@MarkKnudson41
Jackson Field in Greeley was rockin’ on June 1st, 1974. The upstart Bears from the University of Northern Colorado had already beaten top-ranked Arizona 6-5 the day before and were a single win away from doing it again, thereby securing the school’s 10th trip to the College World Series. In front of a raucous home crowd, UNC posted a solid 6-2 win over the #1 Wildcats, and coach Tom Petroff’s 32-13 Bears, winners of the Great Plain Athletic Conference, headed back to Omaha.
It wasn’t a new experience for UNC baseball. During the 22 year period between 1952 and 1974, the Bears were regular guests at the CWS. While the University of Colorado failed to make it to Omaha, and Colorado State and Wyoming each got there once, for UNC, it was familiar turf. To date, only 14 schools in America have been there more often. UNC has the same number of trips as the Oklahoma Sooners and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
That was then. The landscape is different now.
UNC left the GPAC and became an independent after winning the conference in baseball two more times, in 1975 and 1976. The program was still formidable, but without the automatic qualifier, returning to Omaha was too steep a climb. There have been some good UNC teams in the years between then and now, but none have reached national prominence.
After nine seasons in the Western Athletic Conference, this year UNC joins the Summit Conference in baseball, with an eye on a less burdensome travel schedule and a chance to elevate their fortunes. Head Coach Carl Iwasaki, who was a Bears catcher for Petroff in the late 1970’s, hopes to steer his team back into the national picture.
Given the changing landscape of collegiate sports, will it ever be possible for a school like Northern Colorado to consistently compete with the big boys? Can UNC ever become a baseball power again?
“It depends on how you define power,” said recently retired WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd on a recent podcast. “Can they become a strong program again? It takes a commitment…it takes money as we all know, scholarship numbers. It’s not just there (at UNC) but everywhere. Other amenities, facilities. Locker rooms. Training facilities. That type of thing. I think they can become a strong program – schools like Northern Colorado – but to contend on a national basis with the SEC’s of the world, the Pac 12, the ACC, that’s going to be the exception.”
The more pressing question is about college baseball itself. On one hand, the financial pressures on athletic departments across the country has led several schools to drop baseball altogether. For instance, in 2020, the Bears opened the season in Boise, facing a Boise State program that was newly reinstated to varsity status after being dormant for four decades. Then COVID hit and revenue dried up. After the season was called off, school officials reversed course and dropped the program…again. It happened in other places, too.
Locals are well aware that CU, CSU, the University of Denver and Wyoming all dropped baseball many years ago. Through it all, UNC baseball has persevered.
On the other hand, the college game could conceivably get a boost from an unlikely source – Major League Baseball. MLB owners appear intent on further reducing the number of players and teams in their minor league systems. That would mean fewer young players would have the option of turning pro out of high school, sending many of them back into the college ranks. Would an influx of young talent trickle down to non-Power Five programs like UNC and perhaps lead to a deeper and more competitive caliber of play throughout college baseball?
With no big league baseball to follow at the moment, it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on.
Be sure to catch Mark Knudson and Manny Randhawa on the Park Adjusted Rockies Podcast each week, available on all major Podcast platforms.