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The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa baseball team celebrated legendary head coach Les Murakami’s induction into the College Baseball Hall Of Fame following a 4–2 win over Wichita State on February 20.
A sold-out Les Murakami Stadium saw the man who built the program from nothing into a national powerhouse take his place among college baseball’s all-time greats.
The winningest coach in school history and the namesake for the home of Rainbow Warrior baseball, Les Murakami Stadium, he built the program up from nothing into a national powerhouse over his 30-year coaching career that he finished with a record of 1,079-570-4. He took the program to 10 NCAA Regionals and won six Western Athletic Conference titles. He led the ‘Bows to their only College World Series appearance in 1980, in which they came one win shy of a national title.
More than 50 of Murakami’s former players, assistant coaches and staff members attended his induction into the College Baseball Hall Of Fame. Derek Tatsuno, a 2007 Hall Of Fame inductee, and Gene Stephenson, former Wichita State coach and long-time rival and friend of Murakami, welcomed the coach into the Hall Of Fame at the end of the pregame program.
Visit the University of Hawaiʻi Athletics Department YouTube for a full video of the pregame ceremony honoring Murakami.
Read more at Hawaiiathletics.com.
