In his first season at LSU, Skip Bertman brought the San Diego Chicken to Alex Box Stadium and drew 3,018 people to a program that had averaged 454 per game the year before. Bertman, the coach who turned that early spark into five national championships and a college baseball institution, died on August 14, 2026, in Baton Rouge at 88.

LSU Athletics announced that he died early Friday morning. The Associated Press, citing LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette, reported that Bertman died in a Baton Rouge hospital.

Born in Detroit on May 23, 1938, Bertman grew up in Miami Beach and built his education and early career in South Florida. He played outfield and catcher at the University of Miami from 1958 through 1960, earned degrees there, and coached Miami Beach High School to a Florida state championship in 1970. He later joined Ron Fraser's Miami staff, helping the Hurricanes reach five College World Series and win the 1982 national title.

LSU hired him in 1983, before baseball in Baton Rouge had the crowds or expectations it would acquire under his direction. The Tigers reached Omaha for the first time in 1986 and won their first NCAA baseball championship in 1991. Four more title seasons followed in 1993, 1996, 1997, and 2000. Across 18 seasons, his teams went 870-330-3, appeared in 11 College World Series, and won seven Southeastern Conference championships.

One swing fixed the 1996 team in the sport's memory. On June 8 in Omaha, LSU trailed Miami with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when Warren Morris hit a two-run home run for a 9-8 championship victory. It was Morris's only homer of an injury-shortened season, according to his official LSU profile. Bertman's team repeated as national champion the next year, then claimed his fifth crown in 2000 when Brad Cresse's ninth-inning single completed a 6-5 comeback against Stanford.

The victories changed the scale of LSU baseball. Bertman's last six teams led the nation in attendance, and Alex Box became a destination rather than an afterthought. The same attention to small details showed up in the players he taught. Warren Morris later said, "Coach Bertman taught us that everything counts and about winning the game early." The university's 2026 institutional memorial and official baseball record book state that 41 players he coached at LSU advanced to Major League Baseball.

His work also crossed national borders. Bertman coached with the 1988 U.S. Olympic team that won gold in Seoul, then managed the 1996 American team to bronze in Atlanta. Six national coach of the year selections followed him across the span of his LSU tenure, from 1986 through 2000.

After his final season in the dugout, Bertman moved into LSU's athletics director's office and served from 2001 through 2008. LSU football won national championships in the 2003 and 2007 seasons during his administration, and he hired title-winning coaches across football, baseball, golf, and track and field. His department also advanced the facilities program that included a new Alex Box Stadium, which opened in 2009.

Recognition accumulated around the work. LSU retired his No. 15 in 2001. He entered the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003, the inaugural College Baseball Hall of Fame class in 2006, and LSU's own Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011. The playing surface at Alex Box Stadium took his name in 2013, and a statue of him was unveiled at Legacy Plaza in 2019. At that ceremony, Bertman said, "It belongs to all of the coaches, players and fans who helped me during my time as LSU’s baseball coach."

Bertman and his wife, Sandy, were married for 63 years and raised four daughters. Sandy and their daughter Lisa died before him. He was survived by daughters Jan, Jodi, and Lori, and by grandchildren Sophie, Isaac, Sam, and Ezra.

Five championship years remain attached to Bertman's LSU teams, while No. 15, Skip Bertman Field, and the statue outside the ballpark give those seasons a permanent address. The fullest measure comes each spring, when the stands he helped fill surround a program still operating at the national scale he imagined and built.