Bill Anderson coached baseball at Occidental College in California for 30 years, originally arriving on campus in 1924 as an athletic trainer and assistant baseball coach before becoming the Tigers’ head coach in 1930. In addition to his Hall of Fame coaching career on the diamond, Anderson also coached varsity basketball and football at Oxy, winning more championships than any other coach in school history. Anderson was named the school’s Athletic Director in 1939.
Anderson arrived on the Oxy campus seven years removed from his playing days as an all-star halfback at the University of Illinois. He assisted head coach Wilkie Clark for five seasons, doubling as freshman coach.
With Anderson as skipper, Oxy baseball teams amassed an overall record of 144-41 (.778) and notched 10 league titles over 25 seasons. In league play, his teams combined for a 77-9 (.895) record, the highest winning percentage of all Occidental championship teams.
In his final four seasons at Occidental (1951-54), Anderson’s teams captured four consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) titles, twice going undefeated in league play (1952, 1954). His 1932 and 1934 teams also finished the season undefeated in league competition. Only one other team in Occidental history went undefeated in league play.
The student-athletes who played for Anderson were some of the best to ever play at Occidental College. Based on career batting average, Anderson coached the top five hitters and 12 of the top 15 in Oxy baseball history. In addition, seven of the top 10 single-season batting average performances came from Anderson-coached players.
On the mound, Anderson-coached pitchers are three of the top four in career win percentage in school history and he coached the only two pitchers (Dick Sovde ’56 and Frank Bennett ’54) to throw no-hitters in the same season (1954). A total of seven no- hitters were thrown by Tiger pitchers during his tenure.
In all, Anderson guided 50 players to 68 All-SCIAC honors between 1933-54 and coached over 60 future Oxy Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. Eventually, four of his Oxy teams (1934, ’43, ’52, ’54) were also inducted into the program’s Hall of Fame.
Anderson accomplished most of this after surviving an auto accident in 1941 that nearly killed him and left him physically impaired for the rest of his life.
In 1954, following his final season at Oxy, Anderson was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame. Anderson Field, the Tigers’ baseball home since 1950, is named in his honor.
