Former Arizona baseball coach Andy Lopez named to National College Baseball Hall of Fame

On week after leading Arizona to the 2012 College World Series championship, Andy Lopez traveled to the National College Baseball Hall of Fame to see his former University of Florida star, Brad Wilkerson, get enshrined.

Former UA coach Frank Sancet was also inducted in 2012. Wildcats coaching legend Jerry Kindall was a member of the 2007 class.

Sometime that weekend, Lopez recalled Wednesday, he was told of his own place in college baseball history.

“Isn’t it going to be great for the University of Arizona when you get inducted?” someone associated with the Hall asked Lopez. “You’ll be the third.”

Ten years later, Lopez is in. And yes, it’s more than great for the UA.

Lopez, the man who led Arizona to two trips to the College World Series and one national championship during 14 seasons in Tucson, will be enshrined Feb. 2-3 during ceremonies in Omaha, Nebraska. It will mark the 69-year-old Lopez’s first time visiting the mecca of college baseball since he led Kurt Heyer, Konner Wade, Alex Mejia, Rob Refsnyder and the pitching-and-defense-heavy Cats to the national championship a decade ago. He retired in 2015.

Enshrinements are nothing new for Lopez, who was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018 and is a member of halls of fame in eight other places: the University of Arizona, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Pepperdine, UCLA, L.A. Harbor Community College, Pima County, the city of San Pedro, California; and Southern California’s South Bay. (In other words, everywhere he’s ever lived, played or coached with the exception of his time in Florida).

Still, Lopez admits there’s “a different feel” for the National College Baseball Hall of Fame given the members included. The hall’s inaugural class of 2006 included Pac-12 coaching legends Bobby Winkles (Arizona State) and Rod Dedeaux (USC). Kindall was enshrined a year later alongside ASU’s Jim Brock and Washington State’s Bobo Brayton.

The hall also has a “veteran players” category that includes pre-1947 stars. It’s a who’s-who of baseball legends.

“It’s like: Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig; what the heck am I doing there?” Lopez said with a chuckle.

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Between 2002-15, Lopez — who won a national championship at Pepperdine and coached at Florida before coming to Tucson — led the Wildcats to the postseason eight times.

They advanced to College World Series twice. In 2012, they won it all, going a perfect 10-0 in the postseason. Last summer, the Star’s Greg Hansen named the 2012 squad as the 20th-best team, all sports, in the history of Southern Arizona.

Heyer told the Star last summer that the Wildcats “bought into what Lopez was feeding us.”

“It’s not like we had guys that threw 98 or guys that hit 20 home runs. It was just guys that knew how to play the game and execute the game,” he said. “That was the thing that separated us. We were able to minimize mistakes and just play the game right. We weren’t flashy. We just went in and took care of business. It was like a job for us. It was like, ‘All right, we’re here for three hours. Let’s execute the game as best we can and go home with a W.’ And that’s it.”

In addition to Lopez, the Hall of Fame class includes former Southern University infielder Rickie Weeks and former Southern coach Roger Cador; former Brown infielder Bill Almon; former Michigan player Casey Close; former Lipscomb coach Ken Dugan; umpire Jim Garman; former USC coach Art Mazmanian; former Division III Player of the Year Ken Ritter; and Condredge Holloway, the first African-American member of Tennessee’s baseball team.

“This class checks all the boxes,” said Mike Gustafson, president and CEO of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. “With national players of the year from various levels of college baseball to coaching legends and a pioneer, it is an accomplished list.”

So is the roll call when it comes to Wildcats in the Hall. Lopez will make four, joining former coaches Kindall and Sancet and 1980 Golden Spikes Award winner Terry Francona.

Said Lopez, who will lives in Tucson and works as an analyst for Pac-12 Networks baseball: “That speaks volumes for the program.”