Tod Markey Brown (born June 27, 1971) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

coach and former

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

, currently serving as head baseball coach of the

New Mexico Lobos The New Mexico Lobos are the athletic teams that represent the University of New Mexico, located in Albuquerque. The university participates in the NCAA Division I in the Mountain West Conference (MW) since 1999, after leaving the Western Athlet ...

. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

for four seasons, helping the team to the 1992

Pac-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

championship and falling just shy of the 1993 College World Series. He then served as the head coach of the

North Dakota State Bison The North Dakota State Bison are the athletic teams of North Dakota State University (NDSU), which is located in the city of Fargo, North Dakota. The teams are often called the "Thundering Herd". The current logo is a bison. Sports sponsored ...

(2008–2021).

Early life, education, and pro baseball career

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Brown grew up in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

and graduated from Sabino High School in 1989. At the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, Brown was a left-handed pitcher for

Arizona Wildcats baseball The Arizona Wildcats baseball team is the intercollegiate men's baseball program representing the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, United States. They compete in the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) of NCAA Division I. Arizona has won four c ...

from 1991 to 1994. Setting a school record with 35 appearances, Brown had six wins and eight saves for Arizona's 1993 College World Series runner-up team. In 1993, he played collegiate summer baseball with the

Harwich Mariners The Harwich Mariners are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Harwich, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Mariners play their home games at Whitehouse Fiel ...

of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Brown graduated from Arizona in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in

regional development Regional development is a broad term but can be seen as a general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employ) economin regions. In the past, regional development policy tended to try to achieve these objectives by means developmen ...

. Not selected in the

1994 Major League Baseball draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1994 Major League Baseball draft. Compensation picks Compensation Picks Other notable players * Troy Glaus, 2nd round, 37th overall by the San Diego Padres, but did no ...

, Brown played two seasons of independent league baseball after college. With the Brainerd Bears of the North Central League in 1994, Brown had 17 appearances (12 starts), a 5–2 record, and 3.15 ERA on a Bears team that won the North Central League playoffs. After the season, Brown later signed with the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

but was released during 1995 spring training due to an injury. Returning to baseball in 1996, Brown had four appearances with three starts, an 0–1 record, and 9.88 ERA for the Minot Mallards of the

Prairie League {{Unreferenced, date=April 2019 The Prairie League was an independent league of baseball which was based in the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The league was or ...

. In 1997, Brown completed a post-baccalaureate degree in education at Chapman University.

Coaching career

Early coaching career (1997–2007)

From 1997 to 1998, Brown was an assistant coach at Sabino High School, helping Sabino win the 1997 Arizona 4A state championship. Staying in Tucson, Brown returned to the University of Arizona on August 18, 1998 as volunteer assistant coach under head coach Jerry Stitt. Then from 2000 to 2007, Brown was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

. Bowling Green won back-to-back

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

East Division titles in 2001 and 2002.

North Dakota State (2008–2021)

On July 3, 2007,

North Dakota State University North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...

hired Brown as head coach of

North Dakota State Bison baseball The North Dakota State Bison baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball program of North Dakota State Bison in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. The program's first season was in 1909, and it has been a member of the NCAA Division I ...

. Brown inherited a program that had three straight losing seasons; the North Dakota State athletic program was also in the final year of a four-year transition from Division II to Division I. In his first five seasons, North Dakota State consistently improved its win total, reaching a program record 40 wins in 2012. On February 18, 2012, North Dakota State upset no. 5

8–2 for the first win in program history over a ranked Division I opponent. Then in 2014, despite a fifth and last place finish in conference standings, Brown led North Dakota State to two new historical firsts: the Summit League tournament title, which resulted in an automatic NCAA Division I tournament bid. The 2021 North Dakota State baseball team reached a new program high 42 wins with the second Summit tournament title and NCAA tournament. Brown had a 341–350 record in 14 seasons at North Dakota State from 2008 to 2021.

New Mexico (2022–present)

On June 17, 2021, Brown was named the head baseball coach at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

Head coaching record

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Tod 1971 births Arizona Wildcats baseball coaches Arizona Wildcats baseball players Baseball pitchers Bowling Green Falcons baseball coaches Living people North Dakota State Bison baseball coaches New Mexico Lobos baseball coaches Sportspeople from Tucson, Arizona Sportspeople from Charleston, South Carolina Baseball players from Arizona Baseball coaches from Arizona High school baseball coaches in the United States Harwich Mariners players Brainerd Bears players Minot Mallards players