Dave Bingham recalls what led him to ESU, 30 years of coaching

TOPEKA (KSNT) - After three decades of coaching, an NAIA national title and an NCAA College World Series appearance, Dave Bingham hardly needs an introduction.

Bingham, a native of Tucson, Arizona, began his more than 30-year coaching career with Emporia State baseball in 1973. The former coach, who also suited up for the Hornets from 1969-70, is now one of 12 inductees being welcomed into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in October.

His baseball career began at the University of Arizona. But the desire to play more, and a push from a friend, led him to transfer to ESU.

"Benson, Arizona's about 20 miles east of Tucson. I had never been east of Benson," Bingham said. "So we got in his '57 Chevrolet and took off for Emporia, Kansas into a place we had no idea about where we were headed or what we were going to run into. But it was probably the best decision both of us ever made."

Bingham went from playing for the Hornets, to coaching them, leading ESU baseball to seven total NAIA World Series appearances and one NAIA national championship in 1978. He also earned NAIA Coach of the Year honors three times.

Following ESU, Bingham served as the head coach for KU baseball from 1988-1995, leading the Jayhawks to their first two NCAA tournament appearances and only College World Series appearance in 1993.

Bingham says baseball in the state of Kansas was in a 'growth mode' when he was coaching, adding former KU coaches Floyd Temple and Marty Pattin laid the ground work for Bingham himself to succeed.

Nearly 50 years later, Bingham says he's excited to watch the Dan Fitzgerald era of KU baseball, and that athletics director Travis Goff actually reached out to him while he was in the process of hiring Fitzgerald.

"Very thankful that he actually asked my opinion of it," Bingham said of Goff. "Picked wisely, just a class guy completely in Dan Fitzgerald. I really think that the program is in great shape."

Bingham's coaching journey, though, is not limited to Kansas. He was an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic baseball team and head coach of the U.S. baseball team at the 1984 World Baseball Championships. Bingham also founded the Bingham Baseball Academy and spent time as an assistant at the University of New Mexico and at Nebraska.

Bingham will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in Topeka in October.