For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. In this Classic article, journey along with the 1977 Baylor Bears baseball team as they recover from a rocky start to their season to compete in the College World Series.
Baylor’s doubleheader loss to Arkansas in Fayetteville last April 9 had the frustrating effect that made a bumpy nine-hour bus trip home from the Ozarks a particularly undesirable experience — or at least it seemed that way to the Bears’ baseball team at the time.
Most of the players tried to sleep off their disappointments on the long road back to Waco, but coach Mickey Sullivan preferred, instead, to talk of the even longer road ahead.
“You know,” he said as the bus rolled down the dark highway very early that Easter Sunday morning, “this is already my fourth year as head coach at Baylor. And by this time you hope to start seeing more progress. It would be great if we could just qualify for the tournament.”
Sullivan, of course, was referring to the Southwest Conference’s first annual post-season tournament which would match the league’s top four teams in a double-elimination format in Austin May 19-23 to determine the NCAA playoff representatives.
But after those two humiliating losses to Arkansas that day, the only place the Bruins appeared headed was home to their comfortable beds. At the time, a tournament berth for the Bears seemed further away than home.
When the bus finally arrived in Waco at 3:30 a.m. that Sunday, Sullivan stood up in the front of the bus and delivered some inspiring, well-chosen words to his weary-eyed players before they departed for home. He talked of sacrifice in the weeks ahead and finished by saying, “I don’t know about you, but I plan on being in Austin (for the tournament) in a few weeks. When you come back to practice on Monday, you’d better be ready to get after it.”
As Baylor fans well know, the Bears did get after it. In fact, what transpired for the BU baseball team in the weeks after that fateful trip to Arkansas is one of the most satisfying stories in Baylor athletic history.
The Bears not only qualified for the SWC tournament by winning twelve of their final thirteen regular-season games, but they methodically captured the prestigious tourney with three consecutive victories over favorites Texas and Texas A&M on hostile soil (or rather Astro-Turf).
But the glorious comeback didn’t end there.
The Bruins, rapidly gaining momentum and confidence they never dreamed possible early in the season, won the South Central Regional Tournament at Arlington Stadium Sunday, May 29, in a dramatic comeback (the Bears won their final three games in a twenty-four-hour span) to earn their first trip since 1 948 to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., June 10-17.
A team which only two months before had struggled to qualify for the SWC tourney was suddenly on its way north to battle seven other powerhouses for the national championship. For elated Baylor fans everywhere, it revived memories of another special Bruin team which won a very special football championship in 1974.
Thrust into an underdog’s role at the World Series, the determined Bears fought the nation’s second- and third- ranked teams to the limit before dropping two consecutive extra-inning one-run games. It was a bittersweet ending to an otherwise fabulous 43-15 season.
“I was proud of them all the way,” Sullivan said. “They had a great year. We went up there to Omaha to represent Baylor and Waco and the Southwest Conference. And I think the people were impressed with our effort. I know the other teams were relieved when we got eliminated.
“But it was a great feeling going into the ball park with the huge crowds and playing the great ball clubs. It excited even me, and I’m getting too old to get excited.”
So, the question is, what turned the season around and gave the excited Sullivan the opportunity to smile again?
Certainly, Sullivan’s speech after the Arkansas series had special significance, but it was probably the Bears’ two victories against powerful Texas at home in the regular-season ending series that sent the Bears on their championship march.
After suffering its worst loss of the season (a 10-4 Longhorn romp) in the series opener, Baylor bounced back to whip Texas twice, including a dramatic fourteenth-inning 3-2 victory in the finale. The lasting experience of humbling a Texas team which earlier 22 Chris Hansen Burl Coker waits for his turn at bat. had set an NCAA record of thirty-four consecutive wins while being ranked No. 1 nationally for many weeks was a great confidence builder for the Bears, to say the least.
“I never thought we’d be in this position a month and a half ago,” Sullivan quietly said before the SWC tourney. “We have to feel good about our chances now. During the three-week layoff before this tourney, I felt great about our situation. I felt the kids were as sharp as they could be. I could just feel the peak was perfect. We have great confidence and we’re playing as well as we can play.”
It took the Bruins only three games to prove Sullivan’s hunch was right. After shocking Texas, 3-2, and A&M, 2-1, in the first two rounds, the upstart Bears claimed the delicious title with a satisfying 7-0 domination of the bewildered Longhorns in the finals.
The pitching of Burl Coker, Sammy Bickham, Jaime Cocanower and Shane Nolen supplied the necessary edge in each triumph. “I just can’t get over our pitching,” Sullivan marveled at the time. “We’ve talked a lot about our hitting and rightfully so, but our pitching and defense won it for us, and that’s what you have to have to win in the playoffs.”
And that’s what the Bears also won with in the South Central Regional Tournament at Arlington — pitching and defense as well as a major league comeback. The Bruins blasted New Orleans, 10-1, in the first round, but had their title hopes severely jolted by Miami of Ohio, 7-3, in the second round.
“Losing early put us in a tough spot,” Sullivan admitted. “But we had had many challenges during the year. The kids rose up to the occasion again. It was kind of a storybook ending. It put a good taste in our mouths.”
The poised Bears, major conquerors of adversity all season long, eliminated New Orleans, 7-1, Saturday, May 28, but were within four innings of elimination later that night, trailing Miami, 7-5, in the top of the sixth inning. But the “Bad News Bears” rallied for seven runs to register a 12-7 triumph and keep their title hopes alive for a Sunday showdown. And behind the marvelous pitching of John Schott and Cocanower the Bears blanked Miami, 2-0, Sunday afternoon to guarantee their World Series reservations.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Sullivan said after the regional championship game. “This is a great moment for a coach and players. There was a lot of emotion out there, there was so much at stake. Baylor going to the Cotton Bowl was my first big thrill, but this ranks up there, too.
“There was definitely more pressure on us at Arlington than at the SWC tourney, even with the great following of Baylor fans behind us. The more you win and further you go, the harder it is to keep on winning.”
Schott was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and catcher Mike Czimskey, first baseman Luke Prestridge, shortstop Steve Macko, third baseman Fritz Connally, outfielder Nolen and pitcher Cocanower also were selected to the All-Tournament team.
In the final collegiate baseball poll before the World Series, the Bears were ranked seventh nationally, but their toughest assignments were still ahead. Baylor faced third-ranked South Carolina and its heralded right-hander Randy Martz, the nation’s top pitcher and No. 1 draft choice of the Chicago Cubs, in the opening round Saturday, June 11.
The Bears roughed up Martz for eleven hits, but missed several excellent scoring opportunities in the early innings. Still, the Bears took a 2-1 lead in the top of the tenth inning on Connally’s RBI single. But the fleet-footed Gamecocks won the game, 3-2, in the bottom of the tenth on the power of a two-run inside-the-park homer off Cocanower, who outpitched the celebrated Martz even in a losing cause.
Baylor’s elimination loss to second-ranked Minnesota was almost a carbon copy of the South Carolina shocker. The Bears got off to an early advantage, missed several chances to increase the margin in the middle innings and faced extra innings once again when the Gophers rallied to tie. A heavy rainstorm in the tenth inning caused the game to be suspended with the score deadlocked, 3-3. But when play finally resumed twenty-four hours later on Monday, June 13, Minnesota quickly scored a run in the top of the eleventh inning for a 4-3 triumph over the stunned Bears.
“You have a lot of ifs and buts in a tourney like this,” Sullivan said after the elimination battle. “No one got the big hit when we needed it the most. We came up here thinking hitting, defense and pitching were our strong points in that order. But we got hitting last. Of course, the two pitchers we faced hadn’t lost a game between them all year.
The turning point of the season probably came with the Bear’s two victories over Texas at the end of the regular season.
“We don’t have anything to be sorry about. We had a great year. I’m just as proud as ever of the kids. They did a great job, gosh dang it. We had our backs to the wall so many times and still fought pretty good.”
Baylor players received numerous individual honors during the unforgettable season. Macko, the brilliant shortstop, led the list of distinction. He was named to the College Baseball Coaches’ All-America team and also selected SWC Player of the Year, hitting .417 and leading the SWC in numerous offensive and defensive categories. He also ranked high nationally in several batting departments.
Sullivan was honored as SWC Coach of the Year; and Bickham, the Plano freshman pitcher, was named SWC Freshman of the Year and joined catcher Czimskey and outfielder Leonard Woods on the all-SWC team.
Macko, Czimskey and Woods are three of nine seniors Sullivan must reluctantly replace next season. Second baseman Duncan Shanklin, catcher Buddy Wooley, outfielder Robert Beane and pitchers Schott, Don Brazell and Harry Shipley also graduated.
“The seniors gave so much to our program,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been fighting quite awhile for recognition and the seniors helped us get it. We’ll miss them dearly. But it was a bonus factor going to Omaha. I’ve never seen greater experience for a ball team than this group got, especially the freshmen and sophomores. We plan to work a little harder next year and try and get back for another shot at the national championship.”
Junior first baseman and designated hitter Kenny Kolkhorst, one of the top returnees for the Bears’ 1978 season, probably summed it up best: “Losing the games at the World Series didn’t hurt as bad as knowing that this bunch of guys won’t be together again.”
Say it again, Kenny.
