Birch Bayh (basketball coach)

Birch Bayh
Sport(s) Basketball
Current position
Title Head coach
Team Indiana State
Biographical details
Born September 29, 1893[1]
Quincy, Indiana, U.S.
Died August 26, 1971 (aged 77)[2]
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Playing career
1915–1917 Indiana State
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1918–1923 Indiana State
Accomplishments and honors

Championships

3x Indiana Collegiate Athletic League Championships (baseball), 1919, 1920, 1923

Awards

Distinguished Alumni, 1968; Indiana State

Birch Evans Bayh, Sr. (September 29, 1893 – August 26, 1971)[3] was an NCAA Head Basketball Coach. He was the Head Coach at Indiana State University from 1918 to 1923. During this time, he also served as the Head Baseball Coach, Athletic Director and Professor of Physical Education.

Life and career

Bayh was born in Quincy, Indiana, the son of Mettie/Nettie (née Evans) and Frederick C. "Fred" Bayh. His paternal grandparents were German immigrants.[4]

Bayh led the Sycamores to their first fifteen-win season and their first twenty-win season. Bayh's .640 winning percentage at Indiana State ranks him as the sixth-winningest coach in the school's history.

He began his career as a teacher and coach in the public schools of Owen and Clay counties of Indiana;[5] he later became director of physical education of the Terre Haute, Indiana, public school system and later held the same position for the Washington, D.C., public school system. He was a long-time high school basketball official in Indiana and officiated ten state championship games, a record that he still holds today.[6]

He was a World War I veteran, holding the rank of Major and held an exercise certificate (an Associate degree) from the North American Gymnastics Union of Indianapolis.

A second-generation alumnus of Indiana State, he was the father of former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh and Mary Alice Feather, and the grandfather of former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and Christopher Bayh. In 2009, Indiana State renamed its School of Education the "Bayh School of Education" to honor the Bayh family.[7]

Head coaching records

Basketball

Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Indiana State Sycamores (Independent) (1918–1923)
1918–1919 Indiana State 6-3
1919-1920 Indiana State 4-6
1920-1921 Indiana State 15-7
1921-1922 Indiana State 12-3
1922–1923 Indiana State 20-5
Indiana State: 57-24 (.640)
Total: 57-24 (.640)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

Baseball

Overall Conference
Year School W L T Pct W L T Pct Postseason
1919 Indiana State 11 4 0 .733 Indiana Collegiate Athletic League Champions
1920 Indiana State 7 0 0 1.000 Indiana Collegiate Athletic League Champions
1921 Indiana State 8 4 0 .667
1922 Indiana State 7 3 0 .700
1923 Indiana State 9 2 1 .750 Indiana Intercollegiate Conference Champions
Overall Totals 42 13 1 .750

References