Bobby Cox team featured such future major leaguers as Ron Guidry, Mickey Klutts, Terry Whitfield and Juan Bernhardt. Overall, Cox had a highly successful six-year tenure as a minor league manager, compiling a record of 459 wins and 387 defeats (.543) with two league championships. He then spent the 1977 season as the first base coach on Billy Martin's staff with the World Series–winning Yankees before beginning his MLB managerial career. Cox replaced Dave Bristol as the manager of the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1978 season, inheriting a team that had finished last in the league during the previous two seasons
Neil Cox with the senior players. He gradually progressed through the youth ranks at the club before signing his first professional deal with the club in 1990, being handed a two-year deal, along with fellow youth graduates Graham Alexander and Richard Hall. Cox later revealed that he had been offered deals by other clubs but had remained with Scunthorpe as he was “ a local lad and I just wanted to play for my local team.” Following a downturn in the club's results, Hall and Cox were brought into the first-team by manager Mick Buxton and the pair's performances attracted attention from