WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Pennsylvania baseball icon and West Chester Hall of Fame coach Carl Giuranna passed on Sunday, April 8, at the age of 89.
Giuranna joined the West Chester baseball staff in 1981 as a pitching coach and later became head coach of the Golden Rams in 1987 following the passing of WCU Hall of Famer Neil Serpico. In a head coaching career spanning eight seasons (1987-94), Giuranna accumulated a 145-150-6 (.492) overall record in the Purple and Gold and coached numerous standouts during his tenure, including Tom Nunneviller, Pat Kelly, and John Mabry who are all members of the West Chester Hall of Fame.
After leaving West Chester, Giuranna "retired" to Florida where he took on the role of pitching coach at Flager College for a few years prior to serving in the same capacity for the Quakertown Blazers of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League (ACBL) in the late 1990s. Giuranna's storied coaching career ended in the mid 2000s after he spent a handful of years on the coaching staff of the Perkiomen American Legion to cap off a baseball legacy that spanned over half a century.
Prior to his time at WCU, Giuranna spent nearly three decades as the skipper at North Penn High School (his alma mater) in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. During his storied career with the Knights, Giuranna won an impressive 11 league titles and 253 total games and he later became the first member inducted in the North Penn Baseball Knights of Fame in 2014.
Before embarking on his historic coaching career, Giuranna was a two-sport student athlete at the University of Pennsylvania where he played both baseball and soccer for the Quakers until he graduated in 1950. Giuranna later went on to play professional baseball in the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox farm system and then became a talent scout for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds before starting his coaching career at Lansdale High School in 1954.
Additional Information
- Carl's life will be celebrated on Saturday May 5, 2018 at Corpus Christi Church, 900 Sumneytown Pike, Lansdale, PA 19446.
- Visitation with the family will be held from 9:30 am to 10:30 am followed by a funeral Mass at 10:30 am.
- Memorial donations may be made to the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal, 475 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144 or online at cammonline.org.
