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 2021 class was inducted as part of the virtual College Baseball Night of Champions ceremony on June 26 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 the 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.
