Former BYU baseball coach and athletic director Glen Tuckett became the American Baseball Coaches Association's new chairman of the board in January.
Having spent 26 years on the ABCA Board of Directors and the past five with BYU assistant athletic director Gary Pullins, the ABCA elected Tuckett to the three-year position last June. He took over the unpaid position at the organization's annual convention in San Antonio, Texas on Jan. 2-5. He replaces former Point Loma Nazarene Athletic Director Carroll Land.
"Nobody could be a better ambassador for the ABCA than Coach Tuckett," Pullins said. "He's well respected as a coach, an athletic director and an administrator."
Tuckett can be re-elected to another term after end of his first three years. As chairman, he is the official spokesperson for the ABCA. He oversees the entire board and conducts the board meetings.
The ABCA's main objective is to help improve the level of coaching at the amateur level. The organization boasts more than 5,500 members including college and high school coaches from every school in the country and over 200 international members. The nonprofit organization strides to further its members' knowledge and awareness of the game of baseball and its assistance with the development and promotion of the game at all levels.
Tuckett graduated from Murray High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1953 from the University of Utah. He spent nine years in professional baseball before beginning his coaching career at West High School in Salt Lake City where he was the head football and baseball coach and an assistant basketball coach. He went on to coach baseball in 1957 with the semi-pro Calgary Dodgers in the Western Canada League.
The 1982 BYU Hall of Famer came to BYU in 1959 as the head baseball coach and an assistant football coach. In his 17 seasons over the baseball program, he led the Cougars to a 445-256-4 record (.634). During the stretch, BYU won 13 division title, three conference championships, two NCAA District 7 crowns and twice went to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. The Cougars could have gone to the College World Series three times during his tenure, but in 1961 BYU decided against playing due to game scheduling on Sunday.
The NCAA named Tuckett District 7 Coach of the Year three times. At the time of his retirement, he had the ninth best winning percentage among baseball coach in the NCAA. While at BYU, he was chosen as the coach of the 1974 U.S. Amateur Baseball Team that won the World Amateur Baseball Tournament for the second time in its 27-year history. He also earned his master's and doctorate degrees from BYU in health science.
In 1976, Tuckett replaced Stan Watts as BYU's athletic director, a position he held until 1993. After 34 years at BYU and retired, the University of Alabama called him out of retirement to be its athletic director for one year (1995-96). He has served on various committees including the NCAA Committee on Committees, the NCAA Television Committee, the College Football Association Executive Committee and the College Football Association Television Committee.
The 1977 ABCA president received the Dale Rex Award in 1983, symbolic for the person who has contributed the most to the amateur athletes in Utah. The ABCA inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1979. He is a Lifetime Member of the ABCA, having been a member of the organization for 35 or more consecutive years.
The ABCA awarded the Lefty Gomez Award, one of the most prestigious awards in all of amateur baseball, to Tuckett in 1990. Named after the great major league southpaw Lefty Gomez, this award is presented by the ABCA each year to an individual who has distinguished himself amongst his peers and has contributed significantly to the game of baseball locally, nationally and internationally.