Legendary Edison baseball coach Jim Muldowney passes away at age 68

There were wins. Oh boy were there wins.

There were championships. A lot of championships.

But anyone who played for Jim Muldowney’s Edison High School baseball teams knows it was never about the wins or the championships.

Years after graduation, decades even, they would call him. Pick his brain. Talk about their kids. Ask for advice. He was that kind of mentor.

Jim Muldowney, longtime Edison baseball coach, passed away early Tuesday morning of cancer. He hadn’t been feeling well the last few weeks, and only recently checked into the hospital. He was out watching Edison baseball a little over two weeks ago, watching his Eagles (they’ll always be his Eagles) win a GMC Tournament first round game over Piscataway.

Muldowney – who was the Middlesex College softball coach when he passed – first was a successful baseball coach there, going 141-81 under his tutelage.

*Former Edison baseball coach Jim Muldowney (right) with current AD Dave Sandaal (left) at the opening of the new Edison High School baseball field in 2020.*

He was hired at Edison High for the 1988 season. And in a few short years, he turned the Eagles into a national power. His teams went 275-75, won seven GMC titles, and two state Group 4 titles in 13 seasons before he stepped down at the end of the 2000 season.

The 1993 team became the first in GMC history to complete the trifecta of division, county and state champions in the same season, a feat only matched once since, by Spotswood’s 2007 team.

*Jim Muldowney (right) with Spotswood’s Glenny Fredricks, the only two coaches to complete the GMC trifecta. (Photo courtesy Dave Sandaal)*

But then again, it was never about the wins.

We talked with three prominent figures – and close friends – of Muldowney, and let them tell their stories about him: current Edison Athletic Director Dave Sandaal, Edison baseball assistant Brian Appelman, and Brian Calantoni, former head of the Edison Boys Baseball League.

*A team photo of the 1993 Edison baseball team, which won their division, the GMC Tournament title, and the state Group 4 title. Muldowney is on the far right. (Photo courtesy Brian Calantoni)*

Sandaal played basketball for Muldowney in the ’80s, and Appelman and Calantoni played on the 1993 Edison baseball team, which finished as the No. 1 squad in New Jersey, and was ranked fourth nationally by USA Today.

Click below for their remembrance of legendary Edison baseball coach Jim Muldowney: