Longtime University of Missouri-St. Louis head baseball coach Jim Brady passed away Thursday morning following a brief battle with cancer. He was 67.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Brady was set to enter his 33rd season as UMSL’s head coach this spring, where he compiled a career record of 835-664-5 (.557), the most wins for any head coach in UMSL Athletics history. He ranks 15th among NCAA Division II active coaches for most career wins and is 38th all-time in career victories.
During Brady’s tenure at the helm of the program, his teams recorded 24 winning seasons and recorded 30 or more wins 12 times, including a school record 39 in 2003. Brady has also directed five teams to the NCAA Tournament, including a pair of trips to the College World Series in 1993 and 1996.
He has coached his players to 114 all-conference, 66 all-region and 16 all-America selections and has seven former players in the UMSL Sports Hall of Fame, along with his 1993 team, which will be inducted this February.
Brady also coached five players who earned All-Conference and All-Region Player or Pitcher of the Year, and one Conference Freshman of the Year. For his coaching efforts, Brady was twice named the Central Region Coach of the Year, in 1993 and again in 1996.
During that historic 2003 season in which the then Rivermen posted a 39-15 record, Brady led UMSL to a first-place regular season finish in the GLVC and also won the GLVC Tournament, recording the school’s first-ever GLVC title. UMSL also earned a bid and the top seed to the NCAA Regionals, their first trip to the Regionals since the 1998 season.
After seven straight losing seasons between 2005-11 – four of which occurred while UMSL did not have a home playing field – Brady returned the program to prominence during the 2012 campaign, guiding UMSL to a 32-21 record and it’s first GLVC Tournament appearance since 2004. Additionally, the Tritons won 24 of their final 31 games. During that stretch, Brady recorded win number 700 with a 14-2 victory at Illinois-Springfield on April 22.
He picked up historic career win No. 800 on March 12, 2016 as the Tritons defeated Minnesota Crookston, 20-8, in Clearwater, Fla., as UMSL began the year 10-1.
The 1998 team finished with a 32-15 record and a bid to the NCAA Regionals. In 1996, Brady guided the team to a then school record 37-9 record, a first-place conference regular season finish, an NCAA Regional title and a berth in the Division II College World Series. In addition, Brady also led UMSL to back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances in 1992 and 1993. In 1993, Brady led the team to its first appearance in the Division II College World Series since the 1977 season, and it is first during his tenure.
Prior to being named the head coach, he assumed the pitching coach duties at UMSL in 1984 under former head coach Jim Dix. That year, Brady guided UMSL to a league-leading ERA as a team.
Before arriving at UMSL, Brady served as a teacher and assistant baseball and football coach at Parkway South High School for five years. He has also served as an assistant baseball coach at Missouri State and helped guide the Bears to back-to-back post-season appearances in 1977 and 1978.
Brady played collegiate baseball at nearby Meramec Community College, and later went on to play at Division I Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo.
He was inducted into the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Brady has two sons, Kyle and Tyler.
