By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
Coach Jim Case’s list of accomplishments is a mile long. Scroll through it and you’ll find conference championships and conference-wide coach of the year awards, among many other things. In 2016, Case celebrated the 500th win of his baseball career.
And in September 2018, Jacksonville State University (JSU), where he’s served as baseball coach for the past 17 years, named its baseball stadium after him. It’s a testimony to the “first-class” program he’s built, school officials say.
But Todd Stewart — pastor of First Baptist Church, Saks, in Anniston — said there’s a different part of Case’s legacy that he’ll always remember. It’s the image of the coach standing before a crowd of men and holding up a black leather Bible.
“During his testimony Coach Case shared how important the local church has always been in his life,” Stewart said, referring to Case’s message at an October 2018 men’s event at the church that drew the whole JSU baseball team. “As a child he lost his father at age 5. Through the hard work of his mother, the faithfulness of God and the faithful servants in the local church, Coach Case and his brothers all made it. The local church literally helped raise him.”
Among those church members were two men who stepped in as male role models in his father’s absence. One of them, a local dentist who also led music at the church, would come over and cut the boys’ hair when the family couldn’t afford haircuts.
Christian example
“A lot of people may say they have heroes in athletics, people who have meant a lot to them. But for me it was different,” said Case, who grew up at Pike Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham. “The men I consider real heroes were the two men who were a great example to me of what a Christian man should be.”
And when Case left for college his mother gave him the black leather Bible, the one he held up to the crowd, and she told him it had all the answers he would ever need. He says he still believes that. And a big part of his baseball program is trying to be for the players what those two men at Pike Avenue Baptist were for him.
“The joy of my job has come through relationships,” said Case, who started out playing baseball at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, then started coaching at Mississippi State University (MSU) in Starkville. He eventually went on to the University of Alabama at Birmingham before going back to MSU, then moving to JSU in 2001.
“It’s been 40 years counting the four I played in college,” he said. “It’s kind of all I’ve known.”
But Case has tried to leverage those 40 years to be a mentor to the guys on his teams. He says no matter what line of work you’re in, the opportunities to be an influence for Christ are there, “to help people and point them in the right direction.”
Stewart says Case’s impact is visible to everyone around him.
“As a pastor I am proud to call Jim Case a friend and fellow servant of the Lord,” Stewart said, noting that Case has faithfully attended his church for years.
Case knows how to build a winning program, but even more than that he builds young men who are ready for life, Stewart said. “All the JSU baseball players are fortunate to play for a coach who cares about their baseball skills and the type of men they will become when their baseball careers are over.”
‘Great honor’
Case said starting the 2019 season Feb. 15 at Jim Case Stadium was “a great honor,” but it’s an honor he shares with a lot of people who have worked really hard over the years.
“My whole life it seems I’ve been surrounded by a lot of good people,” he said. “It’s been a real blessing.”
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