College Baseball Hall of Fame Release
The College Baseball Foundation (CBF) has announced its 2025 class of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Two of the 21 standouts honored have connections with The Big West with Cal State Fullerton's
Phil Nevin being selected as a player and
Les Murakami of Hawai'i getting in as a coach.
To be eligible for the College Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, players must be out of college for 15 years and have completed one year of competition at a two-year institution in the CCCAA, NJCAA or a four-year NCAA (Division I, II or III) or NAIA institution. Ballot-eligible coaches must be retired for two years or be active and no less than 75 years old.
In 1992, Nevin won the Golden Spikes Award and was Baseball America's Player of the Year after leading the Titans to a runner-up finish in the College World Series. The Cal State Fullerton legend was selected CWS Most Outstanding Player the same week as getting selected first overall in the Major League Draft to the Houston Astros. The third baseman and shortstop also was also a member of the U.S. Olympic team. Nevin went on to play 12 seasons (1995-2006) in MLB.
Murakami coached the Hawai‘i baseball team for 30 years (1971-2000). The skipper amassed 1,079 wins while taking the team to 10 NCAA Regionals and one World Series (1980), where the Rainbow Warriors fell one game shy of a national title. Murakami was a two-time WAC Coach of the Year, the NCAA District Coach of the Year in 1986 and won the Lefty Gomez Award in 1981. The legendary coach sent 74 players to professional baseball, while 10 were able to make it to the major league level.
Murakami and Nevin, along with the rest of the 18th Hall-of-Fame induction class, will be honored at the 2026 Night of Champions presented by Prairiefire on February 12, 2026 in Overland Park, Kansas, the home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Along with inductees, the Night of Champions will celebrate the winners of the 2025 College Baseball Foundation awards, including the Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence won by Cal Poly skipper
Larry Lee. The Wayne Graham Award for Teaching Excellence is presented annually to the coach, at any college level, who demonstrates the qualities of teaching, developing and coaching college baseball players that prepare them not only on the field and in the classroom, but for life after their baseball careers.