American Baseball Coaches Association Board member Bob Bennett passed away earlier this morning at the age of 86. The 52-year ABCA Lifetime Member and 1992 ABCA Hall of Fame inductee was well-known for his success as head coach at Fresno State University for nearly four decades.
Bennett finished his 34-year coaching career at Fresno State in 2002 with a 1,302-759-4 record. In his final season, he became the seventh coach in NCAA history to reach 1,300 wins and closed out his career with 26 consecutive winning seasons.
Considered a leader on the collegiate baseball front, Bennett is a former president of the ABCA (1987) and continued to serve as a member of the ABCA's Board of Directors and Hall of Fame Committee. He was also heavily involved in baseball at the international level, serving as head coach of the U.S. National Team in 1983 and 1986 and as a member of the national team's coaching staff in 1977 and 1979. In 2000, Bennett was awarded the prestigious ABCA/Wilson Lefty Gomez Award, which is presented to the coach who has distinguished himself among his peers locally, nationally and internationally.
Bennett began his coaching career at Kingburg (Calif.) High School where his teams compiled a 41-19 record across two seasons. He then moved to Fresno's Bullard High School where he won over 200 games in 11 seasons at the helm. His coaching career at Bullard was interrupted in 1967 when he was asked to take over the coaching duties at Fresno State while head coach Pete Beiden went on sabbatical. That season, the Bulldogs finished 38-10, won a CCAA title and earned a berth in the NCAA playoffs. Bennett returned to Bullard following the 1967 campaign but was called back to Fresno State on a permanent basis in 1970 following Beiden's retirement.
In his career, Bennett led the Bulldogs to 17 conference championships, 21 NCAA Tournament berths and two College World Series appearances. He also coached 32 All-Americans and nine first-round draft picks. Bennett helped Fresno State build Beiden Field into a first-class facility and was largely responsible for the Bulldogs becoming a model in the area of facilities, ticket sales, fan support and community pride. In 2016, the baseball facility at Fresno State was renamed Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium.
In addition to the ABCA Hall of Fame, Bennett is a member of the Fresno State Hall of Fame, the College Baseball Hall of Fame and the Roosevelt High School Hall of Fame as a charter member.