Helton, Olson, Marquess highlight 2021 Induction Class for National College Baseball Hall of Fame

By College Baseball Foundation | May 13, 2021

LUBBOCK, Texas – Two of the top players in Southeastern Conference history and a coach who led a storied program to Omaha 14 times headline the National College Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2021.

The latest class will be inducted as part of the virtual College Baseball Night of Champions ceremony scheduled for June 26 and hosted by Dani Wexelman, currently a host for MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM and the host of the 2020 event.

Headlining the class are 1995 National and SEC Player of the Year Todd Helton from Tennessee, one of the top two-way players in college baseball history, and Auburn pitcher Gregg Olson, the first two-time All-American in Tigers history, as well as legendary Stanford head coach Mark Marquess, who spent 41 years with the Cardinal and retired in 2017 as the eighth-winningest coach in NCAA history.

“This is another outstanding class,” said Mike Gustafson, president and CEO of the College Baseball Foundation and the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. “With players from coast to coast and across so many levels of college baseball, this group has a little bit of everything.”

Rounding out the 2021 induction class are Clemson outfielder/infielder Rusty Adkins, a three-time first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection; Danny Litwhiler, who coached at Florida State and Michigan State over a 28-year career; Frank Quinn, a 31-game winner and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-American from Yale; Rich Dauer, a first-team All-American third baseman for Southern California and junior college Player of the Year at California State College-San Bernardino; Terry Kennedy, a catcher for Florida State who was a two-time The Sporting News National Player of the Year; coach Frank “Porky” Vieira, who founded the program at Division II University of New Haven and led the program until his retirement in 2006 and won more than 1,100 games; Lewis University pitcher Tom Brennan, the 1974 NAIA National Player of the Year; Tim Burzette from University of La Verne, a catcher who is one of only two three-time NAIA All-Americans; Robert “Bob” Lee, who coached at Southern University from 1949 to 1961; and umpire Dave Yeast, who worked games from 1982 to 2015, worked two College World Series and served as the NCAA National Coordinator of Baseball Umpires from 1996 to 2008.

From the contributor’s section of the ballot is longtime ABCA Executive Director Dave Keilitz, who helped grow the organization into what it is today and also was a first-team NAIA All-American at Central Michigan.

In three seasons with the Volunteers, Helton was a career .370 hitter with 38 home runs and 238 RBI, capped by a junior season in 1995 where he hit .407 with 20 home runs and 92 RBI, and on the mound went 8-2 with a 1.66 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 76 innings. He earned the 1995 National Player of the Year award from the ABCA, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball and was a two-time first-team All-American.

Olson, a member of the 1987 USA National Team, led the NCAA in ERA in 1987 at 1.26 and led the SEC in ERA in 1988 at 2.00. He was named All-American by Baseball America in 1987 and 1988 and by the ABCA in 1988. He became Auburn’s highest-drafted player when he went to the Baltimore Orioles fourth overall in the 1988 Major League Baseball draft.

When he retired from coaching following the 2017 season, Marquess had compiled a record of 1,627 wins, 878 losses and seven ties for a winning percentage of .649. He led Stanford to the College World Series 14 times with back-to-back titles in 1987 and 1988. Of his 41 seasons as a coach, 30 of his teams reached the postseason and he sent more than 200 players into professional baseball.

Adkins was a first-, second- or third-team ABCA All-American in all three seasons he spent at Clemson (1965-67), and his 41-game hitting streak remains the sixth-longest streak in NCAA history. He was a career .379 hitter with 11 home runs and 66 RBI in 97 games and was named a member of the ACC’s 50th Anniversary Team in 2002.

Litwhiler led Florida State to its first seven NCAA tournament appearances and first three College World Series appearances in nine seasons before moving to Michigan State. He led the Spartans to three NCAA tournament appearances and two Big Ten championships. An innovative mind, Litwhiler is credited with the idea of Diamond Dry and the radar gun.

Quinn, a teammate at Yale with former president George H.W. Bush for four seasons (1945-48), racked up 410 strikeouts in his career while pitching the Bulldogs to the 1947 and 1948 College World Series, earning victories over Clemson (1947) and North Carolina (1948) in the postseason, finishing with a 3-1 playoff record.

Dauer played two seasons at San Bernardino and was the junior college Player of the Year in California in 1972 after earning All-Mission Conference honors as a freshman. At USC, he led the nation in hits, total bases and RBI in 1974 and was an all-conference selection in both 1973 and 1974.

Kennedy was a two-time Sporting News first-team All-American (1976-77) and was named Most Valuable Player in 1977. He earned all-region honors in 1976 and all-Metro Conference honors in 1977 and was the MVP of the 1977 Metro Conference Tournament. Drafted sixth overall in the 1977 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, he finished with a career .352 average, 30 home runs and 118 RBI in 130 games.

In 44 seasons at New Haven, Vieira won 1,127 games, including 42 straight seasons with a winning record from 1963 to 2004. He ranks second among Division II head coaches all-time in both career winning percentage (.776) and total wins. His teams reached the NCAA Division II College World Series 15 times and the NAIA World Series twice.

Brennan is the first three-time NAIA All-American (1972-74) and was named to the 20th anniversary NAIA all-tournament team. He was named the MVP of the 1974 NAIA World Series and is tied as the winningest pitcher in NAIA tournament history with five wins.

Burzette earned the NAIA Charles Berry Hustle Award in 1977 and was named to the NAIA All-Tournament team at the NAIA World Series in 1978. He was named the National Baseball Congress Catcher of the Year and to Team USA in 1976 and was a three-time All-SCIAC and All-Regional first-team selection (1976-78).

In Lee’s 13 seasons at Southern, the Jaguars captured eight outright Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and shared another. His .831 winning percentage (172-35) is the highest lifetime mark of any coach in the country with a minimum of 10 years as a head coach at a four-year institution. The 1959 NAIA national title earned by Southern is the first and only baseball national championship won by a historically black college and university (HBCU).

During his time as an umpire, Yeast called games in nine different conferences and served as a conference umpire coordinator for six different conferences: Pac-12, Big West, WAC, Missouri Valley, Metro and Conference USA. He served as a regional umpire coordinator from 1994 to 1996. On the field, he worked the 1991 and 1995 College World Series, a 1999 Super Regional and 14 regionals.

Under Keilitz’s tutelage at the ABCA, membership and the number of coaches attending the annual conference grew dramatically, and he helped establish the ABCA Board of Directors and shepherded several legislative accomplishments, including bracket expansion in all divisions, establishing ball and bat standards, and recruiting, practice and organization rules in 1982. He remains a member of the ABCA Board of Directors.

“Our voting committee did a fantastic job again,” Gustafson said. “It will be great to see these guys take their rightful place in the Hall of Fame.”

More information about the virtual Night of Champions will be released soon at www.collegebaseballhall.org.

For more information, contact Mike Gustafson, National College Baseball Hall of Fame president and CEO, at gus@collegebaseballfoundation.org.

2021 National College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee extended bios

Rusty Adkins, Clemson, 1965-67 (Outfield, Second base)

Tom Brennan, Lewis University, 1971-74 (Pitcher)

Tim Burzette, University of La Verne, 1976-78, (Catcher)

Rich Dauer, California State College-San Bernardino, 1971-72; Southern California, 1973-74 (Third Base)

Todd Helton, Tennessee, 1993-95 (First base, Pitcher)

Dave Keilitz, Executive Director, American Baseball Coaches Association, 1994-2014

Terry Kennedy, Florida State, 1975-77 (Catcher)

Robert 'Bob' Lee, Southern University 1949-1961 (Coach)

Danny Litwhiler, Florida State/Michigan State, 1955-82 (Coach)

Mark Marquess, Stanford, 1977-2017 (Coach)

Gregg Olson, Auburn, 1986-88 (Pitcher)

Frank Quinn, Yale, 1945-48 (Pitcher)

Frank "Porky" Vieira, University of New Haven, 1963-2006 (Coach)

Dave Yeast, Umpire 1982-2015