Latest / JustIN Time / Legacy
Transcript
- 0:08Welcome back to another edition of the Justin Time Podcast.
- 0:10I'm your host, Justin. We've got Will here.
- 0:14Howdy, partner. How's it going?
- 0:17I'm doing fantastic. I'm off of work so that's always
- 0:20a good thing. Get some rest and you know we
- 0:22have been talking about this clean up to this day when we
- 0:25going to talk about the legend. You know some some unfortunate
- 0:28news several days ago Boss, I'm a legend.
- 0:33Skip Bertman, if you don't know, passed away last Friday morning.
- 0:39They said it was heart related. But you know, he was 88, you
- 0:46know, according to like Ben McDonald said when he met with,
- 0:49he got the call and drove to Baton Rouge to see him and visit
- 0:53with him one last time. And he told Ben that he was in
- 0:56the bottom of the knife. So he was, you know, sound like
- 1:01he was skip all the way through and just the body gave out.
- 1:04Yeah, but the memorial service and stuff.
- 1:08But fans is next Tuesday at the P Mac.
- 1:11But you know, we're not going to talk about all of that.
- 1:13We could talk about the good times and stuff we talked about
- 1:17in episodes before when we talked about the book.
- 1:19You know, the man was a legend. He literally built up college
- 1:24baseball scene. Not just LSU baseball, but the
- 1:28whole scene of college baseball made it what it is today.
- 1:31Yeah, I think just a pioneer, trailblazer, icon, you know,
- 1:36whatever, whatever now you can use.
- 1:38That's that's what he was just like you just pick it back off
- 1:42what you said. Just like he has such an uncanny
- 1:46impact on this university, really just revitalizing the
- 1:49athletics at the school, even though football when he got here
- 1:53in the mid 80s as coach, you know, obviously football had won
- 1:57the championship in the late 50s and basketball had a couple of
- 2:01final four appearances in the 80s.
- 2:03So, you know, baseball wasn't any what it is today.
- 2:06I'm just going to say that he's just like, just, and like he
- 2:10just slowly built it up, implemented his culture, his,
- 2:13his ideas, his vision with because I, I, that's what I
- 2:16always go back to. He was such a visionary, like,
- 2:19and, and everybody who's been who's crossed his path echoed
- 2:23the same sentiment. And you just, you can't.
- 2:26It was just uncanny and there's no words.
- 2:29Yeah, and, you know, it's like they all had on D1 last week, I
- 2:34think it was Friday, had Mike Bianco on, and he was talking
- 2:37about how college baseball teams didn't have a separate strength
- 2:43coach in the 90s. But Skip saw how the game was
- 2:48turning and changing, and he went out and hired a strength
- 2:51coach solely for the baseball team.
- 2:55And that's why we hit so many home runs and everything during
- 2:58the 90s in that championship run.
- 3:01That's what Gorilla Ball was. Yep, so much so they had to
- 3:04change the roof. Yeah, I remember talking about
- 3:07that last summer when we was reading the book.
- 3:09Man, it's such a great read, by the way, everything.
- 3:11Such an incredible read. Thank you for.
- 3:13Thank you again, brother, for just putting me on that book.
- 3:16No problem. Recommend.
- 3:17Everybody. Yes, please.
- 3:20It's a. Terrific book, gives you a lot
- 3:22of mindset. Yes.
- 3:25You know, and like, even if you're not like the baseball or
- 3:27sports head and it's like, like Justin just said, just just look
- 3:30through like there's so much about, you know, culture
- 3:33building, standard setting and like just the living out those
- 3:36things out outside of your your realm of life, You know, like,
- 3:41say Justin is holding up right now.
- 3:44Got my copyright here somewhere. But you know, if you look in the
- 3:48very first this preface that was written not preface that let me
- 3:53find it. The foreword written by Warren
- 3:55Morris, he talks about he goes through and he talks about Skip
- 3:58just as a person, you know, he talks about, you know, that he
- 4:03made men, you know, and that's one thing Michael Cowboy
- 4:07interviewed him, Skip, I guess it was recent, more recently.
- 4:13And he asked him how do you want to be remembered?
- 4:16And, you know, he said how, you know, a call or a text from
- 4:20former players. How you doing?
- 4:22But real, what really got me was that last part that he said for
- 4:25that little clip, he wanted them to say they learned something
- 4:29more than baseball. And, you know, if you look in
- 4:31this forward, Warren Morris talks about how he uses some of
- 4:35the stuff from that he learned from Skip in his, you know, his
- 4:39job as the bank, you know? Yeah, I still.
- 4:44Got it. But he talks about, you know,
- 4:46transfer blame, you know, some of the stuff like that, that I
- 4:52think I'm going to start hitting hard with my kids, like my
- 4:55students. That's right.
- 4:56There you go. You know.
- 4:57Like that, I know this like this, like I'm, I'm assuming
- 5:01like they're going to be recognizing this book.
- 5:03They're going to remember this book.
- 5:04When you given those principles, you got to set up cultures.
- 5:08Yeah, and that's what he did. He said he set up a culture.
- 5:11And you know, one of the things that he said was if you take
- 5:15care of the little things, then the winds take care of
- 5:18themselves. That's right.
- 5:21You know, it was life lessons. Sure, you learned about
- 5:24baseball, you know, but you learn more about life.
- 5:29And that's just what made him the legend he was.
- 5:31He sure he built up programs. Not to mention he didn't only
- 5:35build up the baseball program. Yeah.
- 5:38He built up the all of LSU athletics.
- 5:41That's right. You know, LSU, when he became an
- 5:45athletic director, LSU was so far behind in facilities wise
- 5:49and everything they needed. And it's a little bit of a pain
- 5:52for me because I'm a season ticket holder and I have to pay
- 5:56double, literally double what my tickets are worth because I got
- 5:59to pay the licensing fee. But that licensing fee that he
- 6:03passed for, you'd buy the license to those seats is what
- 6:08built the new Alex box in what really it built is what really
- 6:12all those new expansions they have at Death Valley and Tiger
- 6:16Stadium, those new Jumbotrons and everything brand new.
- 6:20The relatively new seats in the North End zone, is it the north
- 6:29or is it the South? Offhand, I don't know.
- 6:34I get my directions mixed up. I'm dyslexic, Get over.
- 6:37Well, I'll say it's a big state. It's a cathedral.
- 6:39Like, yeah, I know my room. Like I know everything in my
- 6:42room, but it's it's a box. But you know, it's not.
- 6:45That's a cathedral we're talking about, so.
- 6:47You're good. Because I'm pretty sure I should
- 6:51know this because I'm pretty sure I sit on the north and this
- 6:53is the only. But this ain't a good look on
- 6:55me. I might have to edit some of
- 6:56this stuff out. OK.
- 6:58It's the South side of the stadium that he that got all
- 7:01those renovations. I sit on the north side.
- 7:03You know, I'm not editing any of that out.
- 7:05People need to know I'm real. There you go.
- 7:09But yeah, so all it, you know, on the South side of the
- 7:13stadium, all those new seats and how it goes up because of the
- 7:17licensing fee you are and a little bit because we had all
- 7:20those Bayou Country super fast inside that stadium and they got
- 7:23a kickback of that. Yeah, no doubt.
- 7:26And just something like what you were mentioning before, just
- 7:28like when you go back to the mid 80s during like, you know, skips
- 7:32first, first several years at LSU, you know, like I said, the
- 7:35athletic department was pretty chaotic.
- 7:37You know Bob brought in was being pressed to resign due to
- 7:41the last financial mismanagement which he was accused of making
- 7:45improper benefits and questionable expenses charge of
- 7:48electric electronically eavesdropping on NCAA
- 7:51investigation to LSU football stuff like that which ultimately
- 7:55led to his resignation in the fall of 1986.
- 7:57Then at then comes Joe Joe Dean. You know you quickly restore the
- 8:00credibility and fiscal responsibility law would be a
- 8:03friendly open to charismatic. He's like quotes we were talking
- 8:06pulling from the book and like excerpt to build the book just
- 8:08for context. And but like Joe Dean, what he
- 8:11did, he did to he made two bad decisions with football, just
- 8:14like with, you know, the low lights were like the title 9
- 8:17lawsuit initial by former LSU softball women's soccer players
- 8:21spy this this and like, one thing he does get credit for is
- 8:26in 1999 he hired Nick Saban. So that's like the last let on
- 8:31the way out. Despite all the negatives with
- 8:34the the athletic department the last several years prior.
- 8:37You know, it was funny what I what I found out crazy about it.
- 8:40You know, it was that Dean and LSU Chancellor, they were
- 8:43interviewing their own candidates separately.
- 8:45LSU struggle in both football and basketball 90s, which we
- 8:48know, But so baseball was really the the driving force was crazy
- 8:52that just in that part alone they was interviewing their own
- 8:55separate candidates. That lets you know how like they
- 8:58were. Nobody was aligned exactly.
- 9:00So it's like it kind of. Sounds like how when we hire
- 9:03Lane Kiffin and stuff the way it went.
- 9:05Through man, that was. That was a mess.
- 9:09But you know. We'll talk about that later.
- 9:11Yeah. But, you know, the stuff that
- 9:17there's not a kid in the Baton Rouge area that's our age, that
- 9:23if they were really big on baseball and their parents could
- 9:25afford it, didn't go to some one of his camps or his batting
- 9:29cages or something and learn the game from him.
- 9:33You know, that was a huge influence, you know, just
- 9:38getting to learn, you know? And the day is like bringing up
- 9:41the camps and stuff. You know, in the book, you know,
- 9:44baseball brought morale back to LSU.
- 9:46They were the the crown jewel in the 1990s.
- 9:48Yeah. Especially it elevates them even
- 9:51more because, you know, obviously one, but four in the
- 9:5490s and four titles in the 90s. And the baseball and basketball
- 9:58programs, too, they just were not it.
- 10:00And like, well, another quote from the book AD Joe Dean said,
- 10:04like, you don't understand. You're just a coach that was a
- 10:07former AD. And like, and Skip said, I do
- 10:10understand, you know, like, he was talking about the, like the
- 10:13he always had the good ideas about the tickets and
- 10:15promotions. And, you know, the board's
- 10:18preferred candidate was EBR Paris District Attorney Doug
- 10:21Monroe, which is a former LSU football star, because the board
- 10:25wanted the LSU person. And you know what they always
- 10:28say about, you know, you know, how people want like, a a Tiger
- 10:32or like, you know, with the Michigan Warrior, I want a
- 10:34Michigan man and stuff like that.
- 10:35Listen, give me the right person.
- 10:38Yeah, that's the bottom line. For the job.
- 10:41You know, yeah. If you look at one of them, it's
- 10:46the when he passed the seat raises or the RVRV.
- 10:51Yep, that's. It and he went to those people.
- 10:53Let's see if I could find it. It's in this book.
- 10:55I'm gonna send this see you guys.
- 11:01I'm I'm pulling up the book notes.
- 11:03Let me let me copy the Google Doc link in there.
- 11:09You can just pull it up like that.
- 11:11So I got notes from like the from chapter 5 to yeah.
- 11:15So if you want to look at that then the link I just posted
- 11:18right under the. Yeah, I'm going to look at that.
- 11:21Finding it in this book, you know, it's a little more.
- 11:24Oh, here we go. I found it.
- 11:26OK. You know, he's told them people.
- 11:29He pointed his other guys with him, you know, when he's talking
- 11:34about the RV, He said, look, these guys wanted to charge you
- 11:38$10,000 to park and he raised both hands to show 1010 thousand
- 11:4410. But you're my people and I'm
- 11:48going to charge you 5000, you know, and he was just that kind
- 11:57of person. He got away with that, Yeah.
- 12:00You know, because like and like because he had loved he had the
- 12:05respect and the cashing at the school and but and that's and
- 12:09that's what and that's what the stuff he brought to the table.
- 12:12You know, we just talked about, you know, he had you know, I
- 12:15look, I'm looking at some of these quotes, you know, that you
- 12:18had talked about the surcharges and stuff like that.
- 12:21Had a great business. My skip had the vision.
- 12:24You know, he knew things it would happen before they would
- 12:27happen. You know, the tickets, the
- 12:29ticket license plan was announced in 2003, three weeks
- 12:31before the season. And obviously we all know what
- 12:34happened. They end up winning the natty
- 12:36for the first time and not since 1958.
- 12:39You know, winning and the colt was Scott was said winning has a
- 12:42good way of curing a ticket price increase and Stanley
- 12:46Jacobs said skipped skips. Ticket plan was what brought us
- 12:49into the 21st century. Yeah, you know, you got to look
- 12:54at it. You know, he was ahead of his
- 12:55time, yes, with a lot of the stuff, but to bring up athletic
- 13:03department just practically out the Stone Age and the amount of
- 13:08time that he did, it was amazing.
- 13:10Like they said he brought over, he was constantly learning.
- 13:14So when he was at Miami and when he left, the main thing he took
- 13:19from him is how to sell the program and that's what put
- 13:23butts in seats when he belong with they started winning, but
- 13:27he put butts in seats in the box, made the box to what it
- 13:30was. And it's not like that anymore.
- 13:32When an opposing team comes in and they can can't even breathe
- 13:37without you yelling at them. You know, that's the kind of
- 13:39stuff. And when they do have that look,
- 13:43if you look at it on Twitter and Instagram and all of these, how
- 13:47many teams, rival teams at that, Skip Bergman dies, they go on a
- 13:52whole weekend and they make a post.
- 13:55You. Know.
- 13:57That that's, that's am I, you know, you know, just that's the
- 14:03type of impacts now. Yeah, it was.
- 14:06So you can't even deny it. Like even if you're anti LSU
- 14:11anti base, like you can't deny the impact and the, the, the
- 14:16magnitude of who he was. You know, look at when we talked
- 14:19about the the tease, you know, under his I always say the
- 14:22story, what I was getting into sports in early 2000s, I only
- 14:27knew Skip Berman as the LSUAD. I did not know he was the coach.
- 14:31Like I just when I was young, young into sports, I just knew
- 14:34he was LSU's athletic director. So this was elementary school
- 14:37and late middle school, like throughout middle school when he
- 14:41was ADI knew LSU was successful. I knew we were successful in
- 14:44baseball buying that he was the guy.
- 14:46Oh, that that's that's the 10 because I saw that on the news
- 14:49when I was like, oh, OK, that's that's that's EMP OK, I got it
- 14:53though. And like you see, just we, you
- 14:57know, just like we, we could talk for hours about the
- 14:59baseball, stuff like that. We we talked about that so much
- 15:02about what he did in the dugout. I mean, just so you you guys
- 15:05know, most of you pretty much know his legacy.
- 15:07But even as the athletic director, yeah, go.
- 15:10I'm sorry. Yeah, look, when I went just
- 15:12take your dacking off of what you were saying about his
- 15:14impact. When I went get this book, we
- 15:18went and went with my mom and we bought some and he was there
- 15:24signing them and she got them for Christmas presents.
- 15:26It took so long to get this book signed because the type of
- 15:32person Skip Bertman was was he would sit there and he would
- 15:34talk to every single person who you know.
- 15:37And. It's funny because some people
- 15:39he only met once or twice, you know, or a few times, but he sat
- 15:44there and talked to him like he was their best friend.
- 15:46Yeah. You, you know, essentially you
- 15:48bring that up because you had talked, you had told me a story
- 15:50about like you meeting him at one time, like we had talked
- 15:53about it a few days ago. Yeah.
- 15:55He's yeah. You know, it was once he figured
- 15:59out I was who I was, he kept calling me Chris, Chris's
- 16:02nephew. But he but it landed, you know
- 16:05what I'm saying? Just like it stuck.
- 16:06So that's but, you know, it's it's a time he took with people
- 16:10because, like, he knew it needed people to really buy into the
- 16:14changes that were needed. You know, when he became AD
- 16:17just, you know, skipped higher. Four coaches that went on to win
- 16:20national championships. Les Miles won in football 2007.
- 16:23Dennis Shaver won women's outdoor track in O8 Pulmonary in
- 16:272009. Three in a row, three years in a
- 16:29row with a champion. That's crazy.
- 16:31Then Chuck Winstead at men's golf at 2015 when we was at
- 16:33school. But yeah, you know, just and.
- 16:35Then if you look at it, really he's responsible for five.
- 16:39Yeah, because Scott Woodard put the ink on the the six.
- 16:44Yeah, I'm sorry, I can't say 5 anymore.
- 16:46Oh, I said it again. I might get a cease and desist
- 16:48order. But.
- 16:49But if you think about it, he's responsible for five because
- 16:55Scott Water was the AD that hired Jay Johnson.
- 17:00But the man who got in, he's on on paper.
- 17:03But the man who got him hired was Skip Bertman.
- 17:07He's the whole reason that he came here.
- 17:08If we don't have Skip Bertman as a legendary coach.
- 17:12That's the selling point. And the large Jay Johnson
- 17:14doesn't. Yeah.
- 17:16Jay Johnson doesn't come to LSU and we don't win in 23 and 25.
- 17:21And you with you bringing that up, that says something because
- 17:24before he was at Arizona and Arizona is a historic power in
- 17:28baseball as well. Yeah, like, think 4 national
- 17:30championships, I want to say. Yeah, stuff like that.
- 17:32Yeah, I'm just looking for what she said.
- 17:37Said something, they quoted him. Yeah, yeah.
- 17:41So Arizona, they the wild could they won four national
- 17:44championships 1976198086 and 2012 and they were running up
- 17:50four times also. Yeah, Yeah.
- 17:53So like for him, for Jay to leave historical green program
- 17:57to go, you know, ship here now let you know it like just the
- 18:00brand power. The other shoe has a legacy and
- 18:04all that goes back to Skip Berman and like you said, yeah.
- 18:07And like, I was one, yeah. No, I was going like, I'm going
- 18:11to let you finish. I was going to say like, just if
- 18:13you look at the 2006, 2007 sports season, the Tigers
- 18:16finished with the school record 12 teams ranked in the top 25.
- 18:20You know, Skiff's error, like Virg Osbury said.
- 18:24You know, it was a powerful quote right here.
- 18:26Say we were up there every year in sports.
- 18:28Coaches felt like they mattered. Skip talked to them as a coach.
- 18:33He knew what they were going through.
- 18:34A lot of places the administration thinks it's above
- 18:37the coaches, skis it out to reverse that.
- 18:40And he did. Yeah, And you know, going back
- 18:44to Jay Johnson, Jay Johnson made a thing.
- 18:46And he said by far the greatest part about being the head
- 18:49baseball coach at LSU the last five years is the relationship I
- 18:53was able to build with the greatest college baseball coach
- 18:55in my lifetime, Skip Bertman. The mentorship and most
- 19:00importantly, the friendship we've built is easily one of the
- 19:03best and most rewarding and special relationships I've ever
- 19:05had. What an honor it has been to sit
- 19:09with, talk baseball and smile with, smile with, laugh and
- 19:13laugh with coach. Coach Bertman was so far ahead
- 19:16of his time while leading the LSU Tigers.
- 19:18As a young coach just starting my journey, I watched, studied,
- 19:22admired in his incredible skills of the leading, motivating,
- 19:26teaching, coaching it, ultimately ultimately
- 19:30cultivating what became the powerhouse of college baseball.
- 19:34Being able to share the 23 and 25 national championships with
- 19:37Coach Berkman watching is something I wouldn't trade for
- 19:40the world and the impact he made he has left on the state of
- 19:45Louisiana and college baseball is beyond remarkable and will
- 19:48never be duplicated. I love you Coach.
- 19:51I will miss you and will continue to work every day in a
- 19:54manner that I know would make you proud.
- 19:58That's the current coach who got hired 21 years or 22 years after
- 20:03Skid Bergman retired. Yes, that's right.
- 20:06You know, that's the kind of impact he had.
- 20:08And that's his and that's his one elite coach.
- 20:11You know, just because he also takes like even though he didn't
- 20:14hire Sue Gunner, like just the steady this that the women's
- 20:17basketball program had in the mid 2000 with Pokey Chapman,
- 20:19like he had an incredible able to five straight final fours.
- 20:23Another legendary coach said this.
- 20:25If there was one thing professionally that I would do
- 20:28over again, it would have been Natalie LSU.
- 20:31That gentleman is Nick Saban. Saban So you.
- 20:35Know that's huge. You know you had people.
- 20:38Peter Burns, USA Baseball, Johnny Jones, College World
- 20:42Series in Omaha. Greg Skanky, Coach Osheron, Jay
- 20:47Johnson, Booger McFarland, Mike Bianco, Louisiana Sports Hall of
- 20:51Fame, Pete Tamil, Kyle Peterson, just to name a few.
- 20:57Who, Eddie Furnace, Bob Starkey, Ray Wright, you know, just to
- 21:02name a few of the people that shared stuff with Skip Bertman,
- 21:07you know. Then you had the fans.
- 21:10They opened up and put on his statue, a picture for fans to go
- 21:16leave notes over the weekend. Just the impact he had was
- 21:20amazing, you know? Yeah, just, you know, it's like,
- 21:24you know, Sabre Nick Saban greatly respected Skip.
- 21:27One thing I like about this, you know, Bourbon Council, Saban and
- 21:32John Brady on criticism from the media.
- 21:34This quote I like, hey, forget about it.
- 21:36It's just one day. There'll be another paper
- 21:38tomorrow. Yeah.
- 21:40So just like he, he, he got it. He he, he understood like, and
- 21:45like, he just didn't like he there was previous that, you
- 21:49know, just a lot of administrations, you know, feel
- 21:51like they're above the coach. And I understand like you're in
- 21:53leadership, you're in a powerful leadership authority position.
- 21:57I I get that, but Skip understood the the rigorous toll
- 22:02it takes as a coach. Exactly.
- 22:05Especially at a high profile university with a high profile
- 22:08success in several sports, that's a lot of pressure, that's
- 22:12a lot of demand. You just, you have a lot of, you
- 22:15have the resources granted. I mean you, you're in a good
- 22:17place. But you, you to whom much is
- 22:21given, much is required. He understood that.
- 22:24Yeah, and it all comes back to the state that LSU baseball was
- 22:28in when he took over. Yeah, no, man.
- 22:32And how he built that program up, he took some of that in his
- 22:36athletic director spot, treated those coaches how he might have
- 22:42felt he should have been treated with building the program.
- 22:46Yeah. And he built the football.
- 22:49See the football team up got them what they needed.
- 22:54I think it was in the book, but I think he said something along
- 22:57the lines of when they he met with these coaches, he said what
- 23:00do you need? Yes, yeah, I was looking for
- 23:02that. I was looking for that same
- 23:04quote. But yeah, he he said something
- 23:07along those lines. Yeah, What do you need?
- 23:10What do you need to be successful?
- 23:12You know, what do you need for you to be successful in your
- 23:16players, to be successful in? That sums it up.
- 23:19You know, he built a legacy. And before we close it, I don't
- 23:22think the most fitting way to close this out is to read his
- 23:26quote that everybody posts and quotes.
- 23:29Yes, Sir, go right. Ahead, anything you vividly
- 23:32imagine, orderly desire, sincerely believe, and
- 23:35enthusiastically act upon must absolutely must come to pass.
- 23:40That's right. You know, and leave it off at
- 23:45that. We'd like to say thank you,
- 23:47coach, and rest in peace. Thank you coach.
- 23:50Appreciate you never gone but never forgotten.
- 23:52Yep, and you'll never be forgotten.
- 23:54You got a statue up at Alex Fox that people are going to flock
- 23:57to. Yes, that's right.
- 24:00Are are flocking to you know, but we'll leave it off there and
- 24:03have a good day, a good night. Whatever you have, just make it
- 24:05a great one. Follow, like, subscribe, share,
- 24:10turn on the notifications so you hear from us, and we'll catch
- 24:14you all next time. Yes, Sir.
- 24:16Thank you.