• Photo highlights from Graham's career at Rice

Even after more than 900 victories, some things surprise Rice coach Wayne Graham.

Graham, one of the most successful coaches in Division I history, was selected for induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame on Friday.

Graham described himself as shocked and surprised to be among the seven inductees who will be enshrined June 29-30 in Lubbock.

"It's a privilege to not only coach at Rice, but it's a privilege to be in this profession," Graham, 75, said. "There's nothing like it."

In 20 seasons at Rice, Graham has turned the private school into a perennial powerhouse with one national title (2003), seven trips to the College World Series, 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and 16 shared or outright conference titles.

His 921 victories are third-most among active Division I baseball coaches at the same school.

Before coming to Rice, Graham built a junior-college empire at San Jacinto College, where he won five national championships during a six-year stretch.

During a 31-year career at both schools, Graham has never had a losing season and is 1,496-475. He's been named national coach of the year four times.

Rice athletic director Rick Greenspan said Graham's career achievements "are obviously worthy of a place in the College Baseball Hall of Fame" and the Owls' No. 5 ranking is "yet another chapter to an amazing career."

Graham's coaching path took an unconventional route. After an 11-year pro career spent mostly in the minor leagues, Graham worked in the private sector and spent nine years as a coach and teacher at Scarborough High School.

He didn't get his first college coaching job at San Jacinto until he was 45 and took over at Rice when he was 55.

"When I got into coaching I knew I liked it immediately," Graham said. "Turns out, I liked it a whole lot more than I thought."

Because of his late coaching start, Graham said he has no plans to retire soon.

"I'll coach as long as I'm not hurting the cause," said Graham, whose contract at Rice runs through 2013.

Graham is a member of three other Halls of Fame: Junior College Hall of Fame (1995), Texas Baseball Hall of Fame (2003) and Texas Sports Hall of Fame (2005).

The rest of the 2012 class includes Lou Brock, a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer who was a star at Southern University; former Lewis-Clark State coach Ed Cheff; Nomar Garciaparra, a three-time All-American at Georgia Tech; Tim Jorgensen, a two-time Division III player of the year at Wisconsin-Oshkosh; Brad Wilkerson, a three-time All-American and player of the year at Florida; and Frank Sancet, who led Arizona to 10 College World Series appearances.

"I wasn't a great player, but by golly I'm going to sit up there with a couple of them," Graham said.

joseph.duarte@chron.com

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