1921-1940  |  1941-1960  |  1961-1980  |  1981-2000  |  2001-2015

As the Northeastern baseball team prepares for its 95th all-time season this coming spring, take a stroll back through time and join the Huskies as the program reflects on 95 years of history on the baseball diamond. During the week of Jan. 12, "Ninety-five years of Northeastern baseball" will highlight a 20-year period of NU baseball history, beginning Monday with its inaugural season in 1921, and ending Friday with the upcoming 2015 campaign.

BOSTON – On May 25, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy declared in a historic address to Congress that the nation should commit itself to achieving the goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."  Like Kennedy, Northeastern baseball head coach John Connelly had a smaller yet just as ambitious goal for the Huskies in the 1960s: win the program's first Greater Boston College Baseball League championship.
 
Following a dismal 1961 season that saw the Huskies finish at the bottom of the league standings with a 5-12 (1-7 GBCBL) overall record, Connelly set out fresh in 1962 to contend for a GBCBL title. Led by captain Bob Mullin (1960-62) and his team-leading .455 batting average, the Huskies won their first three games of the year en route to achieving their first 10-win season since 1957. In 1963, Northeastern shutout Rhode Island, 3-0, and Tufts, 2-0, before downing defending conference champion Harvard, 9-1, at home on April 20.
 
With five third-place finishes in 11 seasons as a member of the GBCBL, the Huskies finally cracked into the top two in 1964. Northeastern pitcher John "Dick" McPherson (class of 1965, HOF inductee 1985) was a nightmare for opposing hitters as the senior pitched to the tune of an NU-record setting 1.37 ERA. Future Huskies coach Neil McPhee (class of 1968, HOF inductee 1980) led the 1964 squad in hitting for the second year in a row with a .333 batting average, and also held team-high marks in home runs (four) and RBIs (15). NU would advance to the NCAA District I tournament for the first time in program history, but would fall twice to Maine, 9-4 and 5-2, in the best-of-three, first-round series.
 
After winning six or more conference games for the third consecutive season in 1965, the stage had been set for the Huskies to make a title run in 1966. With a 3-2 record to start the year, Northeastern comfortably won each of its next nine games by a four-run margin, and exploded to a 5-0 record in league play. Although Harvard ended the Huskies' hopes of an undefeated GBCBL season, NU clinched its first conference title with an 8-1 record, and danced into the NCAA District I tournament.
 
In the 1966 District I semifinals, sophomore pitcher Edward McCarty (class of 1969, HOF inductee 1988) threw deep into the seventh inning, and helped fend off Colby, 5-4, to advance to the finals. Pitted against Boston College, pitching ace Steve Grolnic (class of 1966, HOF inductee 1995) kept runs off the scoreboard, limiting the Eagles to just four hits. Tied at 1-1 with two outs in the ninth inning and the bases loaded, slugger Richard Paster (class of 1968, HOF inductee 1997) ripped a line drive into left-center field that scored three runs and gave the Huskies a 4-1 lead. NU would bat around the lineup and score nine runs during the final frame, securing the program's first trip to the College World Series. Although St. John's and Arizona would go on to defeat Northeastern in Omaha, Nebraska, the Huskies finished their magical 1966 season ranked as the No. 8 team in the country.
 
With a GBCBL title and College World Series appearance in hand, Northeastern was determined to add a new page to the program's history book in 1967. Sure enough, on April 20, McCarty threw the Huskies' first no-hitter in a 8-0 victory against Boston University. By the end of his career, McCarty was no stranger to flawless pitching performances. During his tenure on the mound for NU, McCarty lost a total of three no-hitters in the ninth inning, including one with two outs in his senior season against Tufts.
 
Northeastern celebrated the program's 50th anniversary at the start of the 1970 season, and despite a 3-0 start to the year, finished with a .500 winning percentage and a 9-9-1 overall record. Coach Connelly would have to wait two years before the Huskies would surpass the .500 hump again, coming one win shy of matching the team's single-season wins record, set by his 1966 squad (18). Midway through the 1972 season, Connelly's club turned around an 0-4-1 start with a 12-game winning streak, ending the year with a 17-7 overall record.
 
On May 5, 1973, Jim Walker became the third Husky pitcher to throw a no-hitter and first since Rick Grim had achieved the feat in 1971. Walker's team, led by captain Thomas Rezzuti (class of 1974, HOF inductee 1984), defeated Brandeis, 3-0, in seven innings that day, and would later extend its winning streak to 10 straight games with a 9-2 win against visiting Providence.
 
Power hitters such as Steve Kring (1972-75) and Tom Burke (class of 1976, HOF class of 2001) helped guide the Huskies to District I tournament berths in 1973 and 1974. Kring went on to lead Northeastern in batting with a .410 average in 1975, while Burke became one of just two NU athletes to ever win Most Valuable Player awards in both football and baseball.
 
Connelly entered his 25th season as head coach of the Huskies in 1980, and rounded out the 1970s with a 14-12 campaign. Northeastern ended the year on a six-game winning streak, and welcomed the new decade with the program's seventh 10-win season in nine years.


1961-1980 STATISTICS

Largest win: 19-1 vs. Bowdoin (1971)
Largest defeat: 2-19 vs. Harvard (1977)
Most combined runs in a game: 28 (L, 11-17 at Massachusetts, 1973)
Record during the 1960s: 107-89-0 (.546)
Record during the 1970s: 116-122-3 (.488)
Highest single-season winning percentage: .708 (17-7, 1972)
Lowest single-season winning percentage: .214 (6-22, 1978)
Longest single-season winning streak: 12 (1972)
Longest overall winning streak: 12 (1972)