ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Missouri Valley Conference’s annual baseball Coach of the Year award will be named in honor of the late Dan Callahan, the league announced today. Callahan spent 16 seasons in the Valley as the head coach at Southern Illinois, before losing a long battle with cancer on Nov. 15, 2010.

“It’s the first Coach of the Year award in the league named in honor of a former coach,” MVC associate commissioner Joe Mitch said. “We have two Player of the Year awards named after former players — the Larry Bird Trophy for men’s basketball and the Jackie Stiles Trophy for women’s basketball. But none until now for a league coach. It shows you how much respect everyone in the league had for Cal.”

The initiative was introduced last summer by league coaches who voted to recommend the award to be named in honor of Callahan. It was later granted approval at the league’s administrator meetings to be put in place for the upcoming 2012 baseball season.

A native of Springfield, Ill., Callahan recorded 442 wins in 16 seasons as the head skipper of the Salukis, and is the second-winningest coach in SIU's storied baseball history.  His passion for the game of baseball was contagious, and his willingness to assist colleagues and baseball scouts at the both the regional and national level was second-to-none.

In 22 seasons as a head collegiate coach, Callahan compiled a 595-605-2 record. He is one of just five coaches in Missouri Valley history to win more than 200 league games.

The fall prior to the 2010 season, Callahan received the MVC Most Courageous Award, which is presented to a past or present student-athlete, coach or university administrator who demonstrates unusual courage in the face of personal illness, adversity or tragedy and whose behavior reflects honor on the institution or the conference.