September 4, 2007

Ducks Hire Cal State-Fullerton Baseball Coach

EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon announced Saturday that it has hired former Cal State-Fullerton baseball coach George Horton to restart its varsity baseball program.

Horton has coached the Titans for the past 11 seasons, and has taken the team to the College World Series six times. His team won the national title in 2004, and he twice has been named national coach of the year.

"To see what he has built and accomplished at Cal State Fullerton is incredible," Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny said. "Coach Horton has put together an elite program and has posted an outstanding record on the field of play as well as develops student athletes both as players and individuals."

Oregon has not fielded a team in 26 years and is the only Pac-10 school without one. The school announced two months ago that recently it would revive baseball, drop wrestling and add competitive cheer.

Horton emerged from a field of several candidates that included Dave Brundage, a former Oregon State player and manager in the Seattle Mariners system and now with Atlanta, Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin and University of California-Irvine's Dave Serrano.

He signed a five-year contract with the team. He will earn a base annual salary of $150,000, and will made an additional $250,000 a year that the university said was in part derived from radio and television contracts, as well as shoe and athletics contracts with Nike.

Titans' assistant coach Jason Gill will join Horton's staff at Oregon.

Oregon plans to begin play with limited scholarships in 2009.