Minnesota Men’s Athletic Department announced Monday that Todd Oakes has been named assistant coach for the Gophers baseball team. Oakes’ primary responsibility will be in the area of pitching.
Oakes has spent the past 12 years as a minor league pitching instructor for the San Francisco Giants. In that time, he coordinated the development programs for the entire Giants’ minor league organization. He also supervised and monitored the performances of five pitching coaches in the organization.
“Todd comes highly recommended from people who work at all levels of organized baseball,” coach John Anderson said. “He brings with him a solid teaching background in the area of pitching and has guided the developing pitching careers of young professionals, a number of whom have pitched or are pitching in the major leagues. I believe Todd’s background will be a strong asset in recruiting top pitching prospects to the University of Minnesota.”
Prior to 1987, Oakes spent three seasons as a pitcher in the Giants’ minor league system after being drafted out of Nebraska in 1983. He was an academic All-American for the Cornhuskers as he earned his bachelor’s degree in education. Oakes graduated from Waldorf (Iowa) Junior College in 1991 before enrolling at Nebraska. He was a 1979 graduate of Springs Grove high school in southern Minnesota.
Oakes replaces Mike Dee, who was named head coach at the University of Illinois — Chicago on Sept. 1. Dee spent 11 years as pitching coach for Minnesota.
Men’s Athletics Receives Gift
Minnesota Men’s Athletics program has announced receipt of an estate gift of $434,000 from Stanley G. Wadman.
Wadman, a close friend of former Gopher golf coach Les Bolstad, developed a great love for the game of golf through his association with Bolstad. Wadman has also been a long-time supporter of Men’s Athletics by providing numerous gifts to the Williams Fund, the fund-raising arm of Men’s Athletics since the early 1980s, even as a resident of the state of Oregon.
Proceeds from the gift will endow a scholarship for a Gopher golf student-athlete in Wadman’s name. The scholarship will be the first fully-endowed named scholarship for the men’s golf program.
The remaining portion of the gift will be used to complete the $5 million renovation of the Gibson-Nagurski Football Practice Facility. Upon completion of the renovation, the Gibson-Nagurski complex will rank with the best in the nation.
The Williams Fund raised a record $5.3 million in 1997-98.
