It was 20 years ago on this day (2005), legendary Wichita State baseball coach Gene Stephenson became the head coach at the University of Oklahoma -- for one day. Openly emotional and tearful, Stephenson took part in a news conference in Norman, Oklahoma, donning an OU baseball jersey; one of his comments was, "We've done all we can do at Wichita State."
That afternoon, Stephenson, along with pitching coach Brent Kemnitz, and assistant coach Jim Thomas, met with the OU players as the new regime was poised to take over the Sooners program.
But within eight hours after that, Stephenson had changed his mind and came back to the Shockers by the end of the night.
By 7:30 p.m., Stephenson had informed Wichita State president Don Beggs that he was not taking the OU job, returning instead to WSU.
The 59-year-old Stephenson had resigned as head coach at WSU the night before, after being at the helm of the reinstated program for 28 years, including a College World Series national championship in 1989.
Stephenson never did sign a proposed six-year $275,000 contract to take over for the Sooners; that's about the same amount of money he'd been making at Wichita State.
At the time, Stephenson had the highest winning percentage among active NCAA Division One baseball coaches.
Prior to taking the job with the Shockers, Stephenson had been an assistant coach at OU for five seasons.