Friends of Jim Poole Scholarship Information
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech baseball is set to host its ALS Awareness Day on Saturday, April 30 in its nationally televised game against No. 3 Miami. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. on ESPNU.
The Yellow Jackets will honor Georgia Tech great and MLB reliever Jim Poole, who was diagnosed with ALS last year, in a pregame ceremony, as well as throughout the game with Jim Poole T-Shirt “Shirseys” giveaway.
The Georgia Tech baseball team will also wear Jim Poole Shirseys and wristbands during batting practice to honor him as well.
Georgia Tech alumni and friends established an endowed scholarship in honor of Poole earlier this year, creating the endowment to recognize him and how his legacy will continue to have an impact on Georgia Tech student-athletes in the baseball program, teaching them self-reliance and how to apply their lessons learned on the baseball field to the rest of their life.
Poole arrived on The Flats in 1985 and had an immediate impact, as Georgia Tech baseball would win the first of four-straight ACC Tournament Championships. During his four years, he pitched in 120 games and struck out 263 batters in 188 innings. He still ranks first in the Tech record book with 22 career saves, including 10 as a junior and nine as a senior. He was named all-ACC his last two seasons. Poole would be enshrined into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame just nine years later in 1997.
Poole played 11 years in the major leagues, predominantly with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and San Francisco Giants. In 431 games played, he finished with 22 victories and a 4.31 ERA, as well as 256 strikeouts and four saves. He helped pitch Cleveland to two American League Championship Series (1995, 1998), making it to the 1995 World Series where he would face the Atlanta Braves.
Following his retirement at the end of the 2000 season, Poole returned to Georgia Tech to join the Alexander-Tharpe Fund as a fundraiser and supporter of the baseball program. He then began serving as the pitching coach at Johns Creek High School in 2010, teaching many young men about pitching mechanics, while also conveying his personal pitching philosophy.
He later joined the business world as a Personal Wealth Advisor for Buckhead Investment Partners, LLC and now manages the Baseball Division for BIP Wealth.
Every 90 minutes, someone is diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, with an estimated 30,000 people living with ALS in the United States at any given time. Primarily affecting people between the ages of 40 and 70, ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. There is no known cure.
For more information about ALS, visit www.ProjectALS.org
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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