SE: Q&A with K-State Baseball Alum Craig Wilson on Going into KSHOF, Career Memories & Baseball Returning to the Olympics

By Corbin McGuire

What do Michael Jordan and former K-State baseball coach/current Senior Director of Development Mike Clark have in common? Both influenced former Wildcat Craig Wilson.

Only one of the three, however, will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on February 8 in Wichita. That honor lies with Wilson, who played baseball for K-State from 1989-92.

In 1992, Wilson became the program's first consensus All-American and conference player of the year as a senior, was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 13^th round and played for Team USA in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

Twenty-eight years later, Wilson's baseball career, its highlights and memories, resurfaced with his induction into the KSHOF. Wilson was inducted into the K-State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004, so it's been a while since he thought about his playing days too much.

K-State's record-holder for career games played (250), Wilson still ranks in the top five for career base hits (282), doubles (58), triples (15) and RBI (176). Not to mention the Franklin Park, Illinois native's .416 batting average as a senior, ranked No. 5 in program history. He eventually played four seasons with the White Sox before retiring from baseball.

Now in the business of IT consulting and living in the Kansas City area, Wilson – who has also broadcast K-State baseball games on K-StateHD.TV – spoke with K-State Sports Extra over the phone about his upcoming induction, his career and what still stands out from it.

SE: What does this Hall of Fame honor mean to you?

CW: "It's kind of interesting, obviously, because it's come a little bit later in my age. But, no, anytime you get honored for something like this, it's awesome. You can't really say too much about it, other than it's just an honor to be inducted in with a lot of the other players that have come through. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Kansas Hall of Fame and meeting some of the other inductees."

SE: How long ago does it all seem, your career and the achievements that earned you this honor?

CW: "Especially since we hit 2020, it seems like forever ago. The memories and the people, they stick with you. The last real honor I got was when I was inducted into the Kansas State Hall of Fame in 2004. There was a pretty long gap, so it was a little bit out of the blue. I didn't expect it, but it was a nice surprise when I got the call."

SE: You mentioned the memories. What came to mind when you found out and what still does come to mind as you think back on it all?

CW: "The first thing that comes to mind are all the people who really helped me get there. Obviously, there's a lot of people along the way — high school, growing up, moving on to college and then of course in your professional career. There's just a lot of people, too many to mention. It's just the people, your support group, that kept pushing you to get better and were there when times were tough. Those are the first things that come to mind now a days."

SE: I know there were a lot of those people, but who were some of those people specifically at K-State that you think of?

CW: "At K-State, definitely Coach (Mike) Clark. He was the person who gave me the opportunity when a lot of other schools didn't. Coming to K-State was an honor in itself, just to be recruited to play Division I baseball and be able to start as a freshman. Coach Phil Morgan had a big part of that, with him harping on my fundamentals, every day doing it right, doing it the right way. He was definitely an inspiration. And then David Chadd. He came in my senior year and, from a hitting perspective and just a baseball perspective, in general, he added a lot of value to what I was trying to accomplish as well."

SE: At K-State, are there high moments and memories you specifically think back to, or even smaller ones people might not think of?

CW: "The biggest thing is the teammates that I had. I developed lifelong friendships and to this day we still get together all the time and we talk quite often. That's probably the main thing, aside from all the games and the baseball stuff, having a good group of friends and a good group of guys to be able to reminisce with some of those memories is pretty awesome.

"But as far as games go, a few things stand out. Making the Big Eight Tournament. That was awesome. That was a team that I didn't think was overly talented, but we played the game the right way, we won a lot of one-run games. Then, (one) game that comes to mind is playing Wichita State at home (in 1991) in front of what was at that time a record crowd and beating them (3-2)."

SE: Do you have a favorite Coach Clark story?

CW: "Yeah, I think it was my sophomore year. I think we were playing Wayne State, and it was a double header and at first pitch it was like 60 degrees, 55 degrees. By the first pitch of the second game, it was like 30 degrees. The weather had changed drastically. And we had a heater in our dugout, and I wasn't playing. It was one of the few games that I did not play in my K-State career, but I was sitting the second game, which was fine because it was freezing outside. But we started out the game and it was so cold you couldn't feel your hands and we got off to a real rough start. Coach was not real happy and we were all huddled over by the heater — the guys that were sitting on the bench — and he got so mad at the guys on the field for playing the way they were playing that he came over and he unplugged the heater from the dugout. Everybody was kind of looking at each other, like, 'Why did you do that?' But he was so mad at the way that we were playing that second game and eventually the game ended up getting called because it was too cold. But we look back at that and it's kind of a funny story."

SE: How closely do you follow the program, even now?

CW: "I wish I could follow a little bit closer. I do some games with Brian Smoller when Coach Clark is on the road, which has been great. I've loved every minute of that, getting to come back and talk about some old times and getting to know some of the new players and the coaches. That's awesome. I wish I could do it more, but I kind of get a fix with five or six games a year."

SE: What's it been like seeing the program continue to grow from a success and facilities standpoint in the last two decades or so?

CW: "When I first came to K-State, there were plans of a new stadium kind of like the way it is now. It just took a while to get there, with all the fundraising and things like that. Just K-State in general has come such a long way from when I attended. You look at the football stadium, the basketball facilities and the baseball facilities, including soccer and everything else, it's so awesome to see because you almost feel like you were kind of the base foundation of when that was all getting put into play. To see it come from where we were to now, I love visiting it and seeing everything because it's just awesome."

SE: OK, back to you. Because it's an Olympic year and baseball is back in for the first time since 2008, I have to ask about your Olympic team experience. What were your biggest takeaways from that, in what I can only imagine was an incredible experience?

CW: "It was. The tour that we had was a little bit draining. What we did was we traveled from city to city each day (in the United States) and played in a big-league park before their (MLB) game. We played a game at three o'clock, the other teams would play and then we'd go to the next city and play. So, that was a little bit grueling. That was probably the only thing I wish was different about that year because by the time we got to the Olympics, I think a lot of the guys were mentally drained and physically drained from some of the traveling we were doing. I think it showed a little bit.

"But, as far as the experience goes, it was amazing. Barcelona is such a beautiful city and the accommodations of Olympic Village were unbelievable. All the way around it was just awesome. Then, obviously being there with the Dream Team, with Jordan and (Charles) Barkley and (Scottie) Pippen and all those guys, was a pretty cool experience as well. That's something that I'll never forget."

SE: Do you have a story from the Dream Team? Did you ever run into or get to hang out with anybody from that team?

CW: "Well, I actually had the opportunity to play with Michael Jordan when he was playing with the White Sox in the Arizona Fall League. So, me being a Chicago guy growing up, watching him and his dominance in the NBA and then seeing him in Barcelona and then having the opportunity to play with him later…I got to ask him quite a few questions. We had the same off days together, so we sat on the bench together. He was probably sick of me asking all the questions, but I really enjoyed getting to know him."

SE: In those brief conversations with him, what did you take away or learn from him, if anything, in regard to what made him so special?

CW: "He's such a smart guy. He analyzes everything. He's an extremely hard worker. The guy, he didn't have to play baseball. He wanted to do it because it was a challenge to him. The progression that he made from the AA when he first started to that fall league was amazing. He went from hitting .202 in AA, I think, to hitting .255 or something like that in the Arizona Fall League. But you could see the strides that he made in such a short period of time. He did that because it was a challenge to him. It was something that was very difficult. He didn't allow the failure to creep in. He just kept working and working and working to try to get as good as he could. So, the takeaways were, obviously, this is a guy that's on top of the world from a basketball perspective, but he's still working at his craft and working hard at something that he wants to be good in."

SE: What type of connections did you make on that Olympic team? I was looking at the roster and there lots of notable names, like Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Giambi.

CW: "Nomar, Jason Giambi, Phil Nevin, Jeffrey Hammonds, Charles Johnson, a lot of great, great college players, guys that not only were great players but were good guys, good guys to hang out with. Darren Dreifort off of Wichita State was on that team. Chris Wimmer. Just a really good team to be on."

SE: One thing I often hear from a lot of K-State student-athletes as they're about to graduate is how to handle that moving out of sports and into a career. What was that adjustment like for you and what advice would you have for those going through it now?

CW: "It's not easy because you do something for so long. I played for 12 years when I got out of school and then all of a sudden it was, like, 'OK, now I have to figure out what I want to do. Do I want to go coach?' which, at the time, I didn't know. I was thinking about it, but I wasn't completely sold on that. The way I got my job was just networking. I got into something that I really didn't know anything about, did it for a little while, learned a lot of the ways about going about recruiting and selling and things like that and ended up just staying in it, and I've been in it ever since I left baseball.

"The biggest advice I would give to people coming out is just network. Network and try to figure out who's who, be aggressive, and just get your name out there and keep working."

SE: Sound advice. Anything you want to add before I let you go?

CW: "Just that my experience at K-State was obviously awesome. There are so many people at K-State who had a piece in this (KSHOF) honor. It goes way back when. I mean, Mitch Holthus was our radio guy. All the people who helped market me while I was in college, I'll never forget that. The group at K-State is such a good group and I brag on them all the time.

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Q&A with K-State Baseball Alum Craig Wilson on Going into KSHOF, Career Memories & Baseball Returning to the Olympics

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