Legendary college baseball coach and five-time national champion dies aged 88

Skip Bertman, the legendary Louisiana State baseball coach who guided the Tigers to 11 College World Series berths and five national championships, has passed away at 88, the school revealed Friday.

A South Florida native who began playing college ball at the University of Miami one year after Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx was fired as the Hurricanes coach, Bertman would earn his master’s degree in health and physical education before spending 11 seasons coaching at his old high school.

He served as an assistant coach at Miami in 1982, when the Hurricanes won the College World Series thanks to a victory over the University of Texas and a young flame-throwing righty named Roger Clemens. Bertman famously orchestrated a phantom pickoff play against Wichita State that resulted in a dumbfounded baserunner being thrown out at second base.

‘We made it look so good, you’d want to eat it,’ head coach Ron Fraser once said of the play, which is now known as the ‘Grand Illusion.’

Bertman finally got a chance to become a college head coach in 1983 when he took the Tigers job in Baton Rouge before quickly turning LSU into a national powerhouse. The Tigers would win seven SEC crowns under Bertman, as well as NCAA titles in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000. Along the way, Bertman would win Baseball America Coach of the Year honors twice, as well as five Collegiate Baseball Coach of the Year awards, while posting a career record of 870-330-3.

And as if that weren’t enough, Bertman also guided the US Olympic team to a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Games after winning Olympic gold as an assistant in 1992.

Bertman was preceded in death by his wife, Sandy, who passed away in 2025, as well as his daughter Lisa Jo Pate. Bertman is survived by his other daughters, Jan and Jodi, as well as four grandchildren.

‘Few people have had a greater impact on LSU than Skip Bertman,’ LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry said in a statement. ‘As the greatest college baseball coach of all-time, and later as our Athletics Director, Skip developed a championship standard and culture that still guide us today. Personally, he was a dear friend, mentor and advisor, and I’m forever grateful for the trust and faith he placed in me to serve this institution.

‘I will continue to honor Skip by leaning into the lessons he taught me every day. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones at this time.’

Bertman’s players include retired Cleveland Indians slugger Albert Belle, Todd Walker, Paul Byrd, Russ Springer and Ben McDonald, a Golden Spikes Award winner who would later be taken first overall in the 1989 MLB Draft ahead of Hall of Famer Frank Thomas.

‘My heart is broken this morning….we have lost Coach Bertman,’ former LSU pitcher Ben McDonald, an ESPN college baseball analyst, wrote on his X account Friday morning. ‘The best to ever fill out a lineup card….the man who changed college baseball forever and the man who built the best baseball program in the country.

‘As great a coach he was, even a better man that touched countless lives! So thankful I got to see him last night and tell him how much I loved him 1 more time!’

In total, 41 of Bertman’s players would reach the majors.

In 2001, he became LSU’s athletic director, hiring Nick Saban and later Les Miles as head football coach.