GEAUX SKIP, Statue Unveiling

[LSUDad]

Skip Bertman statue to be unveiled by LSU Friday evening

 

September 9, 2019

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BATON ROUGE, La. - LSU will unveil a statue of Skip Bertman, the school's legendary baseball coach and director of athletics, at 6 p.m. CT Friday. The ceremony will take place near the home plate entrance of Alex Box Stadium, and it is open to the public.

The Skip Bertman Statue will commemorate the accomplishments of the LSU baseball coach from 1984-2001 who led the Tigers to five National Championships (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and seven Southeastern Conference Championships. He is one of only three coaches in NCAA history to win five baseball national titles.

The statue will be the centerpiece of the newly constructed Legacy Plaza, which will contain graphics and plaques depicting the rich history of the LSU Baseball program.

“This is more than a monument to Skip’s unparalleled achievements on the field,” said LSU Director of Athletics Scott Woodward. “This is recognition of a man who has committed his life to making the lives of those around him richer than they might otherwise be. His contributions to thousands of people, including myself, as a mentor, leader and friend will live on for generations.”

The LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee in May 2016 unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Bertman be erected on campus.

Bertman finished his 18-season career with a record of 870-330-3 and still holds the mark for highest winning percentage (.724) in SEC annals. The playing surface at Alex Box Stadium was named “Skip Bertman Field” in May 2013.

Bertman guided LSU to 11 College World Series appearances, 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, and he coached 31 LSU players who advanced to Major League Baseball.  He was named National Coach of the Year six times (1986, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and SEC Coach of the Year seven times (1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997).

After retiring from coaching, Bertman served as LSU’s director of athletics from 2001-08, presiding over the Tigers’ football National Championship seasons in 2003 and 2007.

Bertman helped grow interest in the sport of LSU baseball from an average attendance of less than 500 fans per game in 1983 to becoming the annual NCAA attendance leader. The average paid attendance for LSU baseball today is over 10,000 per game, and the Tigers have led the nation in total attendance for 24 straight seasons.

Bertman represented LSU on the international stage as well, serving as assistant coach on several USA national teams and the 1988 U.S. Olympic Gold Medal Team, and he was head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team in Atlanta that won the Bronze Medal.

Bertman is a member of the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame.  Upon his retirement as baseball coach, his No. 15 jersey was retired at LSU.

Bertman remains today a pillar of the Baton Rouge community, serving on numerous philanthropic organizations such as United Way, Cancer Services and the Alzheimer’s Association, and he has been honored by the likes of the Arthritis Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America and the Anti-Defamation League.

The Skip Bertman Statue and Legacy Plaza were made possible through donations made to the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

[LSUDad]

Congrats Slip Bertram!

 

 

 

 

Former LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman poses with his new statue outside of Alex Box Stadium Friday evening (Ron Higgins)

Ron Higgins • TigerDetails

@RonHigg

 

They came from South Florida, from Oxford, Mississippi and from all points in between.

It didn’t matter that the early Friday evening Louisiana sun beaming down on the Alex Box Stadium Legacy plaza roasted bald or graying heads of aging men who traveled miles to see their coach, whether he guided them at Miami Beach High or at the University of Miami or as LSU’s head coach.

On this occasion before an invitation-only gathering, the honoree meant something in so many ways to everyone in attendance.

Yes, Alex Box Stadium/Skip Bertman Field finally got its doorman when Bertman’s statue which was unveiled by his wife Sandy and three daughters Jan, Jodi and Lori.

The man who led LSU to five NCAA national championships in 11 College World Series appearances from 1984 to 2001 before taking over as the Tigers’ athletic director for eight years was almost at loss for words.

“I am truly humbled by this honor,” said the 81-year-old Bertman, who had a record of 870-303-2. “This statue represents a lot of people. I may have been a trailblazer and that was accurate, and I may have touched some lives."

Bertman became the fourth LSU athletic figure and the first Tigers’ coach to be honored with a statue. He joins former Tigers’ basketball stars Bob Pettit and Shaquille O’Neal and 1959 Heisman Trophy winner Dr. Billy Cannon.

LSU president King Alexander said the statue was just a small token of what Bertman gave the university and the baseball program.

“If you really want to see a monument to a coach, to somebody who has built a program, just look behind you,” Alexander said. “The best college baseball facility in the United States and the fans 13,000 a game. Coach, that is all you. That is what you created at this university. That is a tribute few will ever have.”

LSU athletic director Scott Woodward called the statue “not only a monument to Skip, but to the incredible unwavering support of the best fans in America.”

“I want to emphasis not the championships, but Skip’s impact on people,” said Woodward, who referred to Bertman as one of his mentors. “Ask yourself how many young people Skip has mentored over his career, how many administrators, young coaches, assistants, fans, friends, people around the community that have been impacted by this great man.

“We can and should learn from Skip Bertman as a man and a professional his humanity, his decency, his generosity. He put people first every day of his life.”

Like current LSU coach Paul Mainieri, hired 13 seasons ago by Bertman with only one goal in mind.

“I told Skip I didn’t have the goal to become the greatest coach in LSU baseball history,” said Mainieri, who was instrumental in pushing the Bertman statue project. “That will never happen. I just wanted to be the second best.

“I told Skip all I want to do is make you proud.”

That has also been the goal of his former players, such as current Ole Piss baseball coach Mike Bianco and Warren Morris, whose two-out, two-run walk-off homer that gave LSU the 1996 national title is considered the greatest play in College World Series history.

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at without Skip Bertman,” said Bianco, who played under Bertman at LSU in 1988 and 1989 and was one of his assistants from 1993 to 1997. “You learn so many lessons. It’s more than championships. He’s a builder of men and so many of us are so thankful we got to walk through the program while Skip was here. He’s the John Wooden, the Bear Bryant of college baseball.”

While Morris agreed with Bianco about Bertman’s emphasis on teaching life lessons molded him – “I’ve told some of those to my own kids,” he said – Morris hasn’t forgotten Bertman’s on-the-field brilliance.

“I always felt we had an advantage because he was calling the shots,” Morris said. “I don’t know how many times we wouldn’t steal when the other team pitched out or he would pitch out when the other team would steal. After a while, you start thinking he knows what the other team is going to do.”

Bertman also had a plan how to build Tigers’ program from ground zero.

Long-time LSU supporter and Bertman confidant Richard Lipsey detailed Bertman’s first set of goals when he took over at LSU.

“It included paint the locker room, get the team a second set of uniforms, get an office with a desk, have seatback chairs behind home plate, put people in the stands and win, win win,” Lipsey said.

Lipsey noted some of the early roadblocks Bertman had to overcome.

“Skip wanted to change up the (Alex Box) field and bring in some Georgia red clay,” Lipsey said. “The LSU (maintenance) crew looked at him like he was crazy. They asked him `Where in the world can you find Georgia red clay?’

“Skip calmly looked at them, pointed to the map in his office, scratched his crotch and walked back in his office and sat down.”

Bertman detailed some of the early educating he had to perform on LSU fans who had been ignorant watching the Tigers’ barely watchable program before he arrived.

Many fans couldn’t even pronounce his name correctly in his first few seasons.

“Somebody shouted down to me (during a game) `Hey Bertram we’re one point down’,” Bertman said. “I vowed to myself you just do it one person at a time. I yelled up there `They’re called runs. They’re not points like in other sports and we’ll get some more.’

“Then you’d hear `Bertram, the referees stink.’ And I’d turn around and say `They’re not referees, these are called umpires. And yeah, they are pretty bad.’”

As usual, Bertman had the crowd continually laughing, including former Tigers’ baseball player Wally McMakin.

He starred on LSU’s 1975 SEC championship team before Bertman arrived and he was responsible for LSU hiring Bertman a year after Bob Brodhead took over as the Tigers’ athletic director.

“I was on the search committee that hired Brodhead,” McMakin said. “I told him he had to make a change (hire a new head baseball coach.) He said, `Give me one year and let me see how it goes.’

“When he came back to me, I told him he should go hire Skip. He was (Miami) head coach Ron Fraser’s top assistant, but we learned Skip was coaching the team in one of the nation’s most successful programs and Fraser was raising all the money. That’s why we went and got Skip.”

Soon, Bertman’s impact just wasn’t felt in Baton Rouge, but throughout the state.

It’s why coaches like Joe Scheuermann, who last season recorded his 1,000th career win in 29 years at Delgado Community College, drove from New Orleans to attend Friday’s ceremony and pay tribute.

“Skip got LSU to believe baseball would work,” said Scheurmann, who played and coached at Tulane against Bertman and later moderated NCAA tournament press conferences with him in Alex Box Stadium. “He made little kids want to play baseball instead of basketball and football.”

Scheurmann also said he has never forgotten the time that Bertman was thrown out of game when LSU was playing in the Busch Challenge in the then-Louisiana Superdome.

“I went down and Skip was sitting in a back hallway,” Scheurmann said. “From working in the Dome, I knew how to get around its bowels. So, I said, `C’mon Skip, let me show you something.’

“I’d led him to place right behind his dugout to where he could talk to (assistant coach) Smoke Laval. He walks up and says through a crack in the wall, “Psssssst. Hey Smoke!’ Smoke starts looking around like he’s hearing a voice from above.”

Bertman also told some similar humorous stories of his coaching journey. He concluded his remarks by giving the secret of his success.

“I’ve learned a lot of things," he said, "but what I’ve learned most of all was that I could get whatever I wanted if I helped enough other people get what they wanted. That if you vividly imagine, heartily desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon every day, it will come to pass.”

 

[LSUDad]

Back in Skips early years, back before anyone ever envisioned that LSU could have 10K + at a Baseball game. I would take my kids, sometimes with a few more from the neighborhood, just to watch the Tigers play.

Home Run, the light was on, everyone gets a Big Mac. Program numbers, win prizes. Skip did it all. A pit in left field area, burgers and hotdogs on the grill. 

One game we attended, Ole Piss came to town. Games we free, most times students would do their studies during the game, catching a at bat or two. One student brought into the game a jam box. The coach for Ole Piss in those days was a guy named Jake Gibbs. Yep, the same one that punted to Billy Cannon. As the student at the mic read out the Ole Piss starting lineup, one he got to the Head Coach, Jake Gibbs, he pushed the play button on the Box. The Cannon runback. “Jake Gibbs goes back into punt formation...”

What little crowd that was there broke into laughter, even Skip and the team got into it. This student played the runback at every break. Folks, mostly students were making wisecracks, some like, he’s coming again Jake get him this time. 

 Later in the game a close play at 1st base had Jake out of the dugout. While arguing the call, the button was hit, causing Jake to point to the box in the stands. The ump shook his head, a somewhat laugh, causing Jake to kick dirt at the ump. That’s it, ejection time, as Jake slowly walks back, once again the runback was played, a few more calls from the stands, that was the true start of LSU Baseball. I watched the stands start to get more and more fans in the seats. 

One player Skip said was one of his more talented early players, Clay Parker, who was also a punter on the football team. 

His son, Clayton Parker, pitched for the Alabama Crimson Tide team as a freshman in 2013.

In 2016, Clay became a world class javelin thrower, ranked number 2, nationally, in his age group.

[Eq4bits]

Saw a vid of the unveiling. Love it, that’s true skip Bertman leaning on that dugout rail!

[LSUDad]

One of Skips former players tells this story, I’m thinking this was also Ole Piss. 

Skip tells his players in the dugout, I’m going to strike him out in three pitches. Signals in from Skip, three times, three strikes, kids out. Later in the game, same kid, Skip says, and does it again. Three strikes, he’s out. 

The next time the kid steps to the plate, the players are asking Skip to do it again. Skips reply,”What do you want me to do, ruin the guy?” “How about a hit to the shortstop?” Skip signals the kid hits it to the SS, out at first. Skip turns around and says,”Is good to be the King!”