Tom D'Armi dies (1935-2010)

[jimsumner]

Longtime Duke baseball coach and all-around good guy.

RIP.

From Duke press release

"Tom D’Armi, a fixture around Duke University athletics for nearly three decades, died Saturday in Wilson, N.C., at the age of 75.

D’Armi coached the Blue Devils’ baseball program for seven seasons and also served as the director of athletic facilities and game management for all of the school’s sports — totaling 28 years of service to the university when he retired in 2004.

As a coach, D’Armi guided Duke baseball to 125 wins and five consecutive winning seasons during his seven-year tenure from 1978-84. He coached eight All-ACC selections and seven Major League Baseball draft picks during that time.

“He was my second dad, it’s as simple as that,” said Bob Brower, one of D’Armi’s top players who went on to a Major League career with the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees in the late 1980s. “For me he was Duke, someone you could lean on in good times and bad. He taught us so many things, in his way, about being a man, about being responsible, about being accountable. He had that tough persona, but behind that was a kind man, a teddy bear who just gave and gave and never asked for much in return.”

“He was certainly a good man and a great coach,” recalled David Amaro, a senior on D’Armi’s final team of 1984. “He was the reason I came to Duke to play baseball in 1980, and I had a great four years with him. He was funny, inspirational and he taught us that camaraderie was the most important factor in achieving success as a team. He will certainly be missed but not forgotten.”

“I have such great memories of him,” added two-time All-ACC catcher Tom Decker. “What I remember most was that he truly cared about his players both on and off the field. He was such a great competitor and mentor. He will be truly missed.” "

[summerwind03]

I'm sorry to hear that. He definitely was a fixture there.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

This is indeed sad news. Coach D'Armi took care of so much on campus. It seemed as if he'd always be there.

[Son of Jarhead]

Sad news, indeed. I had the pleasure of knowing Coach D'Armi through his son since they first moved to Durham. Through his years at Duke I would make a point to find him at every game. He always took the time to say Hi and ask how my family & I were doing. He will be missed. My thoughts & prayers go out to his family.

[Son of Jarhead]

Link: http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204967726

[MulletMan]

Ugh. Like a punch to the stomach.

Coach D'armi was the best. I knew him later than many... once we started camping regularly and lining up on the grad student side, but man, he was the best.

Two of my favorite stories, which I think can be verified by readers (Throatybeard... I am looking in your general direction). First was the time when we were camping for a February UNC game. Its about 6 in the morning, and the drool on my chin has frozen to my sleeping bag. I hear one of our fellow campers getting out of his truck (where he'd slept) and he's talking to someone... sure enough, its Tom D'armi. Who has decided to bring us all coffee. Granted, there were only about 10 of us out there, but that was the best, hottest coffee I'd ever had. He proceeded to stand out there in the freezing cold and regale us with stories about all things Duke and Duke Athletics. After a while we asked why he was still out there, and he said that nut jobs like us couldn't be left alone on HIS campus! Then he just starts laughing and walks away!

The other story, won't get through language filter, but I'll try to skirt the issue. So we're outside Cameron, and Coach is BSing with us. He takes us into his office, which used to be just inside the door to the WW side lobby, and starts showing us all these pictures... him with athletes, POTUSes, dignitaries... cool stuff. One of the pictures is him and Clinton (IIRC). He starts to tell us this story about how he's walking along with two female Duke athletes outside of Cameron... recounting his most recent meeting with Clinton. They don't believe him. He takes them into his office to show them this same picture. They say he doesn't really KNOW Clinton, but had a photo-op. So D'armi tells them to sit down, and he dials a phone number and puts it on speaker... ITS CLINTON! The girls are stunned. D'armi says, "Hey Bill, it's Tom D'armi! Go [profanities deleted]" As Clinton starts laughing hysterically, D'armi hangs up the phone! (Throaty... feel free to correct me on which POTUS it was... I'm thinking Clinton, but I might be wrong.)

Man, that guy was hilarious! I knew that he'd been in failing health for sometime, but this still comes as a bit of a shock. RIP Coach D'armi. Thanks for all you did for so many of us.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I met him a couple of times. May he rest in peace.

[Native]

Truly one of a kind. Let me be a ballboy for Duke during the '01 season -- led to me playing one-on-one with Dunleavy and Duhon before a game which got me passed around the Cameron Crazie section. I remember him telling me when I asked if I could cheer while Duke was playing, "You can smile REAL big." Great human being, and probably the reason I've come to love Duke so much. He will be missed.

[Tom B.]

The other story, won't get through language filter, but I'll try to skirt the issue. So we're outside Cameron, and Coach is BSing with us. He takes us into his office, which used to be just inside the door to the WW side lobby, and starts showing us all these pictures... him with athletes, POTUSes, dignitaries... cool stuff. One of the pictures is him and Clinton (IIRC). He starts to tell us this story about how he's walking along with two female Duke athletes outside of Cameron... recounting his most recent meeting with Clinton. They don't believe him. He takes them into his office to show them this same picture. They say he doesn't really KNOW Clinton, but had a photo-op. So D'armi tells them to sit down, and he dials a phone number and puts it on speaker... ITS CLINTON! The girls are stunned. D'armi says, "Hey Bill, it's Tom D'armi! Go [profanities deleted]" As Clinton starts laughing hysterically, D'armi hangs up the phone! (Throaty... feel free to correct me on which POTUS it was... I'm thinking Clinton, but I might be wrong.)



The list of celebrities and public figures who visited Coach D'Armi's office at one time or another is long and distinguished. After the Oval Office, Coach D'Armi's office might have hosted as many famous people as any other on the planet. One example that stands out in my memory -- my senior year, Temple played at Duke. I'm in Cameron before the game, near the entrance to the main arena that was right across the lobby from Coach D'Armi's office. Suddenly the door to his office swings open and all you hear from inside is uproarious laughter. Then, emerging from a cloud of cigar smoke, out walks Temple alumnus Bill Cosby.

R.I.P., Coach.

[Benchwarmer]

Coach was a larger than life figure who was a second father to me. He had a heart that was bigger than Cameron, even if his most common retort to most comments was "your as*!!" In an era in which the Duke athletic department was a family, he was the Godfather, and I can't begin to count the number of lives he touched in a positive, powerful way.

On a lighter side, I will never forget the way he had the NBC sports execs freaking out behind closed doors because they believed he wasn't going to let Ahmad Rashad into Cameron after he and Michael Weisman slighted a couple of undergrads he personally dispatched in a Cadillac to pick them up at the airport. Classic.