arkansas baseball history
Few schools in America enjoy as rich a history as that of the Arkansas Razorback baseball program. With six College World Series appearances - including a national runner-up finish in 1979 - and 24 NCAA postseason appearances to its credit, the University of Arkansas has long been considered one of the nation’s elite programs. Entering their 90th season of play, the Razorbacks fielded their first team in 1897. Arkansas played for 24 years before seeing its team discontinued from 1930 to 1946. Hugo Bezdek, E.T. Pickering, T.T. McConnell, Claude Watts, Norman Coyle and Francis Schmidt served as coaches during the early days of the program. All but Watts and Coyle also served as head football coaches at the University. The Razorbacks got back in the baseball business again in 1947 with Deke Brackett serving the first of three seasons as head coach. It was in 1950, with Razorback athletic trainer Bill Ferrell taking the reins that modern-day interest in the sport ignited for the first time. Though compiling only a 139149 record during his 16-year tenure, the foundation was laid for what was to come. Wayne Robbins took over for the popular Ferrell in 1966 and coached for four seasons, going 50-51. His successor was a fiery young coach from Wisconsin who would eventually build the program into one of national prominence. Norm DeBriyn was hired by Arkansas Athletics Director George Cole in 1970 and charged with making the Razorbacks competitive on a conference and national level. Arkansas baseball had not been a baseball-playing member of a league since dropping out of Southwest Conference play in 1926. One of DeBriyn’s first tasks was to resume a SWC schedule, a feat which was accomplished in time for the 1974 season. His teams proved competitive in one of the nation’s toughest baseball leagues and Arkansas would end up qualifying for 14 of the 15 SWC tournaments held during the Hogs’ membership in that league. The Razorbacks became competitive on a larger scale as well, under DeBriyn. Arkansas participated in its first NCAA postseason in 1973, DeBriyn’s fourth season, and made its first trip to the NCAA College World Series in just his 10th campaign. That trip to Omaha in 1979 saw the Hogs finish as national runners-up to Cal State-Fullerton. In his final season as coach, DeBriyn guided the Hogs to an NCAA Super Regional after winning the Wichita Regional with a perfect 3-0 mark. The Razorbacks came within two runs of advancing to their fifth NCAA College World Series, losing the Super Regional two games to one to the host, Clemson. A new chapter in Arkansas Baseball history began in 2003 when former Razorback player and graduate assistant coach Dave Van Horn was named head coach after DeBriyn retired following the 2002 season. Since taking over at his alma mater, Van Horn has continued to grow the Razorback program with nine straight NCAA Tournament berths, three Super Regional appearances and Arkansas’ fifth and sixth trips to the College World Series in 2004 and 2009.
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Facilities have played an important role in the history of Razorback baseball. Upon DeBriyn’s arrival, the Razorbacks were playing games at the run-down and disheveled Washington County Fairgrounds field barely fit for pasture land. By 1975, Arkansas had moved into George Cole Field, one of the few college ballparks in the country with an artificial playing surface. The park gave the program immediate respectability and Arkansas would advance five times to NCAA postseason play and twice to the NCAA College World Series in its first decade in the park. Lights were added in 1985 with the help of former standouts Kevin McReynolds, Johnny Ray and Tim Lollar, a move that again advanced the program up to another level. George Cole Field was the site of the Razorback baseball program’s coming of age. The Razorbacks would go 567-142-2 at the facility for a winning percentage of .799. It was the site of the school’s first league tournament championship, in 1985, and home to a parade of all-conference and All-America players. McReynolds, Ray, Lollar and Tom Pagnozzi - some of the first Razorbacks to make a significant impact in Major League Baseball - were just a few of many DeBriyn pupils who honed their skills at George Cole Field and went on to excel in the majors. Arkansas baseball is not just about those who have been able to play the game for a living. The Razorbacks have produced 90 all-conference selections (all since 1976 when Bill Montgomery was named All-Southwest Conference), 36 All-America picks (Lollar was the first in 1978), 55 all-conference tournament selections, four conference titles (1989, 1990, 1999, 2004), one conference tournament championship and eight NCAA Regional Tournament championships. Since joining the SEC in 1992, Arkansas has already placed 31 players on All-SEC lists. Adding all these feats to the fact that Arkansas baseball has seen 38 of its stars go on to play in the major leagues, has dozens currently playing professional baseball and claims six major league first-round draft picks in Kevin McReynolds (1981), Jeff King (1986), David Walling (1999), Nick Schmidt (2007), Logan Forsythe (2008) and Zack Cox (2010). Although he retired following the 2002 season, the magic continues with DeBriyn’s subtle influence on the lives of Charlie Baum and Willard & Pat Walker families, key contributors to perhaps the crowning achievement of DeBriyn’s tenure - Baum Stadium at George Cole Field. The 8,237-seat stadium, which can accommodate a crowd of 10,737, is unparalleled in the country in form and function and promises again to move the program to an even higher level of achievement. Designed by the nationally acclaimed firm HOK, designers of such jewels as Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Coors Field and Jacobs Field, Baum Stadium at George Cole Field played host to its first game on April 13, 1996, as a thenrecord crowd of 3,328 saw the Razorbacks defeat Auburn in a doubleheader sweep. Named the best college baseball facility in the nation by Baseball America in 1998, the stadium has ignited the interest of Razorback fans throughout the region and helped Arkansas lead the nation in tickets sold in 2007 with 8,069 per game and set a then-NCAA record in the process.
2012 ARKANSAS BASEBALL MEDIA GUIDE