Baylor baseball alums in the big leagues
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Alumni, Athletics
Four Bears are in the big leagues as most of Major League Baseball kicks off the 2008 season today.
Former national collegiate player of the year (and Mesquite native) Jason Jennings begins his first season with his hometown Texas Rangers. Jennings, who played at Baylor from 1997-99, is coming off a strong spring and will be the Rangers’ No. 3 starter.
Fellow Baylor alum David Murphy will join Jennings with the Rangers. A former first-round pick, Murphy hit .343 in limited action last year and should see more playing time this season.
Outside of Texas, Kelly Shoppach begins his third season backing up all-star catcher Victor Martinez in Cleveland. Shoppach set new career highs in virtually every offensive category last year, and like Murphy, should see more playing time this year as the Indians occasionally shift Martinez to first base to get Shoppach in the lineup.
Kip Wells will start 2008 in the bullpen for the defending National League champion Colorado Rockies. Wells is the veteran among active Baylor alums in the big leagues; this year will mark his 10th major league season, second only to Hall of Famer Ted Lyons among Baylor alums.
And that’s not all; at last count, 22 more former Baylor players were still active at some level of professional baseball. In total, 26 Bears in the Pros? A nice showing for the baseball program’s 13-plus seasons under head coach Steve Smith.
Sic ’em, Baylor baseball!
Baylor among nation’s best private school values
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Honors
Baylor again ranks among the nation’s “best values” when it comes to private schools, according to a report recently released by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.
The publication ranked Baylor 38th out of the 1,000-plus universities considered for the survey. When it comes to “total costs” — tuition, fees, room/board, and estimated expenses for books — Baylor was the second-most affordable school among the survey’s top 50. After need-based aid is factored in, Baylor ranks 13th. (For a more detailed explanation, here’s the official press release.)
Baylor was deemed a better value than some bigger names, like Miami, NYU and Carnegie Mellon. That’s good news for current students and for high school students considering Baylor!
Sic ’em, Bears!
Two alums named among Barron’s top 30 CEOs
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Alumni, Honors
According to Barron’s Magazine, the weekly financial publication put out by Dow Jones & Company, two of the world’s top 30 corporate leaders are Baylor grads! (The article is also on MSN.com.)
Mark Hurd, a 1979 graduate and CEO of technology giant Hewlett-Packard, made the list for the first time; Bob Simpson, BBA ‘70 and MS ‘71, is CEO of XTO Energy and appears on Barron’s list for the fourth straight year.
Today’s Hankamer School of Business students have some big shoes to fill when it comes to following alums like Hurd and Simpson, but given the sort of honors the business school receives every year, I have no doubt they’ll be up to it.
Sic ‘em, business school alums!
Baylor basketball programs close out historic season
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Athletics, Honors
Congratulations one more time to both the Baylor men’s and women’s basketball teams, and thanks for a wonderful 2007-08 season!
For head coach Scott Drew’s men’s squad, it was a season of superlatives: best start since 1946; most wins since 1987-88; most points scored in school history; first top-25 ranking since 1969; first back-to-back weekly rankings in school history; highest finish and most conference wins in Big 12 history; and the Bears’ first NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 years.
The Bears’ success earned positive press in national media outlets like Sports Illustrated, SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption,
The Lady Bears continued their winning ways, finishing second in the Big 12 and making their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance in head coach Kim Mulkey’s eight seasons. In each of the last six appearances, the team has advanced to at least the second round; that includes the women’s three Sweet 16 appearances and the 2005 national championship.
This season, Mulkey became the sixth-fastest coach in women’s hoops history to earn her 200th victory. Senior Angela Tisdale set a new school record for assists and was a finalist for national player of the year.
The Bears’ and Lady Bears’ combined conference record of 21-11 was second-best in the Big 12, and this season marked the first time the men’s and women’s squads ever ranked among the nation’s top 25 at the same time. The two teams only lose a total of four players to graduation, which means fans of both programs should be able to look forward to even more success next year.
Sic ‘em, Baylor basketball!
Alive Campaign gaining national attention
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Student life
Last fall, we wrote about the four (now five) Baylor students who were planning to bicycle from Waco to Anchorage, Alaska, to raise awareness for suicide prevention.
The guys are still at it, and have now gained national attention for their work. Earlier this month, the quintet hosted the “Dean’s List” music video countdown on mtvU; inbetween videos of songs related to their mission, the group talked about what they’re doing and how people can help. The show was filmed on campus; watch it online here.
The Alive Campaign has also moved beyond Facebook and MySpace to their own website, alivecampaign.org. There you can read more about the group’s mission and suicide prevention, get updates on their progress, subscribe to their newsletter and even donate to the campaign. A pretty impressive effort for anyone, especially a handful of college students!
Sic ’em, Alive Campaign!
Music students excel in national competitions
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Student life, HonorsBaylor music students represented the University extremely well in national competition last week. (Is it too bad a pun to note that such success is music to our ears?)
Juniors Sarah Harris, Ross Ahlhorn and sophomore Adam Gautille competed in the semi-finals of the National Trumpet Competition earlier this month. From an initial field of 105, the trio made the cut to the final 45. Gautille went even further, advancing to the finals, where he placed fifth overall — very good company, considering three of the top four finalists were from the renowned Juilliard School of Music.
Elsewhere, master’s candidate Zach Buie and 2004 graduate Kyle Koronka advanced with three others to the second round of the Austin Opera, and the Baylor Trombone Choir performed very well at the Eastern Trombone Workshop just outside Washington, D.C.
Sic ’em, Baylor music students (and alums)!
Baby Bears visit campus for Easter egg hunt
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Photo Galleries, Just for Fun, Student life
Thursday afternoon, over a hundred children descended on Founders Mall for the annual Kappa Kappa Gamma Easter Egg Hunt. Those kids were sleuths, too; the dozens of eggs the ladies hid were all found in less than five minutes! We’ve compiled a photo gallery of the kids’ hunt for you to enjoy. Happy Easter!
Sic ’em, baby Bear egg hunters!
Drew uses ESPN platform to brag on Baylor
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Athletics
Congratulations once more to the Baylor men’s basketball team on the program’s best season in 20 years. The best part is that, looking ahead, this year shouldn’t be a fluke, but the beginning of a long stretch of success.
Much of that has to do with the hard work of head coach Scott Drew and his staff. I linked to this in yesterday’s post, but it really deserves to be called out on its own. Drew got five minutes of airtime on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption this week, and he turned it into a running commentary on why Baylor is great. Not just basketball, mind you, but the University in general. Anyone interested in Baylor should watch this clip.
Drew’s optimism and excitement about Baylor come across so obviously and so genuinely that I can’t imagine a better representative for the University.
Sic ’em, Coach Drew and Baylor basketball!
Basketball success shines positive light on Baylor
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Athletics
When it comes to athletics, Baylor’s success across a host of sports has brought some nice publicity for the University. In particular this year, it has been the men’s basketball team’s winning ways that have earned positive press for Baylor nationwide. Earlier this season when the Bears broke into the national rankings, outlets like Sports Illustrated, SportsCenter and ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” — not to mention newspapers across the country — got in on the act.
With the team now in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years, the positive stories are popping up again, all over the country. In addition to the usual game previews on ESPN, PTI did a five-minute interview with head coach Scott Drew, one day after its hosts agreed Drew should be national coach of the year (in the last minute of this clip).
My personal favorite story is from the Los Angeles Times; other articles about Baylor’s successful season have recently appeared in CBS Sportsline; Fox Sports; The Sporting News; Sports Illustrated; New York Post, Daily News and Newsday; New Jersey Star-Ledger; Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Arizona Daily Star; Chicago Sun-Times and Post-Tribune; Kansas City Star; Dallas Morning News; San Antonio Express-News; Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Houston Chronicle; and the Associated Press.
Sic ’em, Baylor basketball, for representing the University so well on the national stage!
Sophomore golfer shows heart and talent on the links
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Student life, Athletics, Honors
Over the weekend, Baylor sophomore golfer Colton Williams won the individual title at the Border Olympics. An impressive feat for anyone, especially considering that Williams led the tournament wire-to-wire to claim his first collegiate title.
But as Paul Harvey might say, it’s the rest of the story that makes things interesting. A month earlier, Williams was heading with the rest of his teammates to the Rice Invitational when he got word that his mentor, Henry Richards, had died. The funeral was set for the last day of the tournament, and Williams decided he should be there. Head coach Greg Priest and the team decided that Williams should play the first two rounds anyway, knowing he would miss the final round.
Williams played — and at the end of the first two rounds, was leading the field. Faced with the option of honoring his friend or taking a chance at winning his first tournament, Williams chose the former. “Some people said I should have stayed and tried to win it for Henry,” Williams told Golfweek magazine (complete feature here). “But in my heart, I knew I had to go back home for him. I’d like to think that I will win a tournament, and when I do he’ll know it was for him.”
A month later, he did just that. What a great moment–for Williams, most definitely, but also for all Bear fans, who can be proud of both the heart and the talent this young Bear displayed.
Sic ’em, Colton!
