Former University of Denver baseball coach Jack Rose remembered getting a message from the basketball department that the Pioneers had recruited a player from California who also played baseball.
“Jerry Cole, an assistant coach in basketball, said I really was going to like this new player,” Rose said Tuesday as he remembered Jerry Causey.
Causey died Monday in Vallejo, Calif., after a long illness. He was 63. Rose remembered just how good that basketball recruit turned out to be for the DU baseball program.
“He really was a good hitter with a lot of power,” Rose said. “He also was a very good defensive first baseman, and at 6-foot-8 really presented a good target for the rest of the infielders.”
Causey played basketball and baseball during the 1964-65 school year and was selected to the All-America team in baseball. After his one season with the Pioneers, he signed with the Houston Astros and played pro baseball for two seasons.
After trying the pro game, Causey returned to DU and was an assistant coach for Rose until the late 1970s, when he returned to the Vallejo area. He taught in the Vallejo school system from 1978-83 and worked as a juvenile probation officer for Napa County from 1984-2000.
Rose remembered that Causey was a strong figure in working to maintain student harmony at DU. He worked with the late John Rice, father of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Causey was selected to the junior college sports hall of fame in California and also was inducted into the DU Sports Hall of Fame.
Causey is survived by his wife, Karen, and three children. Services are pending.
DU officials also learned that former basketball player Alonzo Weatherly died Tuesday in Detroit of complications from diabetes. He was 50.
Weatherly led the Pioneers in scoring in the 1979-80 season, averaging 23.2 points, and in 1980-81 (15.8). His rebounding average of 9.5 also led the Pioneers in 1979-80. He was drafted in the sixth round by the Nuggets but didn’t play in the NBA.
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
