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Remembering Skip Bertman: The Coach Who Built LSU Baseball ⚾🐯 | Mike Detillier · Out of Bounds with Bo Bounds

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Speaker 1: You gonna show me the money.
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Speaker 2: Good Morning, Out of Bounds ESPN one oh five nine,
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Speaker 2: The Zone, Mike de Tillier WWL Radio TV, New Orleans, LSU,
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Speaker 2: New Orleans Saints. He joins us on the Farm Bureau
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Speaker 2: Insurance guest line. You can watch the show right now
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Speaker 2: Mike D on the show, Mike's the legend. I think
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Speaker 2: he's the best baseball coach, college baseball coach in the
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Speaker 2: history of college baseball, even over Augie and DeDeaux out
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Speaker 2: at Southern Cal. All of them great, and there were others,
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Speaker 2: but skip Bertman passes away, not him for a long
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Speaker 2: long time, and talk about his impact on LSU and
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Speaker 2: Baton rouge in Louisiana baseball.
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Speaker 1: Mike D not only did he affect what happened at LSU,
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Speaker 1: he affect the entire Southeast Conference and Ron Polk one
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Speaker 1: and one big Assissippi State but skips impact. He became
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Speaker 1: Baar Bryant of college baseball in the SEC and He
1:36
Speaker 1: would always tell his story about that. When I first
1:41
Speaker 1: got there, look in the stands and Mike had maybe
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Speaker 1: three hundred or four hundred people watch us, and they
1:52
Speaker 1: were family members or wives, girlfriends, or people that got
1:59
Speaker 1: lost and decided to go sit in the stands, and
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Speaker 1: he's like, you know, my dream was to build this.
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Speaker 1: I wanted that opportunity because you know, he had coached
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Speaker 1: with Ron Fraser, who is one of the all time
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Speaker 1: greats at Miami Florida. What Fraser did there was really
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Speaker 1: special too. But to Skip had a dream about what to
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Speaker 1: do at LSU and how to recruit, and he did
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Speaker 1: a fantastic job. It just really did. And he was
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Speaker 1: not only a great coach, he also was a guy
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Speaker 1: that was tremendous motivator and teacher, and so many of
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Speaker 1: the people that played for him at all these stories
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Speaker 1: about what he did for them after playing for him
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Speaker 1: at LSU. He told me a story one time, and
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Speaker 1: I think it's partially true. He was the one that
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Speaker 1: put the licensing fee on tickets and everything else. Elis,
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Speaker 1: you had never done that before. It had been done
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Speaker 1: at Florida, and I think had Chargia before. And they
3:22
Speaker 1: decided to up the ANNIE on the licensing fee, and
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Speaker 1: so they would charge you a certain amount per year
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Speaker 1: to drive your r V, which which is huge in
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Speaker 1: Baton Rouge. If we have been to a Tiger football game,
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Speaker 1: I mean, they got r v's all over the place.
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Speaker 1: And so he meets with all the people that have
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Speaker 1: the r vs. He comes up with that line about
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Speaker 1: the guys the administration, the upper echelon, they want to
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Speaker 1: charge you ten thousand dollars a year to park your
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Speaker 1: RV for LSU games, basketball and baseball. And I said,
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Speaker 1: that's no way that's going to happen. No way it's
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Speaker 1: going to happen. I'll shut that down. And the guys
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Speaker 1: when people here ten you know, ten thousand dollars you know,
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Speaker 1: And he says, but I'll tell you what he says.
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Speaker 1: I told him I would cut that in half and
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Speaker 1: now you'll pay five thousand dollars. Man, everybody's clapping and
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Speaker 1: cheering and everything else. And he said, I walked off
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Speaker 1: the stage and I told the chancellor that's how you
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Speaker 1: do it. But okay, now how much all of that
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Speaker 1: is true, I'm not real sure. Well, you know, skip man,
4:56
Speaker 1: he had a way of stretching the rubber band. But
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Speaker 1: he was great with people, even up until last year
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Speaker 1: and his health was feeling. Uh, he would come to
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Speaker 1: a game and people you know, would stand there and
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Speaker 1: take pictures with him. He'd sign autographs. You know, he
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Speaker 1: was that was Skip. But he was a great people
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Speaker 1: person to help you and would always ask about you,
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Speaker 1: how you doing, how's your family and you know, and
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Speaker 1: how's everything going. And we had Tim Branda on last night.
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Speaker 1: Branda had not heard the story and he did a
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Speaker 1: talk not far from where I lived, and I got
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Speaker 1: invited to, uh, you know, introduce him and and you
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Speaker 1: know it was you know, standing ovation for Skip when
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Speaker 1: he get up there because of what he had done.
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Speaker 1: And you know, we had the microphone set to him.
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Speaker 1: He was in the wheelchair, and every ticket he talked
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Speaker 1: and and I mean non stop. So if you think
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Speaker 1: you're going to talk to Skip Bertman and be have
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Speaker 1: him on for five minutes, you can forget that. It
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Speaker 1: take him longer than five minutes to answer a question.
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Speaker 1: So afterwards we were sitting down talking and he's like,
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Speaker 1: you know, when I first got here, I think I
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Speaker 1: introduced you on a television show and I said, you
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Speaker 1: did nineteen eighty four, and he says, I knew you
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Speaker 1: were never going to be a full time guy in
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Speaker 1: this business because you've got a lot of planets revolving
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Speaker 1: that sun that you have. I was like, yeah, I
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Speaker 1: get it, I get it. Coached and he said, man,
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Speaker 1: look at Brando and what he's been able to accomplish
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Speaker 1: in life. You know already, he said, but from the womb,
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Speaker 1: everybody should have known Brando was going to be an announcer.
7:01
Speaker 1: Tim Tilton Mike, I had never heard it. He never
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Speaker 1: told me that. He said. You know, he would give
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Speaker 1: me a backhanded compliment, but he said, you know, he
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Speaker 1: would tell you things like that, but he wasn't gonna
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Speaker 1: tell it to me. And that was skip. You know,
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Speaker 1: he wanted to make you laugh. He wanted to make
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Speaker 1: you feel comfortable around him. He did a great job
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Speaker 1: of recruiting the type players he felt could win at LSU,
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Speaker 1: and the last game he played, he coached h he
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Speaker 1: got deep a tu lane and so, you know, in
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Speaker 1: the tournament and he was like, I'm just a washed
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Speaker 1: ufful coach at this stage, you know, and he sort
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Speaker 1: of wink it off. You know, I'm just a washed
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Speaker 1: ufful goes. But man, he talked about a great guy
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Speaker 1: go just a terrific recruiter, a great motivator of men,
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Speaker 1: a guy that knew how to uh touch the right
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Speaker 1: button to get you to play for him. He was
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Speaker 1: a fundamentalistic type coach and uh, he's gonna be missed.
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Speaker 1: And even after you know his time here as a
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Speaker 1: baseball coach and then athletic director, he was unbelievable ambassador
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Speaker 1: for LSU and Jay Johnson would always tell me, you know,
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Speaker 1: I go to him, I go and talk to him
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Speaker 1: about certain things. Uh, you know, if it was baseball wise,
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Speaker 1: and but he was. He was one of a kind.
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Speaker 1: And uh he did become Bear Bryant of SEC baseball. Question. Okay,
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Speaker 1: other guys won, you know, General Neilan won big in Tennessee.
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Speaker 1: Johnny Vaux won a lot of games. That will miss
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Speaker 1: a ton of them. But Bear took it to an
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Speaker 1: another level. And that's what Skip Bertman did, no doubt
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Speaker 1: well SEC Baseball. And he would always laugh, you know
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Speaker 1: what I did great, I guess for LA Shoot, they
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Speaker 1: didn't fire me, but he said I made everybody else better,
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Speaker 1: which made it worse for me. But that was skip Man,
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Speaker 1: you know, and he he was really something else, just
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Speaker 1: to hear him talk and that sort of a half
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Speaker 1: graveling voice that he had. But man, great storyteller, and
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Speaker 1: he had him and just what he did for everybody here,
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Speaker 1: and he made you feel like he knew you for
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Speaker 1: the last forty years, even if he had a five
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Speaker 1: minute conversation with him.
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Speaker 2: That is that's the that's the power right there. He
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Speaker 2: made you feel like he had known you for years
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Speaker 2: and you were the most important person in the room.
10:01
Speaker 2: And man, when coaches are good at what they do,
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Speaker 2: plus they have what the superpower of what Mike de
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Speaker 2: Tillier just described, then you got something. And that's why
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Speaker 2: he's the best ever my Mount Rushmore all time, Mike
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Speaker 2: d And I'm leaving off some some great coaches, but
10:15
Speaker 2: my Mount Rushmore of SEC coaches, regardless of sport coach,
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Speaker 2: Paul bear Bryant, Pat Summit, Skip Bertman, Nick Saban. I mean,
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Speaker 2: that's that's my four and.
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Speaker 1: Uh and here's the crazy part. Skip was there when
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Speaker 1: they hired you know who, Nick Saban, that's right, and
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Speaker 1: and he is said he has said to the last
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Speaker 1: conversation that I heard, you know, we spoke. He was like,
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Speaker 1: Saban is the greatest coach of all time. Wow, and
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Speaker 1: a football he said, regardless of sports East the greatness.
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Speaker 2: What a compliment from Bertman, who won four five national
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Speaker 2: championships and went to eleven College World Series at elis
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Speaker 2: all right, So Mike, let's let's continue on with skip Bertman.
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Speaker 2: We can get We may get to Jaden Daniels, we
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Speaker 2: may not. But this is I grew up with Bertman.
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Speaker 2: I'm fascinated by I got to meet him, I got
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Speaker 2: to talk to him. He was so nice to me.
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Speaker 2: Didn't know who in the hell I was so Mike
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Speaker 2: Ntillier WWL Radio on the Farm Bureau Insurance guest Line
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Speaker 2: talk about his larger than life personality and the fact
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Speaker 2: that he was also this big promoter for LSU baseball.
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Speaker 2: You mentioned early only three or four hundred people going
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Speaker 2: to the games, and he just he created a carnival
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Speaker 2: with fireworks in the San Diego Chicken. He was determined,
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Speaker 2: like you said, to sell people on Hey, this is
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Speaker 2: inexpensive entertainment. Come out and see us. We're to entertain
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Speaker 2: You talk about that, Mike d.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, he had a bit of some people might not.
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Speaker 1: He had a bit of Bill becking him. Oh you know,
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Speaker 1: he was a bit of a showman, and he knew
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Speaker 1: he had to sell people on LSU baseball. Here's the
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Speaker 1: crazy thing. At one time you could have gotten LSU
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Speaker 1: baseball on the radio for like Nicholas, on a dollar.
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Speaker 1: They were basically throwing it in there if you bought
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Speaker 1: LSU football. Well, that ain't the case today. And all
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Speaker 1: of that is about to skip and what he was
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Speaker 1: able to do, and he put so much into it
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Speaker 1: to make it appealing for he pulled fifty and above
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Speaker 1: from twenty to fifty, and then the young kids. He
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Speaker 1: made it really something special to go to if it
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Speaker 1: was a Friday night, if it was a Saturday afternoon,
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Speaker 1: on a Sunday afternoon game, he made it you know,
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Speaker 1: worth you a while and you got to watch some
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Speaker 1: great baseball with some terrific foot baseball players there. And
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Speaker 1: he won different ways. Remember at one time he won
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Speaker 1: you know it was gorilla ball, sure, you know, man,
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Speaker 1: you know they could swing the bat. And then he
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Speaker 1: won with pitching. He always felt that a great coach
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Speaker 1: had an ability to maneuver the talent around him, and
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Speaker 1: that he felt too many coaches today were so insecure
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Speaker 1: about doing it differently and he was I'm gonna play
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Speaker 1: to the strength of my team, and that's what he
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Speaker 1: always tried to do. He tried to play to the
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Speaker 1: strength of his team, but he wanted to make it exciting.
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Speaker 1: He wanted to make it an adventure. And he became
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Speaker 1: part of the show. Sure, and he talked about they
14:29
Speaker 1: played a game against Mississippi State and you know, and
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Speaker 1: he had a certain walk and it was almost like
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Speaker 1: a duck. He'd walk on the field to go to
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Speaker 1: the picture and it was, you know, he called it
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Speaker 1: the duck walk, and that's just the way he, you know,
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Speaker 1: his his gait was. And the people at Mississippi State
14:51
Speaker 1: would would do the duck call when he would walk
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Speaker 1: home to the steel and he was like, nothing excited
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Speaker 1: me more than hearing those duck coles. See that was
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Speaker 1: that was skipped. Now. He played to that, he was
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Speaker 1: playing to it, and he was just fantastic about being
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Speaker 1: a showman. But also I think he felt that his
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Speaker 1: teams were he wanted them to reflect his personality and
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Speaker 1: that they were hardworking, that they were going to do
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Speaker 1: what they had to do to win, and they were
15:31
Speaker 1: going to give you everything they got. And and he
15:35
Speaker 1: he really really emphasized that quite a bit. Uh when
15:39
Speaker 1: he was coaching and DEDI broke a longtime LSU chymnast coach.
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Speaker 1: She told me the story one time about you know,
15:49
Speaker 1: I'm there forever and she said, you know the early days,
15:53
Speaker 1: I mean, we weren't putting anybody in the stands for
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Speaker 1: l s U Women's gymnastics, no one. And she said,
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Speaker 1: I got a phone call from then LSU athletic director
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Speaker 1: Rob Broadhead, and Bob is the one who actually hard
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Speaker 1: skip from Miami, Florida, and she was like, you know
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Speaker 1: how Broadhead was, and she had a certain name from
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Speaker 1: I can't use it on the air, but he calls
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Speaker 1: her and says, Dede, I need to talk to you
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Speaker 1: right away. It's really really important, and it's it's urgent
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Speaker 1: that I that I speak to you about l s
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Speaker 1: U Women's gymnastics. DDI says, the only time in my
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Speaker 1: life I refuse to go to a meeting. I did
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Speaker 1: not show up when Broadhead asked me to meet him
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Speaker 1: because I knew what he was going to tell me,
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Speaker 1: that they were going to try to drop it LSU Gymnastics,
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Speaker 1: and so she said, I refuse to show up if
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Speaker 1: he dropped it and I'd have read about it in
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Speaker 1: the paper or whatever. So be it. But she said,
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Speaker 1: you know when Skip became the athletic director, and he
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Speaker 1: would call her in steady, Skip, when you get a chance,
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Speaker 1: I need to talk to you, She said, Mike. I
17:15
Speaker 1: was in his office in five minutes because I knew
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Speaker 1: he was going to try to help me win, and
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Speaker 1: he was going to try to help me do everything
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Speaker 1: I could. The other thing Skip did, LSU starts now
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Speaker 1: becoming a big time college baseball program. Skip goes to
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Speaker 1: the chancellor and said, listen, I'm putting money in y'all coffee.
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Speaker 1: Y'all got to give it back to me, some of it.
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Speaker 1: You got to give it back some to me. And
17:45
Speaker 1: he said LSU had not done that. LSU was feeding
17:50
Speaker 1: that money to either football or basketball. They were not
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Speaker 1: giving it back to baseball. But he said, I insisted
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Speaker 1: to the chancellor that listen, if we helping you make money,
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Speaker 1: then you got to give some of it back. He said,
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Speaker 1: did I find out Once I told that, and I'm
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Speaker 1: sure he told it to everybody, every school in the
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Speaker 1: SEC started doing the same thing. They wanted some part
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Speaker 1: of the revenue off of baseball.
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Speaker 2: Mike Detilier talking skip Bertman, Mike, is he the most
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Speaker 2: beloved coach? Because he was there? So I know, people
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Speaker 2: love Dale Brown and there was a lot of similarities
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Speaker 2: between being showmen and promoters and marketers, Saban. I know
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Speaker 2: there's love there. But he wasn't there long and then
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Speaker 2: you know, going to Bama. Is Bertman the most beloved
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Speaker 2: LSU figure?
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Speaker 1: Mike d ain't even a question not even a question mark. Yes,
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Speaker 1: he was the guy. He one big. He was such
18:58
Speaker 1: a big part of the community and you know he
19:03
Speaker 1: you know, he was the guy that no matter what,
19:08
Speaker 1: even after retirement, he was still part of the LSU brand.
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Speaker 1: He was still and they would go to him for important,
19:17
Speaker 1: you know, things that they wanted to do. In the
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Speaker 1: athletics department, he always had his fingers on the pulse
19:24
Speaker 1: of college athletics. There were some things he didn't like
19:28
Speaker 1: and he made it known the last time he came
19:31
Speaker 1: out with us. He he was not crazy about a
19:36
Speaker 1: guy going to six schools in seven years. He felt that,
19:42
Speaker 1: you know, there should be a limit to that. He
19:46
Speaker 1: did feel that that should be a six year of
19:52
Speaker 1: eligibility if you like red shirted and then you had
19:56
Speaker 1: a medical excuse that you should be given that. He said,
20:01
Speaker 1: you know, why wouldn't it benefit college sports. He never
20:05
Speaker 1: understood the kick and like you said, most of this
20:09
Speaker 1: is from politicians that don't understand college sports. But he
20:15
Speaker 1: was about limiting the amount of places you could go.
20:19
Speaker 1: He felt that that had gotten way out of hand.
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Speaker 1: He said, hey, listen, if they can get that kind
20:25
Speaker 1: of money, I'm not against it. I'm not against if
20:28
Speaker 1: somebody's going to pay you that, I'm not against that
20:31
Speaker 1: part at all. And he had his own little way
20:36
Speaker 1: of thinking about college sports. He really did, and when
20:42
Speaker 1: you listen to him, you always learn something about college sports.
20:49
Speaker 1: But he was always about you treat people right in
20:53
Speaker 1: this world, and they're going to treat you right now.
20:57
Speaker 1: Like he said, you might be disappointed every once in
21:00
Speaker 1: a while, but for the most part, it's satisfying. Uh.
21:06
Speaker 1: And he loved to coach, and he felt coaching and
21:10
Speaker 1: teaching was hand in hand with it. Just I can't
21:14
Speaker 1: tell you what type of just a fabulous guy and
21:18
Speaker 1: he was, and what a great motivator and the type
21:22
Speaker 1: of individual that you would want around you if you
21:28
Speaker 1: needed advice on and you know, and he was sometimes
21:32
Speaker 1: blunt about her, but you know, he felt, hey, if
21:37
Speaker 1: it helps you, it helps you, and so he was.
21:41
Speaker 1: He was something else. Dale was a little bit more preachy. Uh,
21:48
Speaker 1: that's the right term. Uh. Coach Brown was a little
21:51
Speaker 1: bit more preachy about things then Skip. Skip was to
21:54
Speaker 1: the point, let me explain to you what I'm gonna
21:57
Speaker 1: tell you. Dale was a little bit more on the
22:03
Speaker 1: preachy side about things. But they had some similarities overall,
22:10
Speaker 1: but they just did it a different way.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike, that was fantastic. U twenty two minutes on
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Speaker 2: Skip Bourban the best to ever do it in college baseball.
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Speaker 1: He's one of one. I don't say that often, no,
22:26
Speaker 1: but he was. He's one of one. He ain't a
22:29
Speaker 1: lot of guys in my lifetime that will accomplish what
22:34
Speaker 1: he accomplished. Wow. And you know, in college sports, and
22:40
Speaker 1: and just the changing of how LSU ran their program
22:47
Speaker 1: and getting the money aspect pumped in.
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Speaker 2: No doubt, Mike. That was great. Have a good week,
22:56
Speaker 2: my man, Thank you, buddy, thank you.
22:58
Speaker 1: Wow.
22:59
Speaker 2: Mike Hillier on his friend Skip Bartman back in a
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Speaker 2: second