Billy Disch

William John Disch

• Born October 15, 1872 in Benton County, Missouri USA
• Died February 3, 1953 in Austin, TX USA

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Biographical Information

OF Billy Disch played minor league ball from 1902 to 1911 but achieved his greatest fame as a college coach. His brother George Disch played in the majors.

Disch debuted in 1902 with the Sioux Falls Canaries, then hit .303 with 31 doubles and 8 triples for the 1903 Fort Worth Panthers. He was 5th in the Texas League in average, led in doubles, tied for second in triples, was 7th in home runs (7) and ranked third in slugging. Billy fell to .255 for Fort Worth in 1944 and also spent time that year with the Galveston Sand Crabs (.217). He hut just .213 for the 1905 Marshalltown Grays. He rebounded to .266 for Galveston in '06 but was at only .208 with the same club in '07. He played his last season with the 1911 Beeville Orange Growers, batting .249 and slugging .306.

Disch managed the Fort Worth Panthers for part of 1903, the Beeville Orange Growers for part of 1911 and the Austin Reps in 1915. He was the head coach at St. Edward's University from 1902-1910, coaching Bill Killefer. He next was head coach of University of Texas from 1911 to 1939, going 513-180 with 22 Southwest Conference titles. He was the college coach for Bibb Falk, Ox Eckhardt, Tex Hughson, Pinky Higgins and Ernie Koy among others. Falk replaced him as Texas head coach in 1940.

Disch then scouted for the Boston Red Sox until 1949.

He was a charter member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1966 and was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. Disch-Falk Field was named after Disch and fellow former Texas coach Bibb Falk.

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