Jim Toman obit

South Carolina baseball’s Jim Toman was the most important person to ever wear the garnet and black

 He was not on the list.

Former South Carolina Baseball Assistant Coach Jim Toman passed away today after a battle with brain cancer. He was 64 years old.

But, Jim Toman was more than what anyone and everyone could ever describe.

He was one of one.

His contributions to the University of South Carolina’s baseball program and the game of baseball itself will be passed on for generations to come.

Former Head Baseball Coach and Athletics Director Ray Tanner told me one time “I couldn’t have done it without him.”

“And I don’t know that I would have wanted to.”

Tanner was referencing Toman in a conversation we were having upstairs at Founders Park not too long ago.

The conversation came about because I mentioned to Coach Tanner when Toman was in town in 2025 for Tanner’s field naming ceremony, we sat upstairs and watched the first game of the season together.

I had not seen Coach Toman in a couple of years and he made me laugh for nine straight innings. Toman told every story under the sun. Stories that can’t be retold. And not necessarily because they are inappropriate, but because nobody can tell them like Toman.

But, one of the most amazing traits about Coach Toman was his natural ability to evaluate every player on the field while coinciding as a comedian.

I have never seen anything like it and I have been around this game and some elite people in it almost my entire life.

Toman had a gift. He could see things nobody else saw while simultaneously carrying the room in such a lighthearted manner. You just didn’t expect it if you didn’t know “Storm.”

I referenced the fact I had not seen Toman in a couple of years before that evening in the press box at Founders Park.

The “couple of years” was the 2023 Columbia Regional. We sat and talked on the concourse on a hot June day. When I asked him why he was not sitting upstairs with Coach Tanner in his suite, he responded with:

“I was. Coach Tanner got tired of me telling him what to do. So I came downstairs.”

“The most important coach to ever wear the garnet and black”

Over the years, Coach Toman, Coach Tanner, College of Charleston Head Coach Chad Holbrook, South Carolina Baseball Assistant Coach Stuart Lake, former Interim Head Coach Monte Lee, and countless others have joined us on Inside the Gamecocks- The Show.

All of them have told Jim Toman stories. Every one of them are hilarious. Many of you have heard them. They are truly hilarious.

Toman referenced multiple times he blitzed on Coach Tanner to go recruiting. One time, he got thrown out of a game while coaching third base just to go recruit.

Well, he had also had enough of a terrible strike zone.

But, “The Big Guy” had a post game plan and that was to leave Sarge Frye Field, get in his truck, get on the road, and go find some players for next year’s team.

Tanner never blinked. If Toman said he could play, he could play. He had no problem giving Coach Tanner his opinion on players. Good or bad.

Former South Carolina baseball assistant Jim Toman dies after cancer battle

Coach Tanner trusted him and let him work the way he wanted to work.

“Jim Toman was three things. He was incredibly funny, brutally honest, and a relentless recruiter,” former Assistant and Interim Head Coach Monte Lee said.

Lee was the Hitting Coach, Baserunning Coach, and Outfielders Coach for the Gamecocks from the fall of 2002 until the summer of 2008. Lee was also the Recruiting Coordinator in his final season after taking over for Toman when he was named Head Coach at Liberty following the Gamecocks 2007 NCAA Super Regional in Chapel Hill.

I asked Lee what he learned about recruiting from Toman.

“To dominate the state and Florida JUCO’s first,” Lee explained. “Physicality. Never sign a hitter who can’t turn around velo.”

The Gamecocks had plenty of all of those during that time.

“He (Toman) was the most important coach to ever wear the garnet and black. Without him, the teams of the 2000’s don’t happen,” Lee continued.

He may be right. Tanner has echoed similar words in years past and as recently as his statement on Toman’s passing today.

“Even though you weren’t in the dugout when it happened, we don’t win back to back National Championships without you,” Tanner stated in the release.

Toman knew how to win at South Carolina

Coach Toman would tell anyone who asked that any team is only as good as their players. Things were that simple to him.

So he made it his every day goal to find the very best players he could find.

He didn’t get them all. As a matter of fact, he has rattled of plenty to me personally that he missed on.

But, that was nowhere near how many he signed.

As Lee pointed out, Toman and Tanner knew what South Carolina Baseball was capable of and they knew where to look for talent and why it was important.

The term “JUCO Bandits” became popular in the Palmetto State when Jim Toman arrived in the summer of 1996 with Coach Tanner. Toman would scour the country, yes the country, for Junior College kids who could step in and make a difference. High School players in South Carolina and Florida “JUCO’s” were the priority. But, he could find the best anywhere.

They succeeded at enormous rates annually.

In 2002, first baseman Yaron Peters was a “JUCO” from California. He hit .379 with 29 HR and 93 RBI. That is just one example. But, it’s a big one. That team played for a National Championship.

But, the ticket was always the “why” once kids put the Gamecocks uniform on. Players loved it here. Tanner was tough and Toman offset that.

“He always truly believed we could win”

When star shortstop Drew Meyer hit campus in the fall of 1999, the South Carolina coaching staff could feel a turn.

Meyer was a second round draft pick out of Bishop England High School in Charleston. He notably just turned down a pro deal after an in home visit from Tommy Lasorda and the Los Angeles Dodgers and was set to enroll in school.

But, back then, you had to physically walk into class in order to officially signal you were off the Big League market.

So, Assistant Coach Stuart Lake stood outside of Meyer’s very first collegiate classroom to make sure the crown jewel showed up and didn’t have a last minute change of plans.

Meyer arrived, walked into class, and the wait was over. “The Franchise,” they had nicknamed Meyer, had arrived. It was time to get to work.

“That was a stressful morning,” Coach Lake told me laughing. “It was kind of awkward just standing there, but that was my job. I guess I did it well.”

I asked Toman about that moment a few years ago and I will never forget his response.

“Stu did a great job that day. He was the bodyguard of the Gamecocks, baby. But, he didn’t have these pythons.”

Clearly, Toman was being Toman, playful about one of his best friends while referencing his own biceps.

That was “Storm.”

But, Drew Meyer’s arrival signified South Carolina’s own as they began their march towards being the best program in college baseball for over a decade.

“Rest in peace, Coach Toman,” Meyer texted today. “His nickname may have been “Storm,” but he was a calming force in our dugout when we needed him most.”

“No matter what we faced, he always believed we could win.”

Meyer like so many loved Toman and kept in touch with him at every stop over the years.

“We felt that energy as players and it opened us up to play free. He will be missed so much.”

Jim Toman “loved living his life” and “always had us laughing”

When typing that statement, it hit me how heavy those words are.

He truly loved living his life every day and, man, did he love making people laugh. He was great at both.

And it never seemed to matter what got put in front of him. Even brain cancer.

“Come on Stu (Stuart Lake), let’s go get a pie,” he yelled towards Coach Lake in the press box a couple of years ago while trying to hurry him up so they could go get dinner.

Lake was trying to finish up his postgame broadcast of Carolina Baseball alongside the voice of the Gamecocks, Derek Scott.

Once it was over and Lake was ready to leave, Toman continued on telling stories for a half an hour.

Lake shook his head and settled in for “story time” as he called it.

Toman had found his rhythm and was in his element. Making people laugh. That was “the big guy.”

Former South Carolina right handed pitcher Blake Cooper said when he first got to campus, he knew Toman was in his corner.

“Hey Coop,” Toman shouted at him his first day on campus. “I told you to get stronger, not fatter.”

“In that moment I knew I was right at home,” Cooper said. “I didn’t know how serious he was, but I was ready to prove why he signed me I can tell you that.”

Again, that was Toman. Poking fun, but pushing buttons.

“He was an incredible baseball coach, had an eye for talent, knew how to build a roster, and had a unique ability to get the best out of his players,” former first round draft pick and left handed pitcher Matt Campbell told me.

“But that’s not what I’ll remember most,” Campbell said.

“I’ll remember ‘Storm’ and “the big guy.’ The coach who always had us laughing, The guy who joked about his ‘pythons’ and made up ridiculous nicknames and sayings to keep us loose. I’ll remember him jumping into the middle of the huddle and throwing punches to fire us up. He had an infectious personality and a larger than life presence that made every day at the ballpark more enjoyable.”

Campbell continued, saying “His impact reached far beyond baseball. He made people feel better just by being around him. That’s a gift not many people have. I am so grateful I got to play for him and experience the energy he brought every single day. He loved living his life. Rest easy, Coach. You will be missed, but never forgotten.”

“I’ll always be a Gamecock”

Toman grew up in Pennsylvania and played college baseball for Head Coach Sam Esposito at NC State. Ray Tanner was an assistant coach during Toman’s playing days.

Toman then returned to Raleigh a few years after his playing days were over and became Coach Tanner’s top assistant coach.

He followed Tanner to Columbia with the Gamecocks and the rest, as we know, is really great history.

Toman loved the University of South Carolina. Even though he departed after the 2007 season to become the Head Coach at Liberty and then at Middle Tennessee State, with an assistant coaching stop in Charleston with Chad Holbrook, he always missed Columbia and raved about his Gamecocks.

“I’ll always be a Gamecock baby, ride or die,” he said a few years back on Inside the Gamecocks- The Show.

During Toman’s tenure in the Capital City, the voice of Carolina Baseball was Mike Morgan. Morgan echoed Toman’s love for the Gamecocks.

“He was so happy to have that job. I remember the Miami Miracle in ’02, I’d never seen him happier. It hit me a couple of weeks ago that he wasn’t going to make it. He was such a force. Just such a great dude,” Morgan said.

“Storm had an unmatched sense of humor. No one recruited better and no one made people laugh harder than Jim. I think of what he did to help build Carolina Baseball and I honestly don’t know if all the Omaha’s and title’s this century happen without him,” Morgan continued.

“He was a joy to be around. A great father and a great friend. His spirit was one of a kind and he will be deeply missed.”

“He loved his family”

While most of the world knows “the big guy” for his wit and baseball legacy, his family was always where his heart settled down.

Toman would talk for as long as you’d let him about his three children Caroline, Charlie Mac, and Tucker, who he adored more than any baseball achievement of his own.

Tucker is currently hitting .274 with 11 homeruns in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, his best season of professional baseball.

Caroline has been Toman’s rock throughout his brain cancer journey. Toman would say she “keeps me straight.”

In recent years, Coach Toman had taken up “thrifting” and would travel near and far to find deals in thrift stores for his son, Charlie Mac. You can follow Charlie Mac’s CMT Vintage on Instagram.

“Storm Picker. Yeah, that’s my new handle. I’m working on being the top Storm Picker in the country,” Toman told ITG in 2025, relating it to his baseball recruiting days.

That always stuck out to former South Carolina and current College of Charleston Head Coach Chad Holbrook.

“It always stood out to me how much he loved coaching. How much he loved the players and the game of baseball. But, boy did he love his family. He loved his family.”

“Coach Toman lived an incredible life,” Holbrook said. “He was a great man that impacted so many people. I am so lucky I was able to spend a year in the dugout with him. He was special in so many ways. Jim Toman will be deeply, deeply missed.”

Keep grinding, always believe, and proud

This is a tough day for the Toman family, the South Carolina Baseball family, and all those who knew Jim Toman.

“He was a legend, he always will be,” former South Carolina right hander and new Charleston Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Cisco added.

I asked former Gamecocks first baseman and big leaguer Justin Smoak how Toman impacted him at Carolina.

“He just always told me to keep grinding. Just keep grinding. You’re better than that guy,” Smoak said.

“There’s tough days in the SEC. In baseball. It’s hard. But, he always found a way to make whatever it was you were going through easier. He believed in us.”

If you go look at Jim Toman’s X profile, all of his posts have multiple exclamation points behind each sentence, signifying his passion.

Many of his posts feature his kids, remember his parents, reveal his love for baseball, and reference our nation’s veterans and military.

And what you will notice is what he used to often say in the dugout in Columbia and elsewhere, he has publicly posted to his children over and over again.

“Keep grinding!”

“I’m proud of you!”

“Always believe!!!”

For over a year, Jim Toman kept believing and kept grinding with a brain cancer diagnosis.

He never quit. He never gave up.

Everyone is proud of you, Coach.

James Michael Andrew “Jim” Toman. November 28, 1961- August 4, 2026.

He was the head coach of the Liberty Flames from the 2008 season until 2016. Under Toman, Liberty has qualified for two NCAA tournaments. He also served as the head coach of the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (2019–2022). He passed away on August 4th, 2026 from brain cancer that he had been battling since first having been diagnosed in 2025.

After graduating, Toman worked as a high school coach for several years before starting his college coaching career in 1989 with a one-year stint at FIU. From 1989 to 1991 he was the pitching coach of the Brewster Whitecaps, a collegiate summer baseball team in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

 

Biographical details

Born    November 28, 1961 (age 64)

Monroeville, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Died    August 4, 2026

Unknown as of August 4, 2026.

Education        North Carolina State University '85

Playing career

1981–1984      NC State

Coaching career (HC unless noted)

1989    FIU (asst.)

1990–1996      NC State (asst.)

1997–2007      South Carolina (asst.)

2008–2016      Liberty

2017–2018      College of Charleston (AHC)

2019–2022      Middle Tennessee

Head coaching record

Overall            406–308–2 (.568)

Tournaments    NCAA DI: 2–4

Big South: 20–13

C-USA: 1–4

Accomplishments and honors

Championships

Big South, North Division: 2014

Big South Tournament: 2013

Awards

Big South Coach of the Year: 2014