MSU Billings Announces Chris Brown
as Head Baseball Coach (Mar. 8, 2005)

BILLINGS, MT – Chris Brown will be a busy man over the next few months.  On the agenda: move to Montana from Minnesota and start an NCAA Division II baseball program from scratch.  Montana State-Billings Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Gary Gray announced Tuesday that Brown has been selected as the head coach for the first NCAA baseball program in the state. 

“We are very excited Chris Brown has accepted our offer to become the first MSU Billings Head Baseball Coach since the program was dropped 30 years ago,” said Gray.  “Coach Brown joins us from another NCAA Division II institution in the northern tier of states, where he has been the Head Baseball Coach since 2002.  We welcome his knowledge of and experience in NCAA Division II baseball.”

Brown is expected to be on campus and on the job as early as next Monday.  He recently began his third season as the head coach at Bemidji State University, a Division II institution in Bemidji, MN, but will leave the Beavers immediately to begin recruiting at MSU Billings.

“I will be at work on Monday morning,” said Brown.  “I’ll be available to anybody and everybody who has questions or wants to talk to me.  The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is meeting people and making connections in the area.  I’ll definitely start recruiting right away.  The biggest challenge is to start filling the roster not only with numbers but with quality athletes who can be competitive.”

MSU Billings announced in early February that it was reviving a baseball program that last competed in the NAIA 30 years ago.  The program becomes the only NCAA baseball program in Montana.  Beginning with the 2006 spring season, the Yellowjacket baseball team will compete in the Heartland Conference.  They already have a 40 game conference schedule set for their first season of play.

“For me personally, this job offers the opportunity to be in location that is very desirable,” said Brown.  “I’ve spent a lot of time in Montana and I love the area.  As a coach it offers the opportunity to get into a program that provides the opportunity to be successful.  I look forward to being part of a program that has already generated a lot of enthusiasm and excitement.   One of the exiting things will be giving the opportunity to Montana players to stay in the state.  They have opportunities at a couple junior colleges, but it’s exciting to be the first four year program in Montana.  That provides the ideal vehicle for Montana baseball players to go to college close to home.”

Before he was promoted to head coach in the summer of 2002, Brown was an assistant coach at Bemidji for two years.  As an assistant he served as the team’s recruiting coordinator and pitching coach.  He spent one season as an assistant coach at Jamestown College (ND), where he was a pitcher for four years.

“Coach Brown is very familiar with Legion Baseball in Montana and already has many ties to baseball in this state,” added Gray.  “He will do an excellent job of building a competitive NCAA Division II baseball program at MSU Billings with a strong core of Montana student-athletes.  From there, he will reach out to surrounding states to build a great intercollegiate baseball program for this region.  Chris will lead the way in bringing exciting NCAA Division II baseball to the baseball community in Billings and the surrounding area.”