Baseball | 5/3/2025 1:38:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
The finished product does not tell the origin story of the countless hours and boundless energy that carried Wichita State's baseball stadium to this point.

Fortunately, there are many people who lived it and can recount the program's beginnings in 1977 and how a baseball field with flatbed trailers for bleachers and no locker rooms turned into a showcase for the sport. Humble is too strong, as those people know, because when WSU hired coach Gene Stephenson in 1977, he became the program's singular asset.

On Feb. 10, 1977, WSU baseball existed as an idea with a site for a field. The next day, WSU hired a coach and everything else required planning, ordering and money.

"No balls and bats, nothing," said Mike Kennedy, long-time radio voice of the Shockers. "Nothing."
 

Decades later, Stephenson can say that challenge is exactly what he wanted, and he can say he crushed it like a Joe Carter home run onto 21^st Street.

"We wanted to do something nobody else had done," Stephenson said.

On Saturday, a baseball facility that didn't exist in 1977 and seemed like an impossible dream into the 1990's received a fitting addition to its name. "Gene Stephenson Park" was added to Eck Stadium, home of Tyler Field, at a ceremony and unveiling.

"Build it he did," WSU athletic director Kevin Saal said. "He built a lot of something. He built decades of something from nothing."

Gene Stephenson Park seats more than 7,000 fans and is accompanied by an indoor practice facility, weight room, locker rooms and offices, all made possible by Stephenson's tenure from 1978-2013 and his 1,837 wins. When hired in 1977, he took over a program that had not played a game since 1970.

The people who grew up with Shocker baseball and Stephenson can tell the story about the amazing rise to power and the coach who drove it all with his belief, work ethic, stubbornness and baseball smarts.

"My mom and dad started taking me, I think in 1983 or 1984," said Sherl Weatherbee. "I was raised on it. We sat on the (outfield) hill forever and ever and ever and it was packed."

Stephenson did more than win games. He helped carry college baseball into its current era. The story of Eck Stadium, home of Tyler Field at Gene Stephenson Park is the story of a sport growing from after-thought to its current state.

He advocated for a pitch clock to speed up games and make them more TV-friendly. He played in snow when ESPN came to Wichita because he knew how important TV was to the growth of the game. He pushed for college baseball to move its season into the summer to allow for better weather around the country, more fans and to escape the shadow of basketball.

With seven trips to the College World Series and a title in 1989, he showed that baseball could succeed outside of the nation's warm-weather locales. He showed athletic directors that college baseball had potential to draw crowds and attention.

In Wichita, that meant bringing Southern Cal to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in 1979 and playing big names such as Arkansas, Hawaii and Miami (Fla.) downtown while he waited on adequate seating at the campus field. He relentlessly raised money, promoted the game and networked with boosters to add seats, a clubhouse and locker rooms, sometimes fighting outright hostility from his administration.

He forced WSU into a baseball scene dominated by Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Oral Roberts in the region. The Shockers debuted in NCAA regional play in 1980 and played for a national title in 1982.

"Great players came through this program over 36 years," said Phil Stephenson, Gene's brother and national Player of the Year in 1982 at first base. "Gene instilled the belief, with the help of his assistant coaches, that when we stepped on the field, nobody could beat us."

On Saturday, Stephenson and his family listened to the stories and enjoyed adding another landmark to the stadium. He teared up while speaking to the media before donning his familiar sunglasses and regaining composure.

"It's a great honor," he said. "It was a wonderful run for so many years. We raised money every year to build something, add on this and add on that. It was a work of love."

Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.