After spending 11 seasons in the in the major leagues, Dick Siebert returned to the Twin Cities and started working at a local radio station.
A short time later, another baseball opportunity came along. In 1947, Siebert became the baseball coach at the University. He would go on to coach the Gophers baseball team until 1978.
Siebert was born in Massachusetts before his family moved to Minnesota. He grew up in St. Paul.
He made his major-league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932 at the age of 20. He spent the majority of his major-league career (eight seasons) with the Philadelphia Athletics, who were managed by the legendary Connie Mack.
In 1941, he batted a career-high .334 with 79 RBI in 123 games. Two years later, he played in the All-Star game. He retired following the 1945 season.
He finished with a career batting average of .282. As a hitter, he was tough to strike out — he struck out just 185 times in 3,917 career major-league at-bats. Twice during his career, he broke up no-hitter bids by Hall of Famer Bob Feller.
As the Minnesota coach, he directed the Gophers to 754 victories, 11 Big Ten titles and three national championships (1956, 1960 and 1964). Siebert coached 14 Gophers — including Paul Giel, Jerry Kindall, George Thomas, Paul Molitor and Dave Winfield — who went on to play in the major leagues.
For many years, he conducted youth baseball clinics around the state.
