Mike Gillespie (2018) - USC Athletics Hall of Fame

Mike Gillespie

Induction:
2018
Class:
1961

Mike Gillespie became the second man to play on and coach a College World Series championship baseball team. He was an infielder/outfielder on USC’s 1961 CWS champs (and 1960 runner-up squad). In 1987, after a successful 16-year junior college coaching career (winning three state titles), he became Troy’s head coach through 2006, leading the Trojans to five Pac-10 titles, 14 NCAA Regional appearances, four CWS berths (including finalist in 1995) and the 1998 CWS crown. He won 763 games in his 20-year USC tenure and coached 42 All-Americans, 15 Freshman All-Americans, nine Pac-10 Players/Pitchers of the Year and 30 major leaguers, including MLB All-Stars Mark Prior, Barry Zito, Aaron and Bret Boone, Geoff Jenkins and Morgan Ensberg. A four-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year, he was the 2000 USA National Team head coach. He then was UC Irvine’s head coach from 2008 to 2018, becoming the winningest in school history with 393 victories in 11 years. He guided the Anteaters to five NCAA Regionals, including a trip to the CWS, and at least 30 wins in all but one season. In his 31-year Division I coaching career, he won more than 1,100 games and twice was the National Coach of the Year (1998 and 2014). He was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010. He died on July 29, 2020, at age 80.