1958 Aggies Were Unlikely Diamond Kings

AMAZING FEAT EARNED THE HALL OF FAMERS THE TITLE OF “TEAM OF LEGEND”

Without a doubt, this is as remarkable a national championship tale as you will ever hear. It starts with Ted Owens – yes, the great Ted Owens, who found fame as the Kansas Jayhawks’ men's coach who took his basketball squad to numerous Big 8 championships and two appearances in the Final Four during his 19 years there – and ends on an August night in Oklahoma City more than six decades later.

Long before his fame as a Jayhawk, Owens accepted his first coaching job at Cameron State Agricultural College in 1956. The Aggies hired him to coach basketball, teach U.S. History, serve as an assistant football coach … and start a baseball program. Although baseball was among the first sports at the Cameron State School of Agriculture when it was founded as a high school nearly 50 years earlier, it was discontinued when the Great Depression paralyzed America. For 27 years, Cameron went without hearing the crack of a bat in the springtime.

Seeing an opportunity during the mid-1950s to use baseball as a recruiting tool to draw football and basketball prospects, Cameron administrators were suddenly eager to restart baseball – until they learned that the Pioneer Conference, which the college had joined, didn’t offer it as a competitive sport. Administrators’ zeal cooled considerably, so Coach Owens focused his efforts on basketball, which he did quite well, putting together an Aggie team that went undefeated during the 1957-58 regular season and rose to the top of the national junior college basketball polls. Although administrators had lost interest in baseball, several of the junior college's athletes did not, especially ones who chose CSAC under the impression the sport would be reinstated. Owens – who had played a little minor league baseball in Texas – felt a duty to those athletes, so he put together a team in the spring of 1958.

The squad was diverse in a day when diversity was still lacking in many sports. It included a Black player, three Native Americans – and a number of students who had never played on an integrated roster of any kind. This unique assemblage of football and basketball players, farm boys, boxers and veterans would meet on the college's ROTC drill field near where Howell Hall and Veterans Grove now stand. No scholarships, no budget, no uniforms, no playing field and no bleachers … still, the group got in regular practice time using their own equipment.

Their opponents were almost exclusively military units from nearby Fort Sill, since the Aggies had been allowed access to one of the post’s baseball fields one day a week. Those battles were hard on the boys from Cameron, and it took most of the spring

Top photo: Ted Owens (center) proudly holds Cameron’s Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame plaque while flanked by Hall director Mike James and emcee Mick Cornett.

Bottom photo: The 1958 national champs. Standing, left to right: manager Bub Smith, Tony Owings, Don Hendricks, James Ray, Dexter Rolette, Homer Watkins, Patrick O'Dell, Sid Griffin, Ted Handke, Donnie Sinclair; kneeling, from the left: Wayne Tedder, Jackie Martin, Toby Tillman, Jim Marr, Terry Byrd, Bill Short, Earl Tankersley, Don Gosa, coach Ted Owens.

before the Aggies managed to win their first scrimmage. But it paid off.

As it happened, the National Junior College Athletic Association picked that same spring to sponsor its first national baseball tournament, and it was to be played in Oklahoma. At the urging of his players, Coach Owens called the tournament director to see what it took to qualify. When asked Cameron's record, Owens simply said that the Aggies had not lost to a college team all year – which was true, given the fact CSAC hadn’t played another college that spring.

Two days later, the coach received instructions via telegram: If Cameron defeated Sayre Junior College in a three-game series, it would be selected to host Bacone College. Win that series, and CSAC had an invitation to the national tournament.

The first order of business was to secure uniforms and a playing field. It so happened that Fort Sill had ordered new uniforms for its teams, so the Aggies were given cast-offs from the Fifth Field Artillery Battalion's squad. Even though they embroidered “Aggies” across the front of the jerseys, it was still possible to read the faded military markings that had previously adorned the cloth. Owens was able to secure use of a baseball field at Memorial Park in Lawton, which an old semi-pro baseball team once called home.

When Sayre came to town, the Aggies were inhospitable hosts, scoring early and often to put the first two games away in short order and advance to its series against Bacone. Cameron repeated the feat against Bacone – although not without surviving a nail-biter in the opening game. After CSAC jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the third inning, Bacone battled back to tie the game at 6-all midway through the sixth. The Aggies plated two runs to win, 8-6. They then scored six times in the second game to secure their spot in the national tournament, which was to be played in Miami in the opposite corner of the state.

If you’ve ever seen the film, “Hoosiers,” you’ll likely recall the scene where the entire town joins the high school team in its long drive to the state tournament. Well, it wasn’t like that for the Aggies. The team piled into two station wagons and left for nationals by themselves. Virtually everyone involved – other than the team – expected the Aggies’ drive to northeastern Oklahoma to last longer than its stay at the tournament, especially since CSAC was the No. 8 seed in the singleelimination event.

As the bottom seed, Cameron drew the unenviable task of facing the top-rated team, Phoenix, in the first round. Phoenix was so certain it would beat CSAC that the coach opted to save his best pitcher for the next game. Early on, it looked like a brilliant move. Phoenix scored first, but the Aggies plated two runs of their own in the third. Cameron held the lead until the eighth inning when Phoenix rallied for a run. Tied at 2-all going into the top of the ninth, Phoenix’s pitcher walked in the go-ahead run for Cameron, which then tacked on an insurance run and held on for the win.

Later that day in the semi-final, Cameron drew Navarro College. The Aggies’ pitching staff was thin, but it came through, holding Navarro to three runs, while Cameron hitters drove in five.

For the title game, CSAC drew Northeastern Junior College, its in-state enemy and No. 2 tournament seed. As it did in nearly every game that spring, the Aggies scored early, plating five runs. But Northeastern rallied for four runs of its own and Cameron held a narrow lead going into the seventh inning.

While playing solid baseball had become an Aggie trademark, it was far from elaborate. In fact, Owens’ offensive strategy utilized only two signs: the bunt and the steal. It didn’t take long for the Norsemen to start stealing signs, so Owens decided to switch them mid-game in an effort to confuse his opponent. The only flaw in this strategy was that when it came time to actually send a signal, Owens momentarily forgot about the switch. With two men on and a full-count on the batter, Coach thought he gave the steal signal. When the batter bunted, it caught everyone by surprise – including Owens. The startled third baseman muffed his throw and two Aggies scored. Cameron went on to win the game – and the 1958 NJCAA national baseball championship – by a score of 9-6.

Although you might think that this is end of this fairy tale, there was one more chapter yet to be written, and it didn’t happen until 63 years after that Cinderella spring. This past summer, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame inducted the 1958 Aggies as a “team of legend” – a title truly befitting its remarkable accomplishment. Coach Owens was joined by several of the surviving team members – Terry Byrd, Jackie Martin and Donnie Sinclair – for a reception in their honor at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City on Aug. 1. The next night, Owens and Cameron athletic director Jim Jackson represented Cameron at the induction banquet and accepted a plaque in honor of the team. The national championship trophy won back in the spring of 1958 is painfully small by today’s standards. To be honest, most Little Leaguers have larger trophies sitting on their bedroom shelves. Still, this one is proudly on display in Aggie Gym, a testament to the dedication of a small group of athletes who defied the odds, putting together an undefeated season in handme-down uniforms and coached by a future hall of famer.

And now it has a Hall of Fame plaque to keep it company.

— Researched and written by Keith Mitchell, using the recollections of Ted Owens in his autobiography, “At the Hang-Up”