Retiring Creighton baseball coach Ed Servais leaves 22-year legacy of developing players

May 23, 2025, 10:30 a.m. ·

Servais talks with his team during his last home game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Ed Servais talks with his team during his last home game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. (Screenshot from Nebraska Public Media archive footage)

Listen To This Story

Watch This Story


Calm and calculated.

That’s the way Ed Servais has led the Creighton baseball program for 22 years. That’s the way he talks in interviews.

On Saturday, he hopes his team will play that way in the Big East Championship Game. This will be Servais’ final Big East Tournament and NCAA Tournament, if the Bluejays can earn a bid.

The Bluejays play the winner of Xavier and UConn in the championship. Whoever takes home the conference crown gets an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

No. 1 seed Creighton defeated No. 4 seed St. John’s, 10-8 on Wednesday, then No. 3 seed Xavier on Thursday, 11-8. The Bluejays are the only undefeated team in the double elimination tournament.

It would be Servais’ fifth conference tournament title and his second since Creighton joined the Big East. He’s won 718 games as the head coach, the most in school history. From 2004 to 2023, his teams led the nation in fielding percentage and had the fewest errors, according to Creighton Athletics.

That’s a pretty good resume for a man who assumed he would be a high school teacher and coach his whole life.

“To be honest, I never thought I was going to be a Division-I head coach,” Servais said.

He got a job as an assistant coach at Saint Mary’s University in Minneapolis. His first head coaching job was at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, before returning to Saint Mary’s as head coach.

After coaching at the Division III and NAIA levels and a couple years as an assistant at Iowa State, he took an assistant coaching job on Creighton’s staff in 1998.

Then in 2004, he was promoted to the top job.

“What an honor and thrill that was. I remember how excited I was that this would be an opportunity for me,” Servais said “I was going to make sure that Creighton was proud of their decision. So we went to work.”

Went to work he did. Two years after Servais was hired as the head coach, Creighton had one of its best seasons ever. The 2005 Bluejays will be a team he remembers fondly.

“We had a really special group of guys,” Servais said. “We won 48 games, which is a lot of games. We played Nebraska at Rosenblatt [Stadium], in front of 22,000 people for a regular season game. We were able to win that game.”

Then Creighton earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament and was invited to play in the Lincoln Regional.

Servais stands in the third base coaching box during the 2005 NCAA Tournament in Lincoln.
Servais stands in the third base coaching box during the 2005 NCAA Tournament in Lincoln. (Screenshot from Nebraska Public Media archive footage)

“We won our first game against North Carolina State,” Servais said. “We had another matchup with Nebraska in a winner's bracket game. We lost the game, but what an environment it was down there.

“So I think I'll remember the first regional that we got into in ‘05 and that was a special team,. It was only my second year, and a lot of people never thought we could get to that level, and we proved them wrong, and we did it.”

The Bluejays’ 48 wins in 2005 is tied for the second most in school history, only behind the 1991 team that made it to the College World Series semifinals.

Servais’ teams would go on to compete in four other NCAA Tournaments, with hopes of making it five this year.

The former Wisconsin-La Crosse University baseball standout has played in, coached and watched countless baseball games. He’s the second-best hitter in Wisconsin-La Crosse history, in terms of career runs batted in, with 121.

From the start of his time in college baseball to now, Servais said the amount of television coverage is exponentially greater.

“There’s a lot more eyeballs on the program now than there once was. College baseball has evolved a lot,” Servais said. “I never thought we'd see as many games on TV as we do today. I never thought we'd see the crowds that we do today.”

Servais said the exposure has helped the sport.

Incoming college players have more experience playing against high-level competition early in their careers than they once did.

“The players, in my opinion, they're a little bit more sophisticated than they once were,” he said. “They do a lot more traveling as young people with their travel programs.”

Sitting in a bus or plane for hours to get to a baseball game is common for high schoolers now, he said.

“[Travel] bothers me probably more than it does to players,” Servais said. “So when they get here, it's not that big of a transition between high school and college. It's a lot easier for them.”

Even though traveling youth sports are more prevalent, one thing remains.

“They still want to be coached, they still want to get better,” Servais said. “They have high expectations. They have high goals for themselves. That has not changed.”

The Bluejays have named a head-coach-in-waiting. Mark Kingston was awarded the job last June and will lead the program starting in 2026. He has won 490 games as a college head coach, including 217 wins at South Carolina.

Servais shared some advice for the new Bluejay skipper.

“To not forget about the tradition and the history of the program,” Servais said.

The current Creighton head coach remembers that history first hand.

“My first College World Series game was Creighton vs. Clemson in 1991,” Servais said. “I saw that game live with no idea that five years later I would be a part of Creighton baseball. So I just hope that he hangs on to the traditions and the history.”

Servais hits ground balls to his infield. Creighton is known as one of the most solid defensive programs in the nation.
Servais hits ground balls to his infield. Creighton is known as one of the most solid defensive programs in the nation. (Screenshot from Nebraska Public Media archive footage)

As for Servais’ future plans, he doesn’t want to completely step away from the game he loves.

“I think I can see myself working with young people. I'd like to stay in a game of baseball. I'd like to help young people become better players, learn to respect the game,” Servais said. “So I could see myself doing some lessons, but I'm going to slow down a little bit.”

He’s coached college baseball for a combined 40 years.

“It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of time,” he said. “I need to devote a little bit more time to my family, but I'm going to still stick around and stay in touch with baseball.

“It's obviously been a huge part of my life. And if I can give back to young people and help them enjoy the game better by playing it better, I will be open to that. So I see myself just dabbling in that a little bit, and see if I can make a difference for those young people.”

Servais has leisurely plans, too. Lucky for him, his two sons love to golf.

“I need to get a little bit better at it, to hang with those guys a little bit, because they're young and they can hit it a lot further than I can,” Servais said. “So anything that involves spending more time with them, my daughter, my six grandkids and my wife will be a good thing.”

When people look at his time at Creighton, Servais hopes they see someone who was great at helping young people improve.

“We've had 10 players play Major League Baseball at the highest level, and those players came to us as good players, and they left as better players,” he said.

“I'm just so proud of our guys who have left here, not just the ones that made it to the major leagues,” Servais said, “but the other guys who are doing great things in their communities, great husbands, great dads. That means a lot to me as well.”

Servais said he’ll cherish many memories shared with the student athletes.

“The relationships with those players will be the thing I remember the most. I have the most fun when we have our little golf outings in the fall,” Servais said. “Normally 50, 60, 70 [former players] come back, and I get caught up with them and find out how they're doing.”

Being a strategic thinker, Servais said he’ll miss the excitement of gameday.

“There's just something about being in a dugout, making those decisions that may make the difference between winning and losing,” Servais said. “So I'll miss that to a certain extent, but mostly the relationships with the players.”

Servais said he'll try to not think too much about strategy and decision while watching baseball in retirement. The longtime head coach also wants to hand over the keys to Kingston but still be around if needed.

Servais' family throws out the first pitches in his last home game as the head coach of Creighton.
Servais' family throws out the first pitches in his last home game as the head coach of Creighton. (Screenshot from Nebraska Public Media archive footage)

"I'll be in Omaha. My wife and I enjoy Omaha. Two of our sons live in Omaha. Our daughter lives in Des Moines. So this is a great place for us,” Servais said. “I will give coach the space he needs to run the program the way he wants to. I'll be here in Omaha if he needs me. I don't think he'll probably need me very much. He's an experienced coach.”

Servais’ 718 wins are the most in school history. Still, he’s laser-focused on getting the next one.

“It'll mean more probably in six months than it does right now. I just look at each opportunity, each game. I never really looked back,” Servais said. “But it does say a lot about the players we've had come through here, the talent that we've had and how those guys sacrificed a lot for the betterment of the team. That's what it proves to me.”

Creighton plays Xavier or UConn at 4 p.m. Central on Saturday in the Big East Tournament. Xavier or UConn would have to beat Creighton twice to win the tournament.

The Bluejays are squarely in the conversation for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament field, if they were to lose the tournament. The NCAA Tournament selection show is at 11 a.m. Monday.

The student athletes in the dugout next to Servais will surely continue making sacrifices Saturday, in hopes of adding to their coach’s historic legacy with one last NCAA Tournament adventure.