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GIBSONVILLE — When Joe Brady's home alarm went off for a moment at midday recently, he got a phone call about it but didn't give it much more thought.

"Figured the wind blew," he said.

Wednesday night brought the big reveal: That had been Tommy Grayson, his assistant baseball coach at Eastern Guilford, sneaking in to pilfer one of the many No. 20 jerseys Brady had invariably kept at the end of every season. By the time Brady saw this pinstriped one again, it was being unveiled in a frame to the warm applause of friends and family Wednesday night as the Wildcats retired the number of the longest-tenured coach in school history at a surprise ceremony before their 16-6 victory over Southern Guilford. Brady is retiring after 34 years in education.

"(Grayson) found my keys in my truck," Brady said. "That's where I always leave them." He smiled. "I won't anymore."

Brady grew up in Bennett, graduated from Chatham Central and went on to play baseball at Gardner-Webb. He coached at Elkin and East Montgomery before joining Eastern Guilford in 1987. He's coached 493 games since then, putting him at 639 for his career. He has also coached football, basketball and the first slow-pitch softball team in school history.

"He's been a rock for the program," Eastern athletics director Randall Hackett said. "His commitment, his dedication — whether winning or losing, he was committed to Eastern Guilford. A true Wildcat."

Brady was a driving force behind renovating the baseball field at Eastern, including adding the irrigation system, batting cages and surrounding woods. The Wildcats became one of the last Guilford County teams to add outdoor lighting in 2001.

"(Brady) would make sure we didn't let (the renovation) go for a year or two so it went downhill," Hackett said. "If I needed to call him for something right now, he'd be there."

Brady, who had been kept in the dark about the honor until it happened, was asked to throw out a ceremonial first pitch and fired just off the plate to senior Zack Leddon, who dutifully framed it right on the corner.

"I wasn't expecting him to go the full 60 feet, 6 inches, but he did," Hackett said with a laugh.

Brady is the first coach to have his jersey retired by the school, though the one that wound up in the frame was actually worn in the mid-'90s — the only one Grayson could find in his mad dash through the home. Hackett, who teared up reading a speech to the crowd Wednesday, remembers Brady coming to him after school that day and saying he needed to go check on his house. "I was about to die laughing," Hackett said.

Brady didn't look like a coach on his way out Wednesday, springing out of the dugout to bark about a Wildcats throw gone wild in the top of the first, and accepting a kiss from a fan through the chain-link fence next to the dugout.

Hackett relayed what an umpire once said about Brady: "You never had to question how he felt about a situation. You always knew how he felt."

He plans to remain a presence at Wildcats home games.

"There's no doubt in my mind — Coach Brady will be here in the dugout next season," Hackett said. "He ain't going anywhere, we're going to make sure of that."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com