In 1990, Tod Brown was a walk-on left-handed pitcher from Sabino High School who made the Arizona roster and went on to lead the Wildcats in saves and appearances on the club’s 1992 Pac-10 championship team. He went into coaching, which included two years at Arizona. Good move.
Brown quietly returned to his hometown Tuesday night as head coach of the New Mexico Lobos and beat his alma mater 6-3 at Hi Corbett Field. It was the 460th victory in Brown’s NCAA coaching career at North Dakota State and New Mexico. He took over both programs when they were bottom-feeders. He has taken New Mexico from 16 wins to 21, 27, 29 and 30 last year. This season, he got the Lobos off to a 12-0 start.
Rather than openly celebrate his victory over Arizona, Brown instead said, “Good win for the Lobos.”
If he can win 40 more games at New Mexico (or anywhere), Brown will be the second Tucson college baseball coach to cross the 500-wins plateau: former Pima College and New Mexico coach Rich Alday won 517 games for the Aztecs/Lobos and was inducted into the College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame last year. Brown is on a similar path.