Former Tulane All-American Jake Gautreau selected to Conference USA Hall Of Fame

NEW ORLEANS, La. – One of the most decorated players in Tulane athletics history, former Tulane baseball standout Jake Gautreau was one of 20 former student-athletes named to the inaugural class of the Conference USA Hall of Fame the league announced on Monday.

The league, heading into its 25th year of competition, announced the full 25-member class which also included three of the league’s former coaches and two administrators. Gautreau was one of two Tulane players to make the list, joining tennis player Michael Kogan.

Starting every game he played in with the Green Wave, 195 in all, Gautreau hit .277 during that stretch with 275 hits, including 54 doubles, four triples and 58 home runs. The McAllen, Texas, native still ranks in the top 10 in 17 different career, single-season and individual game records, sitting third all-time in home runs, fifth in RBI and seventh in slugging percentage, among others.

After being named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team in 1999, Gautreau etched his name in conference lore as he became the first person to be named the player of the year in back-to-back seasons in 2000 and 2001. Tulane went on to win the conference tournament championship in 1999, while in 2001 the Green Wave swept the regular season and tournament titles along the way to the program’s first berth in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

A first-team all-conference selection in his final two years, Gautreau was a seven-time All-American and earned consensus honors in 2001. He was named the district player of the year and played with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team before being picked 14th overall in the MLB Draft in 2001.

In 2005, Conference USA announced its All-Decade team and Gautreau earned the distinction of being named the player of the decade along with being one of the 11 players to make the list.

Even now, Gautreau remains littered throughout the C-USA record book ranking fifth in RBI, third in home runs, seventh in total bases and tied for 19th in runs scored all-time in league history.

Gautreau returned to Tulane in 2010 and served as an assistant coach for four seasons, including a stint as the team’s interim coach at the end of the 2014 season.

The inaugural C-USA Hall of Fame class features student-athletes and coaches from 13 different sports. Eleven of the eligible schools (those who were members of C-USA prior to the summer of 2013 for this class) are represented.

In the future, the C-USA Hall of Fame class size will be a minimum of one inductee and a maximum of five inductees per year.

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