After a one-year absence from the college game, Mike Gillespie will return next spring as head coach of the University of California, Irvine, baseball program.

Gillespie won 763 games during a 20-year tenure as head coach at Southern California, leading the Trojans to four College World Series appearances and one national title. He was named the national coach of the year in 1998.

A member of Southern California's 1961 national championship team as a player, Gillespie signed a three-year contract with UC Irvine. He spent his year away from the college game working for the New York Yankees - as a scout and as manager of the Staten Island Yankees, the organization's short-season Class A affiliate.