John Anderson (born May 16, 1955) is an American

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

coach and former

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He is the head baseball coach at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. Anderson played college baseball at the University of Minnesota from 1974 to 1975, until injuries ended his career. In 38 seasons (as of the end of the 2019 season), Anderson has led the Golden Gophers to a record of 1,317 wins, 887 losses and three ties. In the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

he has led Golden Gophers to a record of 592 wins and 351 losses in that same span.

Playing career

Anderson graduated from Nashwauk-Keewatin High School in

Nashwauk, Minnesota Nashwauk is a city in Itasca County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 983 at the 2010 census. U.S. Highway 169 and Minnesota State Highway 65 are two of the main routes in Nashwauk. Geography According to the United States Census ...

in 1973. Anderson would next enroll at the

, where he would walk-on to the

Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball : ''For information on all University of Minnesota sports, see Minnesota Golden Gophers'' The Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate athletic team of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United S ...

team. After pitching for two years, an arm injury forced Anderson to quit playing. He remained as a student coach for the next two years, and was even voted as MVP of the 1977 team.

Coaching career

Following his graduation in 1977, longtime Gophers coach

Dick Siebert Richard Walther Siebert (February 19, 1912 – December 9, 1978) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who had an 11-year career from 1932, 1936–1945. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals, both of the N ...

named him a graduate assistant. Siebert died in the winter of 1978, and successor George Thomas named Anderson a full-time assistant. Thomas resigned in 1981, and Anderson became head coach at the age of 26–at the time, the youngest head baseball coach in Big Ten history. He has spent his entire adult life at the U of M as a player, assistant coach or head coach. His most successful team was the 2018 unit, which reached the super regional round–the Gophers' deepest tournament run since their last

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

appearance in 1977.

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Anderson's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

Awards and honors

*Big Ten Coach of the Year (1982, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2018) *ABCA Hall of Fame Inductee

Personal

Anderson graduated from the

in 1977 with a B.S. in Education. Anderson and his wife Jan are the parents of daughter Erin Elizabeth.

References

External links

Gophersports.com Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, John 1955 births Living people Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball players Sportspeople from Hibbing, Minnesota