Photo courtesy of Robin Roberts
Lincoln Park High School baseball coach Tom Noland (right) sits on the sits in the University of Detroit dugout with former Lincoln Park and U-D star Robin Roberts in 1995.
Tom Noland, the late legendary head varsity baseball coach at Lincoln Park High School, died in 2004 at the age of 78. He lived in Dearborn but coached and taught in a nearby Downriver community.
Noland started his coaching career in 1952 and finished up 50 years later, with a total of 803 wins. His career took in multiple decades at the helm of the Railsplitters baseball program. Noland was considered to be “Mr. Baseball” to those who knew him best.
His success at coaching landed him City of Lincoln Park Sports Hall of Fame induction in the 2001 class. Hundreds of student athletes who played for him still remember his mentoring ways.
The baseball diamond and scoreboard at Lincoln Park is named in his honor. He also has a special burger named after him on the menu of Chesley’s Bar & Grill, 3717 Fort St. in Lincoln Park.
Robin Roberts played under Noland for three years during the early 1990s. Roberts talked about his old prep coach this way: “Coach Noland encouraged me to play at the college level and was very happy when he learned that I signed an athetic scholarship to play baseball at the University of Detroit.”
Through the years, Noland rubbed shoulders with many of the Detroit Tigers’ players, who would visit him and work out at the Lincoln Park facilities.
Tom Noland may be gone, but he’s not forgotten.