Gary Gilmore completed his 33rd season as a collegiate head coach in 2022 and his 27th at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, where he led the Chanticleers to the 2016 NCAA Div. I Championship. Combined with his six seasons as head coach at NCAA Div. II USC Aiken (1990-95), Gilmore’s career coaching record sits at 1,293-653-5 (.663). Through the 2022 season, Gilmore ranked fourth in wins among active NCAA Div. I coaches.
In 27 seasons at Coastal, Gilmore has led the Chanticleers to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, and they have advanced to a Super Regional three times. In 2016, Gilmore took home ABCA/Diamond Sports National Coach of the Year honors after guiding Coastal Carolina to the program’s first-ever national title. Coastal lost the first game of the best-of-three championship series to Arizona, before winning the following two games, 5-4 and 4-3.
Having guided the Chanticleers to 12 regular season and 13 conference tournament titles, Gilmore has received Conference Coach of the Year honors 10 times (nine Big South, one Sun Belt). He was also named ABCA/Diamond Sports Atlantic Region Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2016.
Before returning to his alma mater in 1996, Gilmore spent six seasons as head coach at USC Aiken, where he compiled a 256-102-2 (.711) record. He posted 40-win seasons in his first four years there, including a school-record 48 wins in 1991.
In 1992, Gilmore led USC Aiken to the Peach Belt Tournament Championship and the NCAA Div. II postseason. The following year in 1993, the Pacers once again won the Peach Belt Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Div. II College World Series. Following the 1993 season, Gilmore was named the ABCA NCAA Div. II Coach of the Year, ABCA South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year.
USC Aiken added a regular-season championship title in 1994. During his stint at USC Aiken, Gilmore coached nine all-conference performers, including one Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year, and had nine players drafted.
Prior to his collegiate coaching career, Gilmore worked as a scout for the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians.
Gilmore played center field for Coastal Carolina during the 1979 and 1980 seasons where he hit .353 with 69 steals in 90 games as the lead-off hitter. After graduating in 1980, he played professionally in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
In addition to his ABCA Hall of Fame nod, Gilmore has been inducted into four other Halls of Fame and received the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Jerry Kindall Character in Coaching Award in 2021.
