When you win more national championships than any other coach, one memory might blur into another.

Not so for Wayne Graham, who vividly remembers each and every Junior College World Series championship game like it was yesterday.

And he remembers the ones that got away, especially the first one.

The first one, you see, is what makes the five titles he won at San Jacinto (Texas) College-North oh, so special.

“One person asked me after we had won three (in a row), at the (coaches) convention, ‘Doesn’t the ball ever bounce bad for you?’ I told him, ‘not lately.’

“The funny thing they don’t realize is that first year, in ’84 when we lost to Southern Idaho, the ball did bounce bad. We had some incredibly bad breaks in the championship game, but after that, the ball didn’t bounce bad.”

The ball is still bouncing good for Graham, now the coach at Rice University in Houston, where he took a struggling program and has built a national power, winning the university’s first national championship in 2003.

Because of his success in the JUCO World Series, winning a record three consecutive and five overall championships, Graham was selected as the manager of the JUCO Golden Anniversary team.

The Conference USA tournament will prevent Graham from being part of the festivities, but he video-taped a message that will be played at the banquet.

“We’d have to lose the first two days in that tournament for me to make it,” Graham said. “We could probably think about that, but that would hurt our (regional seed).

“I’d love to come to that, it’ll be a great event. I’d like to be there for old times. If I ever retire, I’ll be there.”

Thoughts of retirement rarely creep into Graham’s mind, even though he’s 71. He still loves coaching, loves to see players develop through his demanding program.

He laughs at the “demanding coach” label that has followed him through junior college and now to Division I baseball.

“The pop psychology the last 20 years, you never give a negative, you never holler. Look at who the successful coaches are — the yellers,” he said. “I shouldn’t say the yellers, the ones who are not afraid to demand. You have to demand. I laugh when people say, ‘We’ve heard you’re a demanding coach.’ I tell them, ‘That’s redundant. To coach, you have to demand.’ ’’

He demanded the Gators be focused and well-drilled, and they responded all the way to the national championship in 1985.

“I could go down the line. Eighty-four was a big disappointment, but we learned from it,” he said. “Everything is about getting over the hump. Winning that first one was the largest leap of all. Once you’ve done it, you know you can do it again.

“That (1985) was a great, great tournament. We won the final game 6-5 and (Pima, Ariz.) had the winning run at the plate in the last inning. They had a pinch-hitter who had hit over .400 for the year, I think. (Steve) Carmada struck him out on a pitch in the dirt.

“I remember these things. Our catcher went down and blocked the ball and threw it to first. He was praying it was a good throw and our first baseman, (Paul) Dishman was praying, ‘Don’t let it be a tough catch.’ ”

He calls the 1985 team the “breakthrough” team, as was the 1987 team, because that’s the team that did what no one thought could be done, winning the third consecutive national championship.

“We did that with a young team,” Graham said. “The ’87 team, beating Seminole (Okla.), I thought that was the best team we ever played in terms of talent, in Seminole.

“Oscar (Rivas) went the route because we had nothing left, nothing left in the bullpen. I don’t know how many pitches he threw, I don’t want to know because I’d feel shameful about it. He threw the guttiest game I’ve ever seen. They had the bases loaded and we won 2-1 on (Bill) Losa’s home run.”

Rivas and Losa are part of the Gators’ glory years, and are part of the Golden Anniversary team, as is 1990 MVP Randy Brown, all part of Graham’s legacy. A fourth San Jac player, Nick Stavinoha, was an all-tournament catcher in 2002 and 2003 and is on the club.

The 1986 club sticks in Graham’s mind because it faced future big-league pitcher Curt Schilling, who pitched for Yavapai.

“I don’t think he got the loss, but we beat Yavapai with Schilling, and with him, they were obviously a great team,” he said. “Eighty-seven, who we beat (Seminole again) and the fact that it was a record. Eighty-nine may have been our best year in some ways as a team. Not our best talent, but we had a great pitching staff and we were so dominant. We lost a game in Grand Junction, but we were still a dominant team. David Evans won 17, 18 games for us that year.

“Our most unlikely year was ’90. No way we win a national championship, and we did. It didn’t make sense. Middle Georgia was crushing everybody. Benny Bryant won a great game, and in the final game, Robert Henkle was unbelievable.

“The thing I remember about the ’90 team, we go down to the last inning against Seminole once again,” he said of a 9-8 elimination game victory. “That was in the day that everybody accepted the idea of throwing a (batting practice) fastball on the outside corner, a medium-speed fastball to get ahead in the count.

“Randy (Brown) hit one 435 feet over the left-center field fence. That’s what it was, a bp fastball and Randy was ready for it. (The pitcher) didn’t get it located and he hit the ball farther than he’d ever hit a ball in his life. That’s what I remember, and Henkle’s unbelievable performance.

“Robert would believe anything I told him, and he believed I was telling him the truth, and I was. I told him, you’ve got a great curveball and if you don’t keep it from the crotch down against Middle Georgia, and get it over, they’re gonna kill you. I think he had 12 strikeouts in eight innings against a great hitting team. I had seen them play. I told the kids, ‘You don’t get to watch them, they’ll scare you.’ ’’

To this day, Graham longs to return to Grand Junction.

“It’s a great gig,” he said. “The scenery is phenomenal. You can’t beat it. I always went home healthier. You know what’s amazing about Grand Junction? Every morning I got up before daybreak and saw the sun come up over the Bookcliffs. My dad went to every national tournament. I’d see him walking and he’d see me walking, watching the sun come up over the Bookcliffs.”

Graham’s teams were on a mission, but, he said, they had fun on the trip, making the trek to Grand Mesa to see the snow, going to the Colorado National Monument, going to team barbecues.

“I always told them, ‘You know who’s going to have the most fun in Grand Junction? The team that wins.’ We did have fun, we took them to the mesa, the monument, we relaxed, ate well, but we told them the ones who had the most fun were the ones that won. They believed us.

“I don’t regret the years we went to the final game (and lost). We stayed as long as anybody. I would tell them, ‘Let’s get to the final game and let things fall where they may.’ We got to stay in Grand Junction more than anybody else.”

Graham is quick to tell people one big reason he’s coaching Division I baseball is because of those trips to the mountains, and the success of junior college baseball is because of the JUCO World Series.

“I’ve always known that Grand Junction was the lifeblood of juco baseball,” he said. “Without Grand Junction, junior college baseball as it is today wouldn’t be there.

“There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and Grand Junction makes it all work.”

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Patti Arnold can be reached via e-mail at parnold@gjds.com.