FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ Dave Van Horn recorded his 1,100th victory as a Division I baseball coach Wednesday when the Razorbacks defeated Arkansas State 10-3 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Van Horn is the sixth active Division I coach to reach that mark, joining Minnesota’s John Anderson, Missouri State’s Keith Guttin, Georgia Tech’s Danny Hall, Coastal Carolina’s Gary Gilmore and North Carolina State’s Elliott Avent.
Van Horn’s Division I record of 1,100-568 includes 20 seasons at Arkansas (2003-present), 5 seasons at Nebraska (1998-2002) and 3 seasons at Northwestern (La.) State (1995-97).
The NCAA record book credits Van Horn with 1,151 career victories. Van Horn went 51-11 and won the NCAA Division II national championship at Central Missouri in 1994.
NCAA records count victories at any four-year college. Van Horn won 214 games in five junior college seasons at Texarkana that do not count toward his NCAA total.
Van Horn ranks 36th all-time in career victories, according to the NCAA’s record book. He passed two-time national champion Ray Tanner earlier this year and has a chance to pass other notable names this season. He is five victories shy of former Southern Cal national championship coach Mike Gillespie and 22 wins shy of former Rice national championship coach Wayne Graham.
Van Horn is also likely to pass his mentor, former Arkansas coach Norm DeBriyn, in the NCAA record book this year. DeBriyn’s 1,161 career victories came during 33 seasons as the Razorbacks’ coach from 1970-2002.
Van Horn played for DeBriyn in 1982 and was a graduate assistant coach under him from 1985-88.