Steve Webber Obituary, Death – After a protracted battle with sickness, Steve Webber, who was the head coach of the Georgia baseball team during its 1990 run to the college baseball national title, passed away on Saturday afternoon at his home in Atlanta. He was 74. Between 1981 and 1996, Webber amassed a total of 500 victories as the head coach of the University of Georgia baseball team, making him the school’s all-time leader in wins. Over the course of 16 seasons, his teams won an average of 32 games per year. Webber, who was born in Iowa and attended Southern Illinois University for his education, is credited with leading two different Bulldogs teams to the College World Series. These were the program’s first two visits in the tournament.
His 1987 team was victorious in the SEC regular season, and they went on to compete in the College World Series. Their championship journey in 1990 was capped off with a victory over Oklahoma State by a score of 2-1. It was the first time that the Southeastern Conference in baseball had won the national championship. In 1987, Webber was recognized as the Coach of the Year for the Southeastern Conference, and in 1990, he was voted the National Coach of the Year. In 2018, Webber was selected for induction into the Circle of Honor at UGA. When he was inducted, he was the fifth person on the list of all 79 inductees who were not alumni of the University of Georgia.
This group included Suzanne Yoculan, women’s gymnastics coach (inducted in 2001), Liz Murphey, women’s golf coach and senior women’s administrator (inducted in 2001), and Dick Copas, men’s golf coach (inducted in 2006). Vince Dooley was the head football coach and athletic director (inducted in 2004). (inducted in 2014). Webber began his career as a coach in 1974 when he was hired by Georgia Southern to work as the pitching coach under Ron Polk, who was the head coach there. In 1976, he was given the opportunity to accomplish the same thing at the University of Florida, where he worked for the next five years until he was offered the position as head coach at Georgia in 1981.
In 1997, Webber made the transition to baseball at the professional level. Before he retired with the Braves in 2016, he had a career spanning sixteen seasons with five different teams, including the Yankees (1997-2003), Padres (2004-2012), Astros (2013-14), and Braves (2016). Pam, his wife of 51 years, their daughter Ashley and her husband Joseph, and their grandsons Bo, Whit, and Bess are among those who survive Webber.
