Jim Brady enters his 33rd season as UMSL’s head baseball coach in the 2017-18 season, where he owns a career record of 835-664-5 (.557), the most wins for any head coach in any sport in UMSL Athletics history. Entering the 2017 season, he ranked 15th among NCAA Division II active coaches for the most career wins and was 39th all-time in career victories - both at 819.
During Brady’s tenure at the helm of the program, his teams have recorded a winning season 24 times and have had 30 or more wins 12 times, including a school record 39 in 2003. Brady has also directed five teams to the NCAA Tournament, including two to the College Worlds Series (1993 and 1996).
He has coached his players to 114 all-conference, 66 all-region and 16 all-American selections and has six former players in the UMSL Sports Hall of Fame.
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 in which the then Rivermen post 39-15, 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 conference title since joining the GLVC. UMSL also earned a bid and the top seed to the NCAA Regionals, their first trip to the Regionals since the 1998 season. The Rivermen went 3-0 at Regionals, earning the program’s fourth bid to the World Series, and their first since 1977.
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 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.
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.
During the 2007 season, Brady recorded his 600th career win with a victory over Saint Rose (NY), becoming the 47th coach in NCAA Division II history to reach that milestone.
Early in the 2003 season, he recorded career victory number 500 with an 11-4 victory over the University of Central Missouri and was the 29th active Division II coach to record 500 wins. His longevity and stability in the program has been a key ingredient to the success the UMSL program has shown under the tutelage of Brady.
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 coach at Missouri State and helped guide the Bears to back-to-back post-season appearances in 1977 and 1978.
In addition to his coaching duties at UMSL, Brady has served as an assistant coach at the U.S. Olympic National Baseball trials in 1992, and was honored by the Multiple Sclerosis Society for excellence in coaching in 1994.
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 and his grandfather, the late William C. Brady, is a member of the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame.
