The Hays Larks are a collegiate summer baseball team located in Hays, Kansas. The Larks evolved from Hays during the 1946 season. From 1869 to 1945, the team went by the name of The Hays Town Team and was sponsored by various organizations and businesses in Hays. The Larks won their first NBC championship in 2024, defeating the defending champions Hutchinson Monarchs 7-3.
The Larks were part of the Jayhawk Collegiate League conference and were league champions in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006. The Larks have finished as NBC national runner-up four times: in 1995 with their only two losses to Team USA, 2000, 2001, 2007, and 2016.
As of 2020 the Larks are playing in the Rocky Mountain Baseball League and won the league in 2020, their inaugural year joining.
The team is managed by Frank Leo who is a member of the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Congress Hall of Fame.
Joe Leonard Morgan was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Oakland Athletics from 1963 to 1984. He won two World Series championships with the Reds in 1975 and 1976 and was also named the National League Most Valuable Player in each of those years. Considered one of the greatest second basemen of all time, Morgan was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. Wilkinson was the first white owner at the time of the establishment of the team. In 1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which was transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night, five years before any Major League Baseball team did. The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, and triumphed in the first Negro World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record and produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise. It was disbanded in 1965.
Hilton Lee Smith was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. He pitched alongside Satchel Paige for the Kansas City Monarchs and Bismarck Churchills between 1932 and 1948. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.
Salvatore Leonard Bando was an American professional baseball player and general manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman from 1966 to 1981, most prominently as the captain of the Oakland Athletics dynasty that won three consecutive World Series championships between 1972 and 1974.
Henry Clifford "Doc" Carlson was an American basketball coach and football player. He is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee as the men's college basketball coach of his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, from 1922 to 1953. At Pitt he compiled a record of 367–247 record (.595). His 1927–28 team finished the season with a 21–0 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll; Carlson's Panthers would receive retroactive recognition as the Helms national champion for the 1929–30 season as well. Carlson also led Pitt to the Final Four in 1941. As a student at the university, Carlson was also a First Team All-American end on Pitt's football team under coach "Pop" Warner. Carlson also lettered in basketball and baseball.
Eric Michael Wedge is an American former baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher and manager.
Ann Meyers Drysdale is an American retired pro basketball player and a sportscaster. She was a standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and at professional levels.
The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia from Confederate guerrillas during the American Civil War.
The Alaska Baseball League (ABL) is an amateur collegiate summer baseball league based entirely in southern Alaska. Players in the league must have attended one year of college and must have one year of NCAA eligibility remaining.
The Jayhawk Collegiate League is collegiate summer baseball league consisting of seven teams from Kansas and one team from Oklahoma. The league was formed in 1976 and was a "Premier League" within the National Baseball Congress. The league is currently still operating with 9 teams.
The National College Baseball Hall of Fame is an institution operated by the College Baseball Foundation serving as the central point for the study of the history of college baseball in the United States. In partnership with the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library located on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, the Hall of Fame inducts former collegiate players and coaches who have met selection criteria of distinction. On January 23, 2024, the College Baseball Foundation announced it would open a physical hall of fame in Overland Park, Kansas, in the Museum at Prairiefire.
St. Mary's Colgan High School is a parochial, Roman Catholic high school in Pittsburg, Kansas in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita. It is under the direction of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Parish.
The 1995 Major League Baseball season was the first season to be played under the expanded postseason format, as the League Division Series (LDS) was played in both the American and National leagues for the first time, since the 1981 strike-split season. However, due to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike which carried into the 1995 season, a shortened 144-game schedule commenced on April 25, when the Florida Marlins played host to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens are the athletic teams of the University of Delaware (UD) of Newark, Delaware, in the United States. The Blue Hens compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as members of the Coastal Athletic Association and its technically separate football league, CAA Football.
An All-American team is an honorary sports team composed of the best amateur players of a specific season for each position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply "All-Americans". Although the honorees generally do not compete as a unit, the term is used in United States team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media. Walter Camp selected the first All-America team in the early days of American football in 1889. In 1950, the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) selected its first All-American baseball team. It has since chosen All-American teams and a player of the year for each division. Collegiate Baseball selects All-American, Freshman All-American and High School All-American teams. Baseball America selects pre-season and post-season All-American teams and College Player of the Year honorees.
Wichita, Kansas is home to several professional, amateur, and college sports teams.
The Kansas Stars are an independent baseball team based in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States. The Stars were formed in 2016 to take part in the 2016 National Baseball Congress World Series, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball.
The National Baseball Congress World Series or NBC World Series is an annual collegiate and semi-pro baseball tournament held in Wichita, Kansas. Satchel Paige, Don Sutton, Tom Seaver, Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are just a few of the Major League Baseball stars who have played in the tournament.
Minor league baseball teams were based in Independence, Kansas in various seasons between 1896 and 1952. Independence teams played as members of the Kansas State League, Oklahoma-Arkansas-Kansas League (1907), Oklahoma-Kansas League (1908), Western Association (1911), Southwestern League (1921–1924), Western Association and Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League, winning five league championships. Independence was a minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees from 1947 to 1950 and the St. Louis Browns in 1952.
Hobart-Detter Field is an amateur baseball park in Hutchinson, Kansas, which hosted minor league teams in the Western Association from 1932 to 1959 and teams in the Jayhawk League from 1970 to 1989. The ballpark currently hosts part of the National Baseball Congress World Series, Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons, Hutchinson High School Salt Hawks, American Legion, and other amateur baseball tournaments. The ballpark was built in 1928 as Carey Park Diamond and has been renovated many times over the years. The field was renamed Detter Field in 1962 in honor of Wilbur "Bud" Detter.