NOTE — This is part of a series of stories profiling the 12-person Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023, who will be inducted to culminate three days of festivities in Natchitoches July 27-29. For tickets and more information, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.
By GLENN GUILBEAU, Written for the LSWA
Paul Mainieri wanted the LSU baseball head coaching job in 2006 so badly, he paid for it – literally.
It is 17 years later, and LSU is still reaping the dividends of the Mainieri Era. That figures. Because if this coaching thing had not soon worked out for Mainieri as a 29-year-old St. Thomas University head man in 1987, he would have been selling stocks in a year. At least, that’s what he told his wife Karen.
Mainieri’s father Demie, a National College Baseball Hall of Fame member (2014) who won a national junior college championship at Miami-Dade North in 1964, told his son not to get into coaching if he wanted to get rich … financially.
And dad was right. Because Paul Mainieri was pushing 30 in the summer of 1987 and still living in his dad’s house in Miami with his wife and three kids while coaching Division II St. Thomas.
Mainieri interviewed for the head coaching job at then-USL after the 1987 season, but he lost out to Oklahoma assistant Mike Boulanger.
“I came home and told Karen, ‘If I don’t get a new job next year, I’ll get out of coaching and get a real job,’” Mainieri recalled, sitting at his ‘good luck restaurant’ before SEC home series – Roberto’s on River Road in Baton Rouge. “I had a book on how to sell stocks, and I set that book down on the table. Reluctantly, I would’ve done it. I mean, how long can you ask your wife to live with your parents and three small children?”
About another year, to be exact. The next summer, Mainieri’s career went airborne. He became the coach at the Air Force Academy, and he was off the hook.
“I was really good in math,” Mainieri said. “But fortunately, I never once opened that book.”
His career sure opened, though. After six seasons at Air Force, Notre Dame came calling. Through 12 seasons, Mainieri took the Irish to the NCAA postseason nine times, including the 2002 College World Series, which was Notre Dame’s first visit to Omaha since 1957. He won four Big East regular season titles. He was the coach of the best northern school in the country through most of his tenure.
Then he landed in 2006 at baseball mecca LSU, where in many ways it had all began in 1976 when he played for the Tigers and met Karen, a New Orleans area native.
Mainieri inherited a troubled program and few high-quality players before the 2007 season, but he returned LSU to Omaha in just his second season in 2008. He won the national championship in 2009 and was inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame in 2014 to complete the first-father son coaching duo in that hall of fame.
And now, Mainieri enters the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
“When I got the phone call last summer, I surprised myself on how emotional it felt to me,” Mainieri said. “Especially when I heard about the other people who are in. I was just really moved.”
Mainieri retired after the 2021 season at LSU with the 2009 national championship, the 2017 runner-up finish and five trips to the College World Series (2008, ’09, ’13, ’15 and ’17). Under Mainieri, LSU was consistently a fixture at or near the top of the SEC, and the nation, year-in and year-out.
There were six straight top-eight national seeds from 2012-17 and nine overall under Mainieri. He took LSU to nine Super Regionals, including that last season in ’21 when Mainieri delivered one of his better coaching jobs. The team finished 13-17 in the SEC before rallying to get within two wins of Omaha.
LSU won four SEC regular season titles (2009, ’12, ’15, ’17) and six SEC Tournament crowns (2008, ’09, ’10, ’13, ’14 and ’17) under Mainieri.
“I love the state of Louisiana,” he said. “I was so proud to be the baseball coach at LSU for 15 years. I was proud of what we did accomplish. You always wish you did more. It’s just the nature of the business. I thought we restored the pride in the program within the community and won a championship.”
Mainieri also left a national championship team for his successor. Second-year coach Jay Johnson won the 2023 national title with no less than eight players recruited and coached by Mainieri – center fielder Dylan Crews, shortstop Jordan Thompson, second baseman Gavin Dugas, first baseman Tre Morgan, designated hitter Cade Beloso, catchers Hayden Travinsky and Alex Milazzo, and pitcher Ty Floyd. Left fielder Josh Pearson, right fielder Brayden Jobert and pitchers Griffin Herring and Gavin Guidry did not play for Mainieri, but he and former recruiting coordinator Nolan Cain recruited them.
Oh, and Mainieri recommended Johnson to LSU athletic director Scott Woodward during the hiring process in 2021 in which Mainieri was very much involved.
Mainieri finished his LSU career as one of the highest paid college baseball coaches in the nation at over $1 million. But first, he had to pay to come to LSU after LSU athletic director and former five-time national champion coach Skip Bertman picked Mainieri.
Because Notre Dame decided not to waive his buyout following the 2006 season, Mainieri was responsible for the remaining three years of his deal to the tune of $446,000 within 30 days.
Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White ignored the fact that Mainieri had just turned down the Oklahoma job the previous year. And during his time at Notre Dame, Mainieri said no to another Big 12 job, three SEC head coaching jobs and a few others.
“I met with my accountant, and he told me that basically I would have to work at LSU for five years to be at the same position financially I was at Notre Dame at the time,” Mainieri said. “That’s assuming I’d be successful at LSU. It was a risk.”
Mainieri did the math.
“I took out a loan for the $446,000 and wrote Notre Dame the check,” he said. “Coming to LSU was worth the risk.”
Mainly because Mainieri bet on Mainieri Stock, and that of LSU. It paid off handsomely for the coach and the Tigers.