John DeVore: Shamrock High School
DeVore was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 1998.
John DeVore was one of DeKalb County’s winningest baseball coaches. He finished his 30-year coaching career with a 377-232 record. He was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 1998.
After a standout prep career, DeVore worked a year before enrolling at West Georgia College where he played baseball from 1962-1965. In 1964, the right-handed pitcher led the nation with a 0.40 ERA and set school records for most consecutive wins (eight), most consecutive shutouts (three) and most shutouts (three) in a season. He led the team in hitting with a .387 average in 1963.
DeVore, who was inducted into the West Georgia Hall of Fame in 1988, was an All-American in 1964 and 1965. He signed with the New York Mets out of college, but an injury cut his career short.
He began coaching in 1966 at Southwest DeKalb before moving over to Shamrock. The old Shamrock baseball field, which is now the baseball field at Druid Hills Middle School, is named “John DeVore Field.”
“He truly devoted his life to baseball. He did not have any hobbies,” his wife Fayron DeVore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He always told the kids when they weren’t having a good time, they needed to quit. He taught so many kids baseball and helped so many get in school. Some of whom played against him.”
After he retired, DeVore continued to coach, providing private pitching lessons and serving as an instructor at the Georgia Tech Pitcher/Catcher Camp.
“He was a main instructor when it came to pitching at the camp,” Georgia Tech head baseball coach Danny Hall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He is one of the best pitching instructors I have ever been around. He could relate really well with the kids, because he knew how to talk to them and how to teach them.”
DeVore passed away on January 12, 2013.
In late 2013, the John DeVore Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by Dennis and Sally Williams to support student athletes at the University of West Georgia. The scholarship awards $500 annually to a student on the intercollegiate baseball team at UWG.
Some information in this article was used from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.