2026 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee

The Athletic Hall of Fame honors OKWU Eagles who have achieved excellence athletically, academically, and through high personal character. Inductees are graduates of OKWU, five or more years removed, who have participated on an OKWU varsity athletic team for at least two years.

2011 Baseball NCAA National Championship Team

A title that changed the program. In May 2011, a group of Oklahoma Wesleyan baseball players boarded a bus with quiet belief and a season that had already tested them. Twenty-six players. A 39-28 record. Nothing flashy. But something steady was building.

By the time they arrived at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio, that belief had teeth.

Led by Head Coach Kirk Kelley, the Eagles entered ranked ninth. In the championship series, they faced North Greenville, the defending national champions. OKWU didn't flinch. Pitch by pitch, inning by inning, they pulled ahead. When the final out settled into a glove, the Eagles had done something no team in program history had done before. They were national champions.

Junior outfielder  Cory Ford, named tournament MVP, led the charge. Around him stood a roster built to carry weight together. Nick Randolph, T.L. Murdock, and Chris Needham delivered on the mound when it mattered. Jonathan Porter steadied things behind the plate.  J.D. Nalder and Shane Elliott made the routine look certain.

In the dugout, Kelley set the tone: calm, focused, relentless. He was later named NCCAA National Coach of the Year. Those who watched knew his impact long before the award arrived.

2011 marked the start of something lasting. OKWU baseball has posted 30-plus wins in 11 of the next 12 seasons. In 2026, Coach Kelley reached 950 career wins.

But it started here. A team that refused to play like underdogs. A coach who believed before anyone else did. And a championship that still echoes every time the Eagles take the field.