Beginning his 27th year of guiding the Missouri State baseball program, head coach Keith Guttin continues to build the Bears into one of the top programs, not just in the Missouri Valley Conference or Midwest but in NCAA Division I.

Under Guttin, the Bears are 904-553 (an average of 35 wins and 21 losses per season) and have won 62 percent of their games. Guttin has had eight 40-win seasons.

In 2003, MSU advanced to its first-ever NCAA Division I College World Series to cap a season in which the Bears won the MVC regular season title for the second time in three seasons. The Bears’ NCAA Tournament trip was the second straight NCAA trip and the sixth appearance in the past nine years. That year, Guttin garnered the American Baseball Coaches Association Midwest Region Coach of the Year award and his second MVC Coach of the Year honor in three seasons. It was his third conference honor since the Bears joined the Valley and it was Guttin’s ninth conference Coach of the Year recognition in 23 years as a head coach.
 

In 2002, the Bears posted their first 40-win season since 1991 and won the second-most games in school history and the most since winning a school record 47 games in 1987. Missouri State advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in eight years but the first time since 1999.

In 2001, Guttin led the Bears to their first-ever MVC regular season championship and, in the process, dethroned perennial league powerhouse Wichita State. The Shockers had previously won outright or shared the Valley regular season crown in the previous 14, years but the Bears posted a 22-10 record in 2001 and beat WSU by one game in the final league standings.

While the accomplishments of Guttin’s teams on the field speak volumes about the success of his program, another dream came true in April 2004 when the Bears opened a sparkling  8,000-seat stadium just four blocks north of the Missouri State campus. The Bears finished the year ninth among NCAA Division I teams in attendance and that was playing only a portion of their home schedule at Hammons Field.  

It’s just a coincidence that the crown jewel of the Missouri State baseball program came one year after the Bears exploded onto the national college baseball radar in the College World Series. But both events show the growth of college baseball in the Ozarks and the amount of community and administrative support the program has received in the last several years. Throughout those years, Guttin has been the face of Missouri State baseball.

A part of the MSU baseball program as a player, assistant coach and head coach for 31 of the program’s 45 years, Guttin took the helm of Bears baseball at the start of the 1983 season, coinciding with the move of Missouri State athletics to Division I status. He inherited the reins of the program from its only previous head baseball coach, current Missouri State Director of Athletics Bill Rowe.

Guttin stretched the string of MSU consecutive winning seasons to 32 in a row; easily the longest of any Missouri State athletics team. The Bears have finished in the top half of the conference race every year but three in the last 32 seasons.

Missouri State slipped to 10-11 in 1992, 15-17 in 2000, 10-14 in 2005 and 7-17 in 2007 in the Bears’ only years in the past 34 seasons without a winning league record. The Bears have finished lower than third in the league standings just five times since Guttin took over.

Guttin directed Missouri State to six straight league titles in Mid-Continent play from 1984 through 1989. He gave MSU its first two Valley postseason tournament championships in 1996 and 1997. He was voted the MVC Coach of the Year in 1993, 2001, 2003 and 2008 and was selected the American Baseball Coaches Association Division I Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 1997 and again in 2003.

Missouri State ran through MCC regular season and tourney play annually from 1983 through 1989. Missouri State faltered only once, finishing as tourney runner-up in 1990, its final MCC season before moving to the Valley. Guttin was named MCC Coach of the Year each season from 1984 through 1989.

In 1986, Missouri State had its best record ever, going 47-14. In 1987, the 38-14 Bears got their first NCAA Division I tourney bid, playing in the West II Regional in Tempe, Ariz. In 1988, the 41-17 Bears became the first team to go through regular season MCC play undefeated, and in 1989 went 41-10 for the third best winning percentage and third fewest losses of any Division I team.

The 1990 Bears were 42-15 and again perfect in regular season league play. Missouri State capped the year with Guttin’s 300th win and left the Mid-Continent with the best overall, conference and league tourney marks. In 1991, Missouri State joined the Valley, reaching the 40-win plateau and finishing fourth in its first Valley campaign. In 1993, the Bears finished second as Guttin was named MVC Coach of the Year.

The 1995 Bruins were second in the MVC Tournament and added an NCAA visit, playing in the West Regional in Fresno, Calif. In 1996, Missouri State won its first MVC tourney, capped by Guttin’s 500th career win, an 8-7 victory over top-ranked Wichita State in the winner’s bracket final. Missouri State won its first NCAA Division I tourney games, beating Long Beach State and UCLA
to finish third in the Central I Regional in
Austin, Texas.

The 1997 Bears repeated the MVC crown and knocked off Texas Tech and Nevada on the way to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Central Regional in Lubbock, Texas. Missouri State was at the Fayetteville regional in 1999, finishing second with wins over Clemson and Arkansas.

Guttin returned to Missouri State in 1982 after a year at Rend Lake College where he served as assistant coach to Kirk Champion as RLC claimed an Illinois juco sectional crown. Guttin was an Missouri State assistant under Rowe from 1979 to 1981, as Missouri State won its last MIAA title and made two NCAA appearances.

Guttin had two notable seasons as the Missouri State second baseman, coming from Mineral Area College. He earned MIAA all-conference honorable mention in 1977 as the Bears made their first NCAA Division II tournament appearance in seven years.

A University City native, Guttin finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1978, and earned his master’s degree in 1984 at Truman State. He and his wife, Marianne, have three daughters; Lauren, Lindsey and Samantha.