[1][2][3][4][5] Dedeaux was the head baseball coach at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles for 45 seasons, and retired at age 72 in 1986.

[5][6] His teams won 11 national titles (College World Series), including a record five straight (1970–1974),[7][8] and 28 conference championships.

[10] Dedeaux also coached the United States national team at two different editions of the Summer Olympic Games: Tokyo 1964 and Los Angeles 1984.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Dedeaux moved to Los Angeles and graduated from Hollywood High School in 1931.

Dedeaux then played professional baseball briefly in 1935, appearing in two games as a shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers late in the season.

The following year while playing for Dayton in the Mid-Atlantic League, he cracked a vertebra while swinging in cold weather, ending his season.

[17][18] Following Barry's death in September 1950,[19] Dedeaux became the sole coach and proceeded to build on his early success to establish the strongest program in collegiate baseball.

Prior to his retirement in June 1986, Dedeaux's teams won ten additional College World Series titles in Omaha, including five straight (1970–74) and six in seven years.

At USC, Dedeaux coached dozens of future major leaguers, including Ron Fairly, Don Buford, Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, Roy Smalley, Fred Lynn, Steve Kemp, Mark McGwire, and Randy Johnson.

[11] He turned down numerous offers of major league coaching positions, including invitations from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda to join his staff, always rejecting them due to his preference for the college game and his desire to remain close to his family.

At the 1999 edition, the 50th played in Omaha, he was given a key to the city by the mayor and a one-minute standing ovation by the fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.

While Dedeaux was critical of the "phoniness that was in baseball movies," an opinion which he acquired while working as an extra in the 1948 film The Babe Ruth Story, he accepted the task after reading the original novel Shoeless Joe and brought Buford along to help him coach the cast.

He coached at USC for many years, and is a wonderful man, very full of life, energetic, very supportive, just really was very giving of himself and cheerful all the time, was a great spirit to have around.

[36] Dedeaux and his wife Helen are buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.