Legendary softball coach Dianne Baker has an abundance of riches — an abundance she's quick to share.
She has channeled her wealth of knowledge from 30 years of coaching at Stephen F. Austin and Texas Woman's University into producing three popular softball manuals and 13 instructional videos.
Her heart overflows with warmth — always departing from a friend or stranger with three special words, "I love you," in case she doesn't cross paths with them again.
Former Stephen F. Austin and Texas Woman's University softball coach Dianne Baker is a national champion, a best-selling author and a force for progress through Title IX.
She's filled with so much gratitude for her alma mater, Texas Woman's University, where she played five sports as a student-athlete and later led the reinstatement of the school's softball program as coach, that she donated $500,000 to the athletics department in honor of all her former players.
Baker's legacy of success and kindness is a way of honoring those who lifted her up along the way.
Longtime LSU women's basketball coach Sue Gunter, a 2005 inductee of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, influenced Baker to pursue coaching at the collegiate level. Baker asked Gunter if she thought she had what it took to be a good softball coach.
"I think you'll be one of the greatest," Gunter told her.
"I then told myself I could do this," Baker said. "There's always been somebody at somewhere who has lifted me up. It doesn't even always have to be that superstar that lifts you up. It can be someone who just believes in you."
Entering college as a Texas Woman's University Pioneer in 1971, a year before Title IX became law, Baker was part of the initial wave of young women to experience the benefits of the new law.
"I was a baby of Title IX, and now I'm one of the many influencers of Title IX," Baker said. "I don't always agree with all that's going on, but I'm known to be a very honest person and a person of change."
With great natural ability and skill, Baker lettered in five sports at Texas Woman's University: tennis, badminton, soccer, field hockey and softball. As a four-year starter at shortstop, Baker won a state softball championship and represented the state of Texas in the 1975 Women's College World Series.
Tennis and softball were the only sports she played after her freshman year because of some subpar grades and not enough hours in the day.
The thrill of competition and passion for the sport motivated Baker at a time when women's sports were viewed as an afterthought until Title IX changed the conversation.
"Initially, we didn't have anything," Baker said. "We traveled in vans, made our own uniforms, spent our own money to eat, but we loved to play and we were playing for the love of the sport. Title IX let us level up. People started thinking about how we could travel more, get more money and how the facilities could be better."
As her passion for playing morphed into a love of coaching, Baker wore many hats on behalf of her student-athletes. She would tend to the diamond. She was a trainer, bus driver, advisor and coach who would commonly work 18 hours a day.
"There was something enduring about it," Baker said. "I've talked to some of my old buddies, and none of us had anything. So we pulled together, and we'd keep each other going."
Baker holds up the 1986 Division II national championship trophy that the Stephen F. Austin softball team won. (Photo courtesy of Dianne Baker)
Baker's coaching career was highlighted by a 1986 Division II national championship while at Stephen F. Austin and 785 total wins between her two career stops. There are coach of the year awards, regional titles and other accomplishments, too, including the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.
Any hall of fame honor is impressive. Baker is a proud inductee into four — Texas Woman's University, Stephen F. Austin, the Lone Star Conference and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
She described her coaching style as "hard-nosed, businesslike and fun-loving." Baker retired from coaching in 2005, and not a day goes by where she doesn't miss it.
"I gave them the very best of me," she said. "I was very prepared, I studied and I worked my butt off. I paid attention to the inches and angles. I was a workhorse, and I wanted them to graduate and be better than me. Take my lessons, even the bad ones, put their seeds of greatness in, mix it all up and be better than me."
She's passed along those lessons to other coaches and players through her manuals and videos. Sharing her practice drills, coaching methods and focusing on fundamentals, she's responsible for the best-selling softball book in the country. "Winning Softball Drills," released in 1986, is in its fourth edition.
"I've had a great life," she said. "Since I've been about 18 or 19, everything has fallen into place. I have no complaints. I enjoy what I do, and I'll help any coach I can help."
Baker credits her experience as a student-athlete at Texas Woman's University for establishing her life's foundation, and she struggles to find the words to properly express the pride she feels for the university.
A $500,000 act of kindness does plenty of talking, though.
She donated the half million dollars in 2019, the largest gift to Texas Woman's University athletics by a living alumna, for what is now called "Dianne Baker Field."
When Dianne Baker Field was dedicated at Texas Woman's University, over 600 friends and former players came for the event. (Photo courtesy of Texas Woman's University)
The former Pioneer student-athlete started her journey at the school before being brought back in 1994 to rebuild the reinstated softball program. Baker lost her mother her freshman year and then her dad five years later. During those impactful losses and formative times of her life, the school was her support system.
"Every place I go, I have TWU on my back. It has been my life. I got my degree there when I didn't have the support," Baker said. "I didn't really have anybody. These people took care of me and became my mentors. I always felt like I owed them everything in my life. I don't even know if I can express how much I love that university."
Baker, who is now the national promotions director for Schutt Sports, got the idea for the gift after Texas Woman's University leaders asked Baker, "What do you want your legacy to be?"
Having never considered her legacy, Baker thought of the impact her student-athletes made in her life and how she wanted to give back in honor of them.
