East Texas

By CLINT BUCKLEY
Staff Writer

Robbie Surratt, perhaps the most recognizable high school baseball figure in East Texas for the past three decades, died Friday night due to complications from heart valve surgery.

He was 64.

Surratt enjoyed a 37-year coaching career, which included more than 500 wins. His final 20 seasons were spent at Lindale, where he guided the Eagles to several deep runs in the playoffs, including back-to-back regional final appearances in 2005 and 2006.

"He built a great baseball program at Lindale," said former Lindale athletic director Ben Shipley. "He was really committed to his program and his kids. He was very well-liked by all the players, coaches, kids and everybody."

Lindale High School principal Jamie Holder remembers Surratt on a more personal level.

"Robbie Surratt was the first coach I met when I arrived in Lindale in 1991," he said. "We started a great friendship from there. He was an outdoorsman and a man's man.

"He was a great family man and had a heart the size of Texas. It was never too cold or too wet to play baseball. That was his and his family's passion."

Surratt retired from coaching after the 2007 season, and the baseball field in Lindale was renamed "Robbie Surratt Field" at the beginning of last season.

Ronnie Dent, who has served as Bullard's head baseball coach since 2000, recalls the many battles his team had with Surratt and Lindale in the heat of district competition.

But one of the moments that stand out the most for Dent had nothing to do with a Bullard-Lindale matchup.

In 2005, Lindale and Van Alstyne were scheduled to play Game 2 of their regional semifinal playoff series.

Mother Nature was not cooperating.

After several hours of bus travel across much of the state trying to secure a dry field, Dent offered up his diamond in Bullard. Lindale had already captured the series opener, and if a suitable site was not found, the series would've been awarded to Lindale.

The Eagles lost that night in Bullard, but regrouped to win the series.

To this day, Dent says, former Lindale assistants Brian Nolan and Jeremy Chilek give him some light-hearted grief.

"When I first came over here to Bullard, (Surratt) was one of the first coaches to welcome me and introduce me to different coaches," Dent said. "He won a lot of games, and was very well known, but the best thing he did for me was he was my friend.

"I'm going to think of him every time I go to Lindale."

The Surratt family will receive friends from 4-6 p.m. today at the Caudle-Rutledge Funeral Home in Lindale. Funeral services will be held at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the First Baptist Church of Lindale.

Robbie Surratt
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