WETUMPKA, Ala. – Auburn baseball head coach Butch Thompson has been announced as a member of the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Class of 2026, the organization announced Tuesday.
Thompson becomes the third head coach in program history to earn the distinction, joining Paul Nix (2004) and Hal Baird (2006) on the list. The annual awards banquet and induction ceremony will take place Thursday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. CT at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama.
The third winningest and longest-tenured head coach in program history, Thompson wrapped up his 11th season at the helm of the program with a 366-255-1 career record, including seven postseason appearances, five regional titles and a pair of College World Series appearances.
He has guided Auburn to a regional host bid in four of the last five postseasons, becoming one of two programs nationally to accomplish the feat, and has seen the program host its first two home super regionals in back-to-back years.
Thompson’s five regional championships are two more than any other head coach in program history, and the Tigers are one of five programs nationally to play in at least five super regionals since 2018. The team has a top-10 final ranking on each occasion and a top-25 final ranking on three other occasions.
Along with his Auburn head coaching tenure, Thompson has made coaching stops in the state at Huntingdon (1993; assistant coach), Birmingham Southern (1994-96, 1998-2001; assistant coach), Jefferson State (1997; head coach) and Auburn (2006-08; assistant coach), spending 23 of the his 34 years as a college coach in the state. He also played collegiately at Birmingham Southern from 1991-92.
In his lone other season as a head coach at Jefferson State in 1997, he led the program to a third-place finish in the NJCAA Division II World Series en route to being named the ABCA Alabama Junior College Coach of the Year. As an assistant at Birmingham Southern, he helped guide the program to three straight NAIA World Series appearances, culminating with the NAIA National Championship in 2001.
Thompson has previously been inducted into the Itawamba (Miss.) Community College Athletic Hall of Fame (2014) and Mississippi Association of Community College Conference Hall of Fame (2021).