Seven Sports Represented in 2024 Hall of Fame Class – Baylor

WACO, Texas — Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims, a tandem that led Baylor women’s basketball to a historic 40-0 national championship in 2012, highlight the Baylor Athletics 2024 Hall of Fame class that includes eight former student-athletes from seven different sports. 

 

Joining Griner and Sims in this year’s class are Ronnie Allen (track & field), Whitney Canion Reichenstein (softball), Mark Cochran (football), Michael Griffin (baseball), Nina Secerbegovic (women’s tennis) and Ekpe Udoh (men’s basketball). 

 

The 2024 Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, in the Hurd Welcome Center Grand Ballroom on the Baylor University campus. More information to come on ticket prices and making reservations for the Hall of Fame banquet. 

 

The Hall of Fame inductees also will be honored on the field at McLane Stadium during the Baylor-TCU football game on Saturday, Nov. 2. 

 

Organized in 1960, the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame recognizes and honors individuals whose participation and contributions have enriched and strengthened the university’s athletics program. Student-athletes are required to wait 10 years after completing their eligibility before they can be nominated for the Hall of Fame.

 

Beginning with the inaugural 1960 class that included coach Floyd “Uncle Jim” Crow and baseball’s Ted Lyons, 273 honorees have been elected or already enshrined in the Hall of Fame. 

 

The most-decorated Baylor athlete in school history, regardless of sport, Griner was a three-time National Player of the Year, three-time first-team All-American and three-time WBCA Defensive Player of the Year. She is ranked third all-time on the NCAA Division I women’s basketball scoring list with 3,283 points and set the NCAA record – men’s or women’s – with 748 career blocks. 

 

Leading the Bears to two Final Four appearances and a four-year record of 135-15 (2009-13), Griner was the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player on the first 40-0 national championship team in 2012. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, she is an eight-time all-star and two-time Defensive Player of the Year with the Phoenix Mercury and just captured her third Olympic gold medal with USA Basketball in Paris. 

 

A three-time All-American and USBWA National Freshman of the Year in 2011, Sims is No. 3 all-time in career scoring with 2,533 points, holds school records for 3-pointers made (258) and attempted (651) and ranks No. 2 in career assists (641), steals (331) and free throws made (561). Earning four national awards, including the Wade Trophy, she scored 1,054 points and averaged 28.5 points as a senior. 

 

Sims was co-MVP with Griner on the 40-0 national championship team in 2012, averaging 14.9 points and 4.4 assists, and helped the Bears sweep the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles four-consecutive years. The No. 2 overall pick in the WNBA Draft, she has played 10 years in the WNBA and also won a FIBA World Championship in 2014 with Turkey. 

 

In 1967, Allen became the first African American awarded a four-year track scholarship at Baylor, out of Hughes Springs (Texas) High School. Named the team’s Outstanding Freshman in ’68, he won the first of back-to-back Southwest Conference championships in the 220-yard dash and also ran a leg on the Bears’ SWC championship 4×110-yard relay team that set a then-school record of 40.6 seconds. 

 

During his four-year career at Baylor (1968-71), Allen also set school records in the 220-yard dash (20.6) and 220, curved (20.7) and ran a career-best time of 9.3 seconds in the 100-yard dash. 

 

Indisputably the best pitcher in the history of the Baylor softball program, Canion Reichenstein was a two-time All-American who rewrote the record book. She tossed five no-hitters and holds career pitching records for wins (123-54), complete games (116), shutouts (40) and strikeouts (1,473) – a mark that may never be broken. 

 

Canion Reichenstein was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in 2009, won Pitcher of the Year honors again as a sixth-year senior in 2014 and twice won 31 games in a season in leading the Bears to World Series appearances in 2011 and ’14. She had her No. 11 jersey retired in March 2015 and was recently named to the Big 12 Alumni Council with 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III. 

 

Cochran, a part of two bowl teams during his Baylor tenure (1983-85), was a three-year starter for the Bears at offensive guard and tackle and was twice named the team’s most outstanding offensive lineman. He was a first-team unanimous All-Southwest Conference pick as a senior in ’85 and the only player awarded a game ball for a nine-win season that ended with a win over LSU in the Liberty Bowl. 

Named to Baylor football’s All-Decade team for the 1980s, Cochran was an undrafted free agent who played three games in 1987 with the Bill Walsh-coached San Francisco 49ers. Returning to Baylor to earn his master’s degree in education, he worked with the YMCA organization for 24 years and has been a regional director for Samaritan’s Purse since 2015. 

 

Part of Baylor baseball’s last College World Series team in 2005, Griffin ranks in the top 10 all-time in career hits (329), doubles (66), home runs (35) and RBIs (200) and is the single-season leader in games played (70), at-bats (294) and doubles (26). He was a first-team All-Big 12 pick as a sophomore in 2003, when he hit .350 with 11 homers and 76 RBI. 

 

A versatile player who started at three different positions (third base, second base and left field), Griffin was also a two-time All-NCAA Regional pick in 2003 and ’05, a three-time Academic All-Big 12 first-team pick and was named to the USA Baseball National Team in 2003. A 14^th-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Reds in 2005, Griffin played eight years of pro ball and made it to the Triple-A level. 

 

During a golden era for Baylor women’s tennis, Secerbegovic was a three-time singles All-American (2010-12) and a doubles All-American in 2012 when she reached the NCAA quarterfinals with Ema Burgic. A native of Bosnia & Herzegovina, she helped the Bears earn their first-ever No. 1 national ranking in 2010 and make it to the NCAA semifinals the next year. 

 

With a career record of 126-30 in singles and 81-41 in doubles, Secerbegovic was on teams that swept the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles in three-consecutive seasons (2009-11). As a sophomore in 2010, she had a phenomenal 43-5 singles record and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team, going undefeated at No. 2 singles and doubles. 

 

Nicknamed “The Nightmare,” Udoh was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in his lone season with the Bears, averaging 13.9 points and 9.8 rebounds and setting the Baylor and Big 12 single-season records with 133 blocks. He also led the Big Ten in blocks as a sophomore before sitting out the 2008-09 season as a Division I transfer. 

 

Udoh helped Baylor win a then-school-record 28 games (28-8) and advance to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Duke in the South Region final. The No. 6 overall pick in the 2010 Draft, he played seven years in the NBA and seven years overseas before becoming an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks in June 2023.  

– BaylorBears.com –