Guthrie High School alum Gene Stephenson was fired as the head baseball coach after 36 seasons at Wichita State. The announcement came Tuesday evening in a news release.
Stephenson, met with reporters shortly after the announcement.
“I am sorely disappointed about the way this went down,” Stephenson said. “I don’t think it was handled properly, but it’s not up for me to decide. We gave 36 years of our very best here.”
The Shockers reached the pinnacle of college baseball by defeating Texas in the 1989 national championship game.
“We have reached a decision to go a different direction with the leadership of our baseball program,” athletic director Eric Sexton said in a statement. “Following an evaluation of the program as a whole and a presentation of the options, the decision became clear that this is the proper time to move into a new phase of Shocker Baseball.
“We thank Coach Stephenson for his years of service and the efforts he has made in his life’s work building this program from the beginning.”
Gene attended Guthrie High School where he graduated in 1963 where he lettered in baseball and football. After graduating, Stephenson attended University of Missouri with his first year on a football scholarship and graduated in 1968.
His younger brother Phil Stephenson, also a Guthrie alum, were inducted into the Guthrie High School Hall of Fame in 1994. Gene was a first team all-state honoree in football and baseball his senior year.
Among some of the thousands of athletes he coached two Guthrie alum’s, Joey Jackson and Toby Smith, and both played in the College World Series.
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