va. (Release by ODU Athletics) — Tony Guzzo, a former Old Dominion head baseball coach who touched the lives of thousands of young men during a lifetime of coaching, died early Thursday morning in his native Norfolk.
Guzzo was hospitalized late in the summer and his health deteriorated in recent weeks, said Chris Finwood, ODU’s head baseball coach. Guzzo was 75.
“He was having a hard time and is in a much better place,” Finwood said. “He was a mountain of a man and was bigger than life. He meant so much to so many people.”
Guzzo was the head coach at ODU from 1995 through 2004 and he took three teams to the NCAA Tournament. He was 303-252 at ODU before stepping down as head coach.
He also coached three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, and Matt Quatraro, now manager of the Kansas City Royals. And he grew close to Ben Verlander, Justin’s brother and now a Major League Baseball analyst for Fox Sports.
“I had the pleasure of getting to know him before I was even 10 years old,” Ben Verlander said. “He was in our home recruiting Justin and sucking down what seemed to be 20 Diet Cokes.
“But one thing was obvious to us all when he left. We all said, ‘What a great human being.’
“Justin ended up going to ODU and so did I nine years later and he was still around. No longer as a head coach but as a brilliant baseball mind. When Guzz talked, you listened. That’s just the way it was.
“He has meant a lot to the Verlander family for decades and he will certainly be missed.”
Guzzo was an instant success as a coach. After graduating in 1972 from East Carolina University, where he played baseball and football, he was named head coach at Norfolk Catholic High School, his alma mater.
After winning four consecutive Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools titles and going 86-33 with the Crusaders, he returned to ECU as a graduate assistant before being hired as the head coach at North Carolina Wesleyan in 1979.
He was 102-66 in four years at Wesleyan and took the Battling Bishops twice to the Division III World Series.
From there he moved onto to VCU, where he was 329-300-1 from 1983 through 1994 and won three conference tournament titles in his last six seasons.
After leaving ODU in 2004, he bounced around from school to school. He coached at North Carolina State, earned a World Series ring as a scout for the Boston Red Sox, coached a few seasons at Nash High in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and coached at Louisburg Junior College before Finwood hired him as an assistant coach at ODU in 2017.
Guzzo was lured back to ODU both by Finwood and Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics, who worked with Guzzo at VCU.
“Tony, or Coach Guz as many referred to him, leaves a lasting legacy at ODU and through the world of baseball at every level,” Dr. Selig said.
“His list of former players and coaches reads as a who’s who of baseball. His laugh and smile were contagious. Coach Guz had a way of always making everyone around him feel better with his genuine support and caring.
“What a sad day this is for any of us who have ever known coach Guzzo.”
Health reasons prevented Guzzo from coaching the last two seasons at ODU.
Guzzo is survived by two children, Anthony Jr. and Gina, who both live in Williamsburg. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Finwood said wherever the funeral is held, it will be well-attended.
“And there will be a lot of great stories,” Finwood said. “Tony meant so much to so many people, to VCU people, to Old Dominion people, ECU people and Norfolk Catholic people.
“He was a larger than life figure for a lot of us and definitely a mentor and father figure for me.
“He was a great man who led a great life. He affected so many people in a really positive way.”
Guzzo was raised in Norfolk and attended St. Pius Catholic and Norfolk Catholic High School, where he was both a football and baseball star. While at ECU, he famously kicked the game-winning field goal against Marshall University on Nov. 14, 1970.
The Marshall team’s plane crashed on the way back to Huntington, killing most of the team’s players, coaches and many alumni.
Asked about the crash 47 years after the event, Guzzo teared up.
“We were numb when they told us,” Guzzo said. “We had played against those guys just hours earlier. And they were dead. It was so surreal. To this day, I see the faces of those young guys in their helmets.”
Finwood said that quote speaks to the basic goodness in Guzzo.
“He was a wonderful guy,” Finwood said. “He cared about everybody. He was such a good man.
“My father once told me that once you’ve passed on, your life is reduced to stories. There are so many great stories to tell about Tony Guzzo. He was one of a kind.”