Baseball | 1/27/2022 7:57:00 PM

The phone call did not seem destined to highlight Shocker baseball folklore. It left coach Gene Stephenson unsure about the subject – a shortstop described as not very big, not very fast, not a power hitter – playing in Alaska in the summer of 1981.
 
Stephenson remembers the conversation well. If the story of the 1982 College World Series Shockers starts there, it is a humble beginning, but one full of baseball sense.
 
Sometimes, you simply need someone who can catch and throw.
 
Shockers Phil Stephenson (Gene's brother and first baseman), pitcher Don Heinkel and second baseman Jim Thomas played for the Goldpanners in Fairbanks. Their shortstop didn't wow anyone with his physical ability. He gobbled up every ground ball and threw out every runner.
 
"They started talking about this guy they were playing with that had not signed anywhere yet," Gene Stephenson said. "Can't run. No size. Arm is below-average. I asked them why we wanted him."
 
Because Dave Lucas makes every play at shortstop, they replied.
 
"He could do everything you needed him to do," said Phil Stephenson. "He was the perfect piece at the perfect time."
 
Because they loved playing with him.
 
"Steady dude," Thomas said. "Everything was automatic. He seemed to have a knack for positioning himself. A ground ball was hit, and he was there. He threw everybody out by a half step, I don't care if it was a slow guy running or the fastest guy."
 
Because Thomas wanted to move back to second base after playing shortstop in 1981.
 
"That's where I was comfortable," Thomas said. "I might have the record for errors. I might have thrown 30 balls onto the golf course."
 
The Goldpanners came to Wichita for the NBC World Series in August. Gene Stephenson watched Lucas and began to see the talent and the fit. Lucas met the coaches, toured campus and signed up. He grew up a few miles from the campus of Cal State Fullerton. He started the summer bound for Southern Cal before a class from his junior college didn't transfer.

Wichita State offered playing time and his Goldpanners teammates provided a comfort level.
 
"I called my folks and said 'Hey, I'm going to school at Wichita State,'" Lucas said. "I don't know that I had even heard of Wichita before that."
 
The 1982 Shockers started the season nationally ranked and with issues to work on. They needed to replace their offensive star, their outfield and one of their top starting pitchers from 1981.
 
The program won 43, 65, 53 and games in its first four seasons after the restart and compiled a winning percentage of 75 percent. The schedule featured plenty of NAIA opponents – in part because Kansas and Kansas State and other major colleges declined to play the Shockers in those days. In two NCAA regional appearances, the Shockers went 1-4.
 
That allowed some room for skepticism, or at least questions, entering 1982, despite the success.
 
The Shockers lost outfielder Joe Carter, the No. 2 pick in the 1981 baseball draft, and three other outfielders to professional baseball. Starting pitcher Terry Hayes and three other pitchers also signed.
 
Phil Stephenson, Heinkel, Thomas and catcher Charlie O'Brien all returned for their senior seasons. Montreal picked Stephenson in the fifth round of the 1981 draft and they offered a $15,000 signing bonus. An errant throw hit Stephenson in the jaw during a practice for the NBC World Series, requiring surgery. The Expos stopped talking to him after that, Stephenson said. The return of those four seniors gave the Shockers a foundation of players from Gene Stephenson's first full run at a recruiting class after he revived the program in 1977.
 
 

Help us honor the 1982 CWS team at our First Pitch Banquet this Saturday!

Russ Morman led all players in Omaha that year with 12 RBI.

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— Wichita State Baseball (@GoShockersBSB) January 26, 2022

"On paper, we thought "Man, how are we going to lose?'" Lucas said. "We just knew we had the nucleus of a team that could go far."
 
Junior college transfer Russ Morman added pop to the lineup as the designated hitter. The pitching rotation of Heinkel, Erik Sonberg, Bryan Oelkers and Stan Brown dominated under the guidance of coach Brent Kemnitz in his first year as a full-time assistant.
 
Lucas provided reliability at shortstop that the Shockers needed. He hit .327 with 15 doubles in 1982. In 1983, he earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors and helped the Shockers return to an NCAA regional.
 
"He made us solid," Gene Stephenson said. "It's hard to believe we fell into something like that, just by a phone call."
 
The Shockers, ranked eighth nationally, started 4-6 with three losses at No. 2 Arizona State. Texas pitchers Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi shut them out 2-0 and 12-0, with Lucas collecting three of the team's six hits in the two games.
 
"We had really good leadership and things got better from there," Gene Stephenson said.
 
Wichita State rarely lost after those early weeks. It ended the regular season by taking two of three games from top-ranked Arizona State in Wichita and two of three from No. 3 Fullerton in Wichita.
 
"That was a team that didn't lose confidence," Phil Stephenson said. "As we kept playing, we kept feeling like we were pretty special. We felt like 'Yeah, we've got a chance.'"
 
The pitching staff dominated in the NCAA regional in New Orleans, allowing one run in three victories. That sent the Shockers to the College World Series for the first time. They defeated Fullerton 7-0 in the opener, routed Oklahoma State 13-2 and avenged the loss to Texas 8-4 (with Lucas going 2 for 5 in that game with three RBI). A second loss to Miami ended their season as NCAA runner-up.
 
The record books remain filled with that team's power. It holds the NCAA mark for victories (73), runs (858), total bases (1,588) and stolen bases (333). The pitching staff led the nation in ERA (2.53) that season.
 
ESPN televised the College World Series for the third season and that exposure changed the course of Shocker baseball.
 
The 1982 team set up the success that resulted in the 1989 NCAA title and more trips to Omaha. The 1982 team dressed in their cars and griped about promised plans for seats and dugout. After that season, a donation from Gladys Weidemann purchased the program's first bleachers, ones that now stand in left field. The drawings on an easel that Gene Stephenson showed recruits began, slowly, to take life and grow into Eck Stadium.
 
"Everybody wanted to play for Wichita State," he said. "By seeing us play in the College World Series, every single game televised nationally, you can imagine."

Lucas and many members of the 1982 team are in Wichita for Saturday's First Pitch Banquet, which will recognize that team.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
 
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