411OnTheForty: Gideon selected to College Baseball Hall of Fame
Throughout a rich history of six NCAA Titles, 3,585 wins and 57 first-team All-Americans, the Texas baseball program has had a few stars that stand apart from the rest: players inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall announced Thursday that former Longhorn pitcher Jim Gideon will become the 12th Texas player to be inducted into the Hall — an impressive total considering the first class was not inducted until 2006.
In a run to the NCAA title in 1975, Gideon went 17-0 on the mound, compiling a 1.80 earned run average. He was named the Longhorns' Most Valuable Player and picked up his second first-team All-Southwest Conference selection.
While 1975, his final season at Texas, may have been the most successful, Gideon was consistent throughout all three seasons in Austin. He still ranks fourth in Longhorn history in wins with 40, and 10th in strikeouts with 297. In a complete-game shutout March 21, 1975, he had the high honor of tossing UT's 10th no-hitter in school history against SMU.
Gideon was taken by the Texas Rangers with the 17th overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft. He was brought up to the major leagues quickly after having played pro ball for just over two months, and made his debut Sept. 14 in what turned out to be the first and last time he would suit up at the big league level. He completed 5.2 innings of work, allowing five earned runs.
Located in Lubbock, Texas, the National College Baseball Hall of Fame will have a virtual ceremony later this month to induct Gideon, along with other college greats such as Jim Morris (Miami) and Paul Molitor (Minnesota) in this year's class.
The other 11 Longhorns in the College Baseball Hall of Fame are:
- Cliff Gustafson (inducted in 2006)
- Brooks Kieschnick (2006)
- Bibb Falk (2007)
- Billy Disch (2008)
- Burt Hooton (2008)
- Greg Swindell (2008)
- Kirk Dressendorfer (2009)
- Keith Moreland (2009)
- Richard Wortham (2010)
- Augie Garrido (2016)
- David Chalk (2019)
- Jim Gideon (2020)
