Seventeen former UW Oshkosh baseball players stood at midfield of J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium at halftime on Oct. 10 to be recognized for the NCAA Division III World Series they won in 1985, but an important piece of the championship team was absent for the 30-year anniversary celebration.

Among the players presented at the celebration there were All-Americans Troy Cota, Bob Stocker, Kevin Reichardt and Terry Jorgensen. Five members of the team, including Stocker, Reichardt, Jorgensen, Rusty Kryzanowski and Kevin Murdock were drafted by Major League Baseball organizations.

The head coach during the 1985 championship season, Russ Tiedemann, was not present at the celebration with his former players.

Tiedemann coached Oshkosh baseball from 1968-69 and 1971-88. During his tenure with the Titans, he accumulated 15 conference championships, 501 career victories, three NAIA World Series trips and eight NCAA Division III World Series appearances, winning it all in 1985 when he was named NCAA Coach of the Year.

Tiedemann has been inducted to the American Baseball Coaches Association, Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association, UW Oshkosh Athletics and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference halls of fame.

Current Oshkosh baseball coach Kevin Tomasiewicz helped organize the 1985 championship honoring, and said the hope was that Tiedemann would make it to Titan Stadium for the event.

“The family was going to make an opportunity to get [Tiedemann] there,” Tomasiewicz said. “At that point, his health was failing a little bit quicker than they had thought, so the original plan was for him to get there, but it just didn’t end up working out.”

Tiedemann died a little more than a month later on Nov. 23 at the age of 84.

Oshkosh Sports Information Director Kennan Timm also helped organize the halftime celebration and is one of two staff members within the athletic department to work with Tiedemann.

“[Tiedemann] established the UW Oshkosh baseball program, and then when I came on in 1985, I became a part of it and got heavily involved into the program and what the program stood for,” Timm said. “It was a very sad day to find out the passing of Russ Tiedemann.”

Jim Flood, the UW Oshkosh athletic director from 1974-87, and he said he lost more than a coach when he heard about Tiedemann’s death.

“I lost a very good friend and an outstanding coach,” Flood said. “He loved to win and was willing to work hard to do it.”

Twenty-eight of Tiedemann’s former Oshkosh players signed professional contracts, and five advanced to play Major League Baseball, including Jim Gantner, who played a 17-year career for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1976-92.

According to Reichardt, Tiedemann’s ability to put together a successful program was the reason so many of his former players reached professional baseball.

“With his knowledge of the game, his ways of inspiring, his great ability to recruit great players to the program, it made us more visible,” Reichardt said. “If you’re playing on a team that’s not winning, you’re not going to get as many looks by the scouts.”

Former major leaguer Dorian Boyland said he originally went to Oshkosh to play basketball but changed his mind when he worked with Tiedemann.

“I was introduced to Coach Tiedemann as a freshman, but I didn’t know if I was going to play baseball or not,” Boyland said. “Coach Tiedemann put his arms around me and got me involved with the baseball team. It just turned out that baseball was one of the sports that I excelled at.”

Boyland played on Oshkosh’s baseball team for three seasons before being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second round of the 1976 amateur draft and reached the majors in the 1977 and 1978 seasons.

“When I got to play professional baseball, I knew that I had to hustle, practice just as hard as I played and kept an eye on winning and team baseball at all times mainly because of what Coach Tiedemann had taught me,” Boyland said.

Jorgensen said that he will remember the type of person Tiedemann was more than his coaching career.

“You hear it all the time that this person or that person is an unbelievable coach, which Russ was, but it’s not even a comparison to the type of man he was,” Jorgensen said. “He was just a phenomenal person, and that’s what I remember the most. He was more than just a coach. He was a coach, a father figure, a friend and just a wonderful, wonderful man.”

Boyland said Tiedemann always looked at the positives and found ways to make his players better.

“He was the eternal optimist,” Boyland said. “I don’t think Coach Tiedee was a great X’s and O’s guy. I think he was just a great motivator. Like they say with the Packers, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. That’s how it was with him.”

Reichardt still remembers one of his favorite quotes from Tiedemann, which came the day before the 1985 championship game against Marietta College.

“The family was going to make an opportunity to get [Tiedemann] there,” Tomasiewicz said. “At that point, his health was failing a little bit quicker than they had thought, so the original plan was for him to get there, but it just didn’t end up working out.”

Tiedemann died a little more than a month later on Nov. 23 at the age of 84.

Oshkosh Sports Information Director Kennan Timm also helped organize the halftime celebration and is one of two staff members within the athletic department to work with Tiedemann.

“[Tiedemann] established the UW Oshkosh baseball program, and then when I came on in 1985, I became a part of it and got heavily involved into the program and what the program stood for,” Timm said. “It was a very sad day to find out the passing of Russ Tiedemann.”

Jim Flood, the UW Oshkosh athletic director from 1974-87, said he lost more than a coach when he heard about Tiedemann’s death.

“I lost a very good friend and an outstanding coach,” Flood said. “He loved to win and was willing to work hard to do it.”
Twenty eight of Tiedemann’s former Oshkosh players signed professional contracts, and five advanced to play Major League Baseball, including Jim Gantner, who played a 17-year career for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1976-92.

According to Reichardt, Tiedemann’s ability to put together a successful program was the reason so many of his former players reached professional baseball.

“With his knowledge of the game, his ways of inspiring, his great ability to recruit great players to the program, it made us more visible,” Reichardt said. “If you’re playing on a team that’s not winning, you’re not going to get as many looks by the scouts.”

Former major leaguer Dorian Boyland said he originally went to Oshkosh to play basketball but changed his mind when he worked with Tiedemann.

“I was introduced to Coach Tiedemann as a freshman, but I didn’t know if I was going to play baseball or not,” Boyland said. “Coach Tiedemann put his arms around me and got me involved with the baseball team. It just turned out that baseball was one of the sports that I excelled at.”

Boyland played on Oshkosh’s baseball team for three seasons before being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second round of the 1976 amateur draft and reached the majors in the 1977 and 1978 seasons.

“When I got to play professional baseball, I knew that I had to hustle, practice just as hard as I played and kept an eye on winning and team baseball at all times mainly because of what Coach Tiedemann had taught me,” Boyland said.

Jorgensen said he will remember the type of person Tiedemann was more than his coaching career.

“You hear it all the time that this person or that person is an unbelievable coach, which Russ was, but it’s not even a comparison to the type of man he was,” Jorgensen said. “He was just a phenomenal person, and that’s what I remember the most.
He was more than just a coach. He was a coach, a father figure, a friend and just a wonderful, wonderful man.”

Boyland said Tiedemann always looked at the positives and found ways to make his players better.

“He was the eternal optimist,” Boyland said. “I don’t think Coach [Tiedemann] was a great X’s and O’s guy. I think he was just a great motivator. Like they say with the Packers, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. That’s how it was with him.”

Reichardt still remembers one of his favorite quotes from Tiedemann, which came the day before the 1985 championship game against Marietta College.

“He said, ‘Guys, we got to go out there and play our best tomorrow. If we win, I’m going fishing. If we lose, I’m going fishing,’” Reichardt said. “Here’s a guy who poured his life into this, and when it’s all said and done, either way he’s going to catch himself some fish.”

According to Boyland, the players’ mindsets changed with Tiedemann as the coach.

“We weren’t trying to succeed, but I think we were just in fear of failure, and that’s how he made us to believe,” Boyland said. “We did not want to disappoint him because we were in fear of that too.”

Boyland said one of his biggest regrets was not staying in touch with Tiedemann after leaving Oshkosh.

“I wish that once I graduated and signed in the pros that he and I would have established a longer-term relationship that I do with Coach White at this time,” Boyland said. “I’m very sad that Coach Tiedemann and I did not continue to stay in touch like I have with most of the other coaches, friends and fraternity brothers that went to school with me there. I’m very sad by that in itself.”

Tomasiewicz said it is humbling to walk onto the Oshkosh baseball field, which was renamed to Tiedemann Field on May 7, 1989.
“When you walk on the field and you see Tiedemann Field, and you meet the guy that it’s named after, you understand why the field is named that way,” Tomasiewicz said. “It’s an honor to play on his field, and we’re just trying to hold up the legacy at this point.