You can call him the professor of soccer.

It is a well-earned title for the man who has dedicated the last 33 years of his life to the MSU men's soccer program, coming from a time when just one player from Michigan suited up, to a time when the majority of the players are from this state.

The program itself was still in its infancy when he began playing, and it has since gone on to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. Baum has helped guide the program to an all-time winning percentage of .640 — the highest of any team sport at MSU.

"His legacy is one of team-building, one of character-building," said Vancho Cirovski, a midfielder from 1979-82. "The difference between some coaches and Joe is that if Joe was looking to make more money, he could've moved around. But his focus has always been about playing right and putting a lot of effort in.

"His commitment to the university says a lot."

In 30 years as head coach, Baum says he has never kicked a player off the team and has suspended just one player for one game, a testament to the character of the players he has brought in.

"He's probably one of the most well-respected men in the game on all levels," said Kellen Kalso, a defender from the 2001-04 teams. "He's a straightforward guy, and that gets you a long way."

Baum graduated from MSU in 1969 with a degree in advertising and has seen the soccer world shift 180 degrees from what it was when he suited up for the Spartans.

"The whole program, basically, was an international/out-of-state program," Baum said. "Now, for about the last 15 or 20 years, our program has been 80 percent Michigan players, so we're able to get young men who have learned the game in Michigan, played club and high school in Michigan and they represent Michigan State."

Baum is able to trace a lot of his coaching ability back to being a goalkeeper himself. Baum was the Spartans' goalkeeper from 1966-68 and led the team to a 33-1-7 record, capturing two NCAA co-championships along with St. Louis and Maryland. To this day, he is still second in the program's history with a .70 goals-against average.

Like catchers in baseball having an uncanny ability to become good managers, the same can be said about goalkeepers in soccer.

"I think positionally, it helps. I really do," Baum said. "I think you see when people are in good positions, good balance. When they are out of balance, you can pick that up pretty quick, and that helped me."

Baum, the longest-serving active coach at MSU, renewed his contract for four years after the 2004 season and said he is 99 percent sure this will be his last contract.

"I'll be 62 years old, and I will have been the head coach here for 32 years," he said. "I was an assistant for three, so that's 35 years coaching here. It's funny, I just get the feeling that it's time. I just feel like after a couple more years, it'll be appropriate."

Baum is hoping current associate coach Damon Rensing will be the one to succeed him when the time comes.

"He's one of the finest younger coaches in the United States, and I just pray and hope that this transition develops," Baum said. "I think it will, but you never know. Life is funny, but I think the current administration is very supportive of Damon Rensing, and I'm hoping this all comes together."

For now, though, Baum is still out on the recruiting trail, although it's a little more trying than it was when he was younger.

"Sometimes when I'm recruiting 16- and 17-year-olds, I feel like maybe they look at me like their uncle or their grandfather," he said. "I think when I was younger, say 35, I could sit down and talk with them about music or movies, but I think now they have a perception of me as an older guy — and that's an accurate perception. I'm sure that when I was 17 years old, if I was talking to a 60-year-old guy, I would've seen a bit of a gap there myself."

While most of campus has remained intact from when he was a student — Baum says he sometimes feels like he's still in 1965 — the talent level of players today is, without question, much higher.

"They are technically better, their skill level is better, they have a better understanding of the game and they have better experiences," Baum said. "Before, the players were primarily high school players, some of whom played baseball in the spring or summer, but now most of these players play club soccer year-round. … They are pretty easy to work with because they have been through so many soccer wars. They are ready to compete; they can accept having a bad day. When they win a game, they keep it in perspective."

After Baum's graduation from MSU, he said he moved back home to St. Louis with "no idea what (he) was going to do." He decided to apply to a few ad agencies, but before long, he got a call from Bob Guelker, then-head coach at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

"He called me on the phone about a couple weeks after I moved home and asked me if I would help coach his team," Baum said. "That was in the fall of '69, and I haven't missed a season since then."

From there, he moved on to Wisconsin-Green Bay in 1972 as an assistant before coming back to East Lansing in 1974. He remained an assistant to Ed Rutherford until he was named the fourth head coach in program history for the 1977 season.

One of Baum's bigger triumphs came last month, when he was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame.

"That was so great an honor," he said. "The players that were inducted before me, I looked up to those guys with adulation. Those guys were super, superstars."

But the defining moment of Baum's career will almost certainly be the team's stunning run to the Big Ten Tournament title in 2004. In four days, the team defeated Wisconsin, No. 1 Indiana and Northwestern to capture the crown — the school's first — and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Two players from that team, John Minagawa-Webster and Ryan McMahen, became the first MSU players to be selected in the Major League Soccer draft. Minagawa-Webster was selected in the fourth round in 2005, and McMahen went in the second round of the 2006 draft.

"That's helped us," Baum said matter-of-factly. "We do point that out in our recruiting now. I think that's been a big plus. The attendance is good. I think the program is on pretty stable grounds. We're going to build a soccer stadium here in the next couple of years, and I think that is the last piece in the puzzle."

The "New Life for Old College Field" project is spearheaded by Kirk Gibson and Mark Mulder, former MSU baseball All-Americans.

It will call for renovations to the tune of $4 million for MSU's oldest athletic complex. Old College Field is home to the baseball, soccer and softball programs.

And with the improvements to Old College Field, Baum sees only good things in the future for the program.

"I think once we get the soccer stadium there, you'll see attendance increase. I think you'll see the level of our recruiting step up a notch, and I'll be sitting right there watching somebody coach and loving every minute of it," he said.

His love of East Lansing and the university that has supported him through good and bad is one of the reasons why he has stayed at MSU as long as he has.

"I think it's a great place to live and this university has been so good to me as far as a career and providing medical, dental and all the benefits and things," he said. "If it's sailing good, why change course? So I just stuck with it."