Saluki Sports Update
College baseball will never (I know, never say “never”) replace the professional game of baseball, but that doesn’t mean it has fewer uncertainties.
Take SIU’s program for an example.
With only a few periods in its history, the Saluki program has been good. Occasionally challenging the finest happenings in SIU’s storied sports past.
And, when not at that level, it’s been a solid year-in, year-out program in the now 100-year-plus history.
Baseball itself has not always been part of SIU’s men’s sports program, as it was not until 1948 that Glenn “Abe” Martin resurrected the sport from the early, early 1900s.
Martin, one of SIU’s storied personalities in athletics, actually started the program as we now know it, in 1947.
Plans called for beginning a year earlier, but Benny Dunn, the Bataan death march survivor from Gorham, once told us that Abe had been injured in practice in 1947 and the actual revival did not take place until the following year.
Dunn, incidentally, wasn’t the only “name” player involved in the restart of the program.
In 1948 the Salukis played their games “on campus” for the first time and one of their players was a guy by name of Bob Goalby of Belleville.
Yes, he’s the same guy who won the Masters golf tournament some 20 years later in 1968.
Football was Goalby’s favorite sport, but after a disappointing freshman year at the University of Illinois, he transferred to SIU and decided to give baseball a shot.
Bill Bleyer, yes, the same Bill Bleyer who has spent a storied life at Carterville, was voted the team’s “most valuable player” in 1948.
However, back to the sport and SIU’s most enjoyable years when the Salukis earned a spot in the College World Series in 1968, 1969, 1971, 1974 and 1977.
Joe Lutz, the guy Martin selected to replace him in the mid-1960s, coached the Salukis the first two years they earned the trip to Omaha, Neb., and of course everyone is probably aware that Richard “Itch” Jones was the skipper the next three trips.
“Itch” not only got the Salukis in the tournament, but led them to the championship game all three years by winning three games there before being eliminated in the title game by Southern Cal twice and Arizona State on what has proven to be the final trip.
Jones, as the SIU sports world knows, cashed in at SIU following the 1990 season.
It had been one of the Salukis’ all-time bests: a Missouri Valley championship, 49 wins in 63 games, a heart-breaking 4-3 loss to San Diego State in the NCAA regional final and a position setback which led him to a similar job as baseball coach at the U of I.
A highly-respected guy by name of Sam Riggleman replaced “Itch” at SIU, but gave in mid-season to Ken Henderson temporarily. He was replaced during the off season to Dan Callahan and the rest is probably well-remembered as its far more current.
All of SIU’s coaches have been good, solid, well-respected. The problem may be the sensational records that earlier Saluki teams posted. They are so unusual, so outstanding, that it’s difficult to match.
One thing is for sure, SIU has the facility and we believe it’s just a matter of time until the Salukis will be making it back to Omaha. Let’s hope so.