Veteran coach Bingham joins NU staff

Nebraska baseball coach Mike Anderson announced the selection of longtime college baseball coach Dave Bingham as the Huskers' new pitching coach. Bingham will begin his duties on Aug. 1.

Bingham has been a coach in the collegiate ranks for 23 seasons, including successful head coaching stints at Emporia State (1974-87) and Kansas (1988-95) and was most recently an assistant coach at New Mexico in 2004. In addition to his vast coaching experience, which includes eight tours with various USA Baseball programs, Bingham has run the Dave Bingham Baseball Academy, one of the top instructional schools in the Midwest, for the past decade.

According to Anderson, Bingham's unsurpassed combination of coaching experience and technical knowledge made him an ideal candidate to take over the reins of the Husker pitching staff following Rob Childress, who was named the head coach at Texas A&M in June after eight seasons as Nebraska's pitching coach.

"Dave's strong commitment to kids and building relationships was a major factor," Anderson said. "His intensity for fundamentals and knowledge of the game will be a great asset to our program. I felt very strongly that we needed to find somebody that would adhere to the values of the University of Nebraska – of teamwork, tradition and integrity. We have found that person in Dave Bingham."

Bingham said that the opportunity to work with a Husker baseball program that has made three College World Series appearances in the last five years was too good to pass up.

"The most important thing is the relationship that I have with Coach Anderson," Bingham said. "I believe in many of the same goals that Mike has for this program and the importance of building relationships to be successful.

"In our conversations about the job, we talked about making progress and taking the final steps to success," Bingham said. "Nebraska has enjoyed a great history over the last few years and much of the credit is to Coach Anderson and the other coaches who have been in the program. This is a wonderful challenge for me. I wanted to be in a program of this stature and to help build on that success in the future."

Bingham was the head coach for eight years at the University of Kansas from 1988 to 1995 and 14 years at Emporia State University from 1974 to 1987, compiling a career record of 807-495-2.

He built a successful program at Kansas in his eight years of running the Jayhawk program, becoming one of the school's all-time winningest coaches with a 249-225 record. Bingham led the Jayhawks to their only two NCAA Regional appearances in program history, culminating with the school's first College World Series appearance in 1993. That team finished with a 45-18 record, setting a school record for wins and earning a top-10 ranking. For his efforts, he was named Big Eight and AVCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year. The following year, he brought KU back to the NCAA Tournament with another 40-win season and finished the season ranked in the top 25.

Bingham had six players combine for seven All-America certificates at Kansas, while 20 players were drafted or signed professional contracts during that time, a fact made more impressive since only two of those players were drafted before coming to Kansas.

Prior to his arrival at Kansas, Bingham spent 14 seasons at Emporia State, where he posted a 588-270-2 record (.673). During his tenure at ESU, Bingham built the Hornets baseball program into one of the best in the NAIA ranks. His teams won 11 district titles, five regional crowns and eight conference championships. He led ESU to five NAIA World Series and won the national championship in 1978. Bingham was selected NAIA District X Coach of the Year 10 times, NAIA Area III Coach of the Year six times, and was recognized as the national coach of the year in 1976, 1984 and 1986. A total of 20 of his former players advanced into the professional ranks.

Bingham's success throughout the years has afforded numerous opportunities on the national and international level. He served as an assistant coach on the U.S. Olympic team that won a silver medal in 1984 and a gold medal in 1988. In 1984, he served as the head coach of the bronze medal-winning U.S. team at the World Championships. Overall, Bingham has coached on eight international squads that have won three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal.

Bingham, 56, played his college ball at Arizona and Emporia State before embarking on a short professional career in the Washington Senators organization in the early 1970's. Bingham earned his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1972 and his master's degree in 1973 at Emporia State.

Bingham, and his wife, Janet, have two children, Brianna, 26, and Brandon, 23, who has played baseball for the last three seasons at New Mexico.