BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Skip Bertman’s final baseball game did not end his influence over LSU athletics. It expanded it.
Bertman, who died Friday morning at 88, is remembered first as the coach who built LSU baseball into a five-time national champion.
But when he left the dugout, he moved into an office with responsibility for the entire LSU athletic department.
His second act helped shape another championship era.
Skip Bertman, a former college baseball coach and athletic director at Louisiana State University.(MGN (Custom credit) | MGN Image (Credit))
LSU named Bertman athletic director on Jan. 19, 2001. He ultimately served in the position through 2008, overseeing a 20-sport department during one of the most successful periods in LSU athletics history.
During Bertman’s tenure, LSU football won national championships in 2003 and 2007.
Several coaches Bertman hired would eventually bring more national championship trophies to Baton Rouge.
LSU credits Bertman with hiring four coaches who went on to win national championships at the university: Les Miles in football, Paul Mainieri in baseball, Chuck Winstead in men’s golf and Dennis Shaver in track and field.
Miles led LSU to the 2007 BCS national championship.
In 2006, Bertman chose Mainieri, a former LSU player and Notre Dame coach, to take over the baseball program Bertman had built.
“It will take a special person to bridge the great past and the promising future of Tiger Baseball,” Bertman said when Mainieri was introduced.
Three years later, Mainieri led LSU to the 2009 national championship.
REMEMBERING SKIP BERTMAN
Bertman’s impact as athletic director went beyond hiring coaches. He also made changes to how LSU athletics raised money.
Bertman implemented the Tradition Fund, requiring seat contributions from football season-ticket holders in addition to ticket prices. The move was controversial at the time, but LSU later credited the new financing strategy with helping put the athletic department on stronger financial footing and providing money for facility improvements.
Bertman said LSU needed the additional revenue to remain competitive in the Southeastern Conference.
The department also underwent extensive facility growth during his tenure.
That included plans for a new home for the baseball program he had built.
The original Alex Box Stadium remained open through 2008, Bertman’s final year as athletic director. LSU moved into the new Alex Box Stadium in 2009, with the project developed during Bertman’s time leading the department.
The playing surface was later named Skip Bertman Field.
Fireworks explode behind the outfield of the new Alex Box Stadium, Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, in Baton Rouge, La. The Louisiana State baseball team opened its first game in the new stadium against Villanova. (AP Photo/Bill Feig)(Bill Feig | ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Fans at Alex Box Stadium watch during the third inning of an NCAA college baseball tournament regional game between LSU and Sam Houston State, Saturday, June 1, 2013, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Bill Feig)(Bill Feig | AP)
Bertman had taken a similar approach to building LSU baseball decades earlier: invest, promote, create resources and then expect to win.
As baseball coach, that formula produced five national championships.
As athletic director, LSU says Bertman helped implement fundraising methods that changed the trajectory of the department while overseeing one of the largest periods of facility growth and athletic success in school history.
Even the coaches he hired continued winning long after he retired in 2008.
Mainieri won LSU baseball’s sixth national championship in 2009. Winstead led LSU men’s golf to a national title in 2015. Shaver’s track and field program added national championships.
Bertman had stopped filling out lineup cards years earlier, but the championship culture he helped build at LSU was no longer confined to a baseball diamond.
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