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One Vote For Best Ever: The 1975 Texas Longhorns

Posted by Guest Columnist on June 19th, 2009 under Baseball

Blueshorn sent in this Guest Column. Enjoy. S.R.

ONE VOTE FOR BEST-EVER: THE 1975 LONGHORN NATIONAL CHAMPS

As the 2009 Longhorn baseball team works its way toward a possible championship series in Omaha, it’s always fun to look back on other great teams in our storied past. The ‘49 and ‘50 teams, coached by Bibb Falk, set the standard. The 1983 title is associated with some of the biggest names to play for the Longhorns. Augie Garrido’s 2002 and 2005 teams are favorites of the younger fans. Arguably the greatest of them all was the 1975 National Championship team, the first College World Series title team coached by Cliff Gustafson.

Those of us who were on campus in the early to mid-seventies were fortunate to see games at historic Clark Field with the short right-field porch and the legendary Billy Goat Hill. Baseball would be played a different way when the team moved to The Disch, and the ’75 team was the first to play the new brand of ball. Gone was the strategy of having left-handed power hitters bomb the area beyond the right-field fence. Outfielders no longer had to worry about how to scale the cliffs in the outfield and relay the ball back in as runners circled the bases. Disch-Falk was a pitcher’s ballpark and the ’75 team featured great pitching.

When one reviews the Longhorn record book and sees the career stats of Richard Wortham, it’s easy to forget that the ace of the ’75 staff was actually Jim Gideon. Gideon, a right-hander, finished the year with a 17-0 record, including a March no-hitter in Dallas against SMU. Think of Wortham as ace #1-A. A southpaw, Wortham didn’t even make first team all-conference that season, yet he also had a great year before going from goat to hero in Omaha. The Horns’ third starter, lefty Martin Flores, joined Gideon on the all-SWC first team, and finished the year with an ERA of 1.43. So good was the starting pitching, that the bullpen saved a total of four games in 1975. The staff ERA was an incredible 1.92 and they recorded a school-record sixteen shutouts. The relievers, resembling Maytag repairmen, were freshmen Don Kainer and Terry Ray.

The Longhorns had some outstanding hitters, but the emphasis turned from jacking it out to putting it in play. Keith Moreland, Rick Bradley, Mickey Reichenbach, and Mike Anderson led the way at the plate. As testimony to the new style of play, the ’75 team holds the school record for team batting average (.325) and triples (51). Moreland batted .410 in 62 games, second on the Longhorns’ single-season list.

Defensively, the team wasn’t among Texas’ statistical leaders, but being the first to play on the hard and fast surface at Disch-Falk had a lot to do with that. The infield consisted of Bradley (backed by Doug Duncan) behind the plate, Reichenbach at first base, Garry Pyka at second, Blair Stouffer at shortstop, and the three-time All-American Moreland at third. Outfielders and utility players included Anderson, Charles Proske, Wendell Hibbitt, Russell Pounds, and Frosty Moore.

The team sailed through the Southwest Conference schedule, finishing with a league mark of 23-1. A bottom-of-the-ninth inning homer by the Aggies in the last game spoiled what would have been the only unblemished record in conference history. The Horns then won the South Central Regional over South Alabama, Louisiana Tech, and Pan American to punch their ticket to Omaha.

Notable among the teams at the ’75 College World Series was an Arizona State team coached by Jim Brock that sent 13 players to the major leagues. South Carolina was coached by former Yankee great, Bobby Richardson. An interesting footnote was the first appearance in Omaha by Cal State Fullerton, led by a young coach named Augie Garrido. CSF was eliminated after their first two games.

Texas opened the series with a win, beating Oklahoma, 4-2. They would have to come out of the losers’ bracket to take the title, however. Wortham, struggling with his control and walking eight batters, dropped a 5-2 decision to the Sun Devils. Facing do-or die, the Longhorns eliminated Seton Hall and then pounded South Carolina, 17-6. Texas then won a draw that put South Carolina and Arizona State in an elimination game. The Gamecocks beat the Sun Devils, earning the right to a rematch with Texas in the final. Behind Reichenbach’s two-run homer in the third inning and Wortham’s 4-hit pitching, Texas beat South Carolina , 5-2. Wortham struck out nine Gamecocks.

The victory gave Texas its third national championship, but the first in 25 years. There have been three more since, and the championship teams have all featured great pitching. For my money, the ’75 National Championship team behind Gideon, Wortham, and Flores was as good as it gets.

Gideon ended the year with a career record of 40-6. Wortham would finish his career in 1976 and remains the winningest pitcher in Longhorn history at 50-7. He was the first pitcher in NCAA history to win 50 games. He also holds school records in games started (66), innings pitched (456.2), and complete games (34). He ranks second behind Greg Swindell in strikeouts, with 481.

1975 Season Superlatives:

Season Record: 56-6

All-Americans: Jim Gideon and Keith Moreland

All-SWC: Jim Gideon (MVP); Cliff Gustafson (Coach of the Year); Keith Moreland; Garry Pyka; Rick Bradley; Mickey Reichenbach; Martin Flores

CWS All-Tournament: Mickey Reichenbach (Most Outstanding Player); Richard Wortham; Blair Stouffer; Rick Bradley

Here’s hoping the 2009 Longhorns bring home the hardware, in the great and growing tradition of Texas Baseball.

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17 Responses

  1. Bob in Houston said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 8:59 am

    I saw that team play in Omaha.

    I also saw last night on ESPN that Keith Moreland is third all-time in CWS hits. Very impressive.

  2. Blueshorn said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Moreland was a fixture in Omaha, as the Horns made the CWS all three seasons he played on the Forty Acres. He made the All-Tournament team as a freshman in 1973 and was named to the CWS All-Decade Team of the 70s.

    Keith will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in July, along with Kirk Dressendorfer.

  3. littlebighorn said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 10:43 am

    Didn’t Johnny Olvera play left field in 75? He practically stood on the plate when he was at bat. Seems like he was HBP every game.

  4. Blueshorn said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 11:27 am

    littlebighorn,

    When I was researching the piece, I studied the team photo along with the stats and the lettermen on texassports.com.

    Olvera was in the team photo, but didn’t letter in ‘75. That doesn’t mean he didn’t play, but he wasn’t a regular. He did letter in ‘76.

  5. Providence Church, route 663 said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

    Aymen to that, brother. Great article, Blueshorn/Guest Blogger. 1975 was an interesting year in sports.

  6. srr50 said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    The 1975 championship game against South Carolina was the first live broadcast I ever worked. CBS had the rights to the CWS and showed them on tape delay a week after they were finished on CBS sports spectacular.

    We got to use the CBS video feed while telecasting live back to Austin and South Carolina.

    BTW the announcers for CBS for that gamer were Brent Musberger and former Philly pitcher Robin Roberts.

  7. HenryJames said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

  8. srr50 said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

  9. Dean said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    (Haha, srr50. Those were the days… dude.)

    Blueshorn, that’s an outstanding piece you’ve written.

    It’s getting a bookmark for sharing and a printout for keeping. Thank you.

  10. Blueshorn said:

    June 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Thanks for recounting how that game was televised, srr. I knew I had seen it delayed, but couldn’t remember how. I would have guessed ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

    I attended as many games in Austin as I could that season, but going to the CWS was out of the question. I had summer job and had to follow the series in the newspaper.

  11. TXexpress said:

    June 20th, 2009 at 4:12 am

    By the grace of Cliff Gustafson, I have a tape of that ‘75 final. I was working as a student intern at SID and saw the tape (tapes, actually; one for innings 1-6, another for the rest) on his desk and made some joke about what it would take to steal them. He replied, “Go ahead and take ‘em; just get ‘em back to me soon.” Okie doke, Gus.

    Great team, and probably the best of our modern champs (having no game tape of ‘49 and ‘50 to study), but it’s always hard to heap too many superlatives on teams from that era. One reason USC won the bulk of its titles in that stretch was that it was one of the few teams that actually took college baseball seriously; Texas, of course, was another. The overall field wasn’t nearly as competitive as it would become in the ’80s and beyond.

    That’s not to take anything away from the ‘75 team, nor from this cool report. I would have loved to have seen the ‘75 and ‘83 teams meet each other at their bests — talk about pitchers duels. Gideon vs. Schiraldi; Wortham vs. Clemens; Flores vs. Capel. No “gorilla ball” in those games.

  12. srr50 said:

    June 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    By the grace of Cliff Gustafson, I have a tape of that ‘75 final.

    I would love to get that tape and make a copy TXexpress.

    To show you how serious I am, I will pay yours and RC’s bar bill the next time we can get together at the Flying Saucer.

    Hell, I’ll do it if I can come down and pick up the tape at the same time.

  13. TXexpress said:

    June 21st, 2009 at 5:16 am

    Sounds like a plan, srr50

  14. Bob in Houston said:

    June 21st, 2009 at 9:13 am

    I actually would like to see that tape, too.

    What I remember was being there with my future wife the night Texas pounded South Carolina 17-6 to stay alive.

    I found myself almost chuckling out loud at the guy in front of me who somehow had brought in a 12-pack and had consumed several portions of it during the doubleheader.

    He opened what I assume was going to be his last late in the game and tried to muffle the sound of the can opening by covering the top with his hand, and all he got was a handful of beer.

    After the game, they still had three teams left out of the eight-team field (there was no pool play), and the rules at the time were that was a draw on the field to determine which teams would play off the next night and which one would go through to the championship game. Each team picked an envelope.

    I read later that Spanky Stephens had told Gus that he could get the bye to the championship game, so Gus let him draw. He opened the envelope and exclaimed, “I got it!”

    There was a change to the rules after that giving the bye automatically to the team that won its first three games.

    I still prefer the eight-team format, but I can understand why ESPN doesn’t.

  15. Cindy Proske said:

    June 23rd, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    My husband, Charlie Proske, has such great memories of that CWS. I,nor my daughters, ever saw him play so we would LOVE to have a copy of the tape of the game. Is there anyone who knows how to get one so I can surprise him one day? Thanks!!!

  16. Blueshorn said:

    June 24th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    Cindy,

    I’ll try to get a message to srr50 or TXExpress through another message board, in case they miss your post.

  17. Iceman said:

    June 26th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    Cindy,

    I don’t think Runt will show up on the tape. The field had a hump to it and you could barely see him in centerfield. You might see him after the game carrying Micky’s MVP trophy back to Austin.

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