Minnesota head baseball coach John Anderson agreed to terms on a contract that will keep him in place as head coach through the 2016 season, athletics director Joel Maturi announced Tuesday.
The deal will keep Anderson, currently in his 31st year at the helm of Gophers baseball, around for another four years beyond this season.
Anderson has a career record of 1,080-715-3. He’s been named Big Ten Coach of the Year six times and has helped lead the Gophers to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances. His 1,080 coaching victories are the most in Big Ten history.
“There is no one more deserving of this than John,” Maturi said. “Not only is he the winningest coach in the Big Ten, the manner in which he runs his program is remarkable.”
The 56-year old Anderson was a driving force behind a successful campaign for a new on-campus baseball facility. In February, the University hired a construction contractor to build a new Siebert Field and construction is scheduled to begin this summer.
Anderson said the University’s commitment to a new facility was crucial to his new contract agreement.
“I was concerned about making sure first and foremost that [an on-campus facility] was going to become a reality,” he said. “That was as much as my decision to delay a [long-term contract] as anything.”
Anderson had been working on a year-to-year basis since his last five-year deal expired in 2010. He said the new contract will “probably be his last one.”
“After 31 years, you’ve got to pay attention to your energy level … I’ve been going back and forth about some of those things the past few years just trying to figure out what I want to do next.”
In February, Maturi announced his retirement as AD and since then, Anderson’s name has been thrown around his possible successor.
However, Anderson said he hasn’t been contacted by anybody about the position.
In the event that the University does reach out to Anderson, he said he doesn’t think the new contract would prevent possible negotiations, but “none of those discussions have taken place,” he said.
