Former SEMO Pitcher Elected to Kansas Baseball HOF

With 986 career wins, 13 Jayhawk West Championships, 5 Jayhawk West Coach of the Year Awards, an NJCAA Hall of Fame induction, to go along with many other awards to his credit, Seward County Community College Head Baseball Coach Galen McSpadden doesn't have a whole lot of room left in his trophy case for another award but this January he will gladly make some space as it was announced Monday that he would be inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame.

McSpadden joins the likes of Major League Baseball Hall of Famers Walter Johnson and Fred Clarke in the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame which is located in Wichita. Prior to becoming a baseball icon in Kansas, McSpadden pitched for Southeast Missouri State from 1972-1974. McSpadden's Kansas baseball roots were planted in 1972 when he went to Liberal to play for the Liberal Bee Jays where he spent parts of three seasons with the club. After pitching opening night for the Bee Jays in 1974 McSpadden was drafted by the San Diego Padres spent the next five seasons in the organization. After an arm injury derailed his pitching career, McSpadden came back to Cape Girardeau where he was the Indians pitching coach from 1978-1981. After four seasons with SEMO, McSpadden was offered the Head Coach position at Seward County Community College in Liberal and has been re-writing the record books ever since. Now in his 30th season with the Saints, McSpadden's list of accomplishments are a mile long. Some of the more notable accomplishments include his 986 wins entering this season, which currently ranks him 23rd all time and 8th in active coaching wins, 12 Jayhawk West titles in the past 17 seasons, 71 Division 1 signees in the past 10 years, and 18 players named All-American's under his guidance at Seward County among others.

He will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on January 22, 2011 at Hillside Christian Church in Wichita where he will be enshrined along with Virgil Barnes, Gayle Bryant, Les Davis, and Rod Kanehl.