One coach is synonymous with building Wichita State University baseball into a power. This spring, his name is given proper places of honor in the stadium he helped turn from dream into one of the sport’s showplaces.
Earlier this month, “Gene Stephenson Park” was added to Eck Stadium, home of Tyler Field, at a ceremony and unveiling. On Friday, his jersey No. 10 will be recognized on the stadium’s Wall of Honor in left field before the 6 p.m. game vs. Memphis.
“Build it, he did,” WSU athletic director Kevin Saal said at the unveiling ceremony for the sign on the Eck Stadium facade. “He built a lot of something. He built decades of something from nothing.”
Gene (left) and Phil Stephenson
That is an essential part of the Stephenson history now recognized with signage inside and outside the stadium and the mural that rises over the concourse. When hired in February 1977, he restarted a program that had not played a game since 1970. He took over a baseball team with no baseballs or bats, nowhere to practice and plans for a stadium.
He coached WSU from 1978-2013 and led the Shockers to the 1989 NCAA title, in addition to six other College World Series appearances and a total of 27 NCAA appearances. The National College Baseball Hall of Fame inducted him in 2014.
“We wanted to do something nobody else had done,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson, his coaches, student-athletes and boosters did just that. For those enjoying the ballpark in the future, that story will be impossible to miss.
File photoListen to a podcast on Stephenson's career with voices at the unveiling ceremony
About Wichita State University
Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 23,000 students between its main campus and the WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech), including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student-centered and innovation-driven.
Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students. The National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry-funded engineering R&D and No. 8 overall for engineering R&D.
The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.
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