Over the weekend, Georgia Southern (GS) welcomed players and staff from the 1973 world-series GS baseball team.
Team members were honored at Saturday’s game vs ULM. Tom Bigwood, pitcher from the ’73 team, threw the honorary first pitch as the Eagles took on the Warhawks at J.I. Clements Stadium.
“It’s been a tremendous weekend," said Bigwood, “GS has really gone out of their way to make us feel very welcome with hospitality and gifts and it’s really been a great time.”
Saturday’s game turned out to be historic in itself, as the Eagles scored a program record 35 runs off 27 hits.
Fourteen players from the ’73 team, as well as two staff members and head coach Ron Polk, returned to Statesboro to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Eagles’ first world series appearance.
In 1973, the Eagles became the first team from GS, and the first from the state of Georgia, to make it to the College World Series in Omaha.
Led by coach Polk, GS was a highly competitive team that year, sporting an outstanding record of 43-12. They never lost consecutive games and were nationally ranked throughout the entire season.
Their performance in the regular season propelled the Eagles to the regional championship tournament at Mississippi State.
Outlasting highly competitive programs like Vanderbilt and Tennessee, the Eagles took the regional title by shutting out the University of Miami 1-0 in the final game of the tournament.
Bigwood pitched for the Eagles in game six of the CWS against Harvard, throwing a solo two-hitter and becoming one of only 19 pitchers to do so in the history of the CWS to date.
The Eagles shut out the Crimson 8-0 before falling to Minnesota in game nine, finishing the series tied for fifth place.
Several players from the ’73 team went on to play professional baseball, including John Tamargo, John Tudor and Tom Bigwood. Coach Polk was selected as 1973’s Coach of the Year by Coach and Athlete Magazine and Sporting News.
