Many will remember Pat Daughtery, the high school basketball and baseball coach who managed the five summer teams representing Rippey—the Demons, the senior town team, and the teams in Pee Wee, Little League, Babe Ruth League.
Patrick Bernard “Pat” Daugherty, 89, of Centennial, CO, passed away on July 17, 2024, surrounded by family.
Pat was born in Cumberland, IA, to Sarah and Charles Daugherty in 1934. He coached basketball and baseball at the local junior high and high school and served in the U.S. Army.
Pat served as the Head Baseball Coach for Indian Hills Community College at the Centerville campus from 1965 – 1982.
In 1982, after having managed the Montréal Expos’ minor league team in Jamestown during the summers, he signed on as a scout for the Expos’ major league team out of Auburndale, FL. He scouted for the Expos until 1990, when he signed on as the first Scouting Director of the Colorado Rockies. In 1999, he became vice president and special assistant to the general manager until his retirement in 2014.
In an article titled, “Her Daddy ‘Lives’ On Baseball Field,” published in the Des Moines Tribune on Page 12, June 13, 1961: As she strolled across the Rippey baseball field one day, 2 ½ year old Mary Beth asked her mother, “Is this where Daddy lives?” No doubt this family “lived” baseball!
