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For nearly 140 years, Indiana University baseball has thrived on the unexpected. For instance: Coach Bob Morgan missed his Gatorade bath, but not his 1,000th career victory. Mike Smith rocked college pitching to win the first Triple Crown in NCAA Division I history. An ill-fated shower cost the Hoosiers a 1949 run at NCAA tourney success. Bob Lawrence made more with his 1958 pro baseball signing bonus ($50,000) than 1950s superstar slugger Ted Kluszewski ever made in a season ($40,000). Mike Crotty came to the plate looking like a middle aged man-until blasting future major league star Matt Andersons first pitch off the scoreboard for IUs most memorable post-season home run. Bob Lawrence could have begun his head-coaching career with any patsy in the country; instead, he chose top-ranked Miami of Florida.
About the author
Pete DiPrimio, an award-winning sports writer for the Evansville Courier, Inside Indiana and now the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, has covered Hoosier athletics since the late 1980s. He is also the author of The Hoosier Handbook, a history of Indiana basketball. Join him on a journey that highlights the thrills and spills, triumphs and disappointments surrounding the university's oldest athletic program.
