Rice University Owls baseball player Allan Ramirez
Date
ca. 1988Abstract
Rice Athletic Hall of Fame
Description
Black and white photograph of Rice University Owls baseball player Allan Ramirez, headlining his achievement into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame. Caption reads: Let’s take a brief glance at some of the honors won by another deserving new member of the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame, Allan Ramirez. -- He set the all-time Southwest Conference record for strikeouts in SWC games while starring for the Owls during a four-year career from 1976-79. -- He won four games for the Baltimore Orioles during their World Championship year of 1983. -- And perhaps most significantly, he was the winning pitcher in one of the all-time greatest games in SWC history, a March 27, 1977 4 – 3 Rice win over the Texas Longhorns in 14 innings. The win ended UT’s 34-game win streak, the longest in NCAA history. Allan Ramirez was a superior competitor who loved to go out “against the odds” and win while playing for Rice under veteran coach Doug Osburn. He is now doing well as a medical sales representative for Roerig Pharmaceuticals in his old home town of Victoria. Arm trouble in 1983 forced Allan to undergo arthoscopic surgery later during the 1984 season. He tried to come back in 1985, but is just didn’t work out for Ramirez as he prematurely retired from baseball that year. What a shame the arm trouble emerged as, at a young 32, Ramirez could still be pitching major league baseball today. But Ramirez has no regrets. He has a good job, a fine family he’s very proud of (wife Hilda Marie who he married on September 2, 1978, and children Renee Michelle (8) and Felice Danielle (5), and is now happily situated in Victory as he enters the Rice Hall of Fame. Allan had some dramatic moments in his exciting career at Rice, but there is no question that his victory at Austin against the Longhorns is the highlight. Ramirez was a mere sophomore challenging the Horns at relatively new Disch-Falk Field. UT was riding a 34-game win streak, then and now the longest in Division I history. In fact, eliminating the post-season NCAA play-offs, UT went into that game without a loss in 48 straight regular-season games! It was an early-season March encounter in SWC action. Saturday’s game was rained out so the Owls and Longhorns were playing on a Sunday. A gutsy Ramirez had thrown more than 200 pitches to keep his Owls tied with UT at 3 – 3 through 13 innings. Finally, an exhausted Ramirez had to be pinch hit for in the 14th, but the Owls came through to score a run and take a 4 – 3 lead. Jeff Hays came in the bottom of the 14th to retire UT and earn the save for Ramirez as the Owls ended the all-time longest winning streak in college baseball history. Ramirez had many more career highlights for Rice. His 134 strikeouts in 1976 broke an impressive SWC mark set by fabulous Bobby Layne of Texas. He set career Rice standards in complete games (39), shutouts (7), strikeouts (418), inning pitched (342), games started (48) and games completed (39) and wins (27). He also has the season record for shutouts with five in 1976 and ERA for a season with a sparking 1.90 during that marvelous 1976 freshman season. His career ERA of 2.53 ranks third on the all-time Rice list behind current Cincinnati Reds pitcher Norm Charlton and David Pavlas. Perhaps the most telling story about Allan occurred when he faced UH at Cougar Field. The game was in the last of the seventh inning, the bases were loaded with two out and a 3 – 2 count on the batter. EVERYTHING depended on Allan’s final pitch with Rice up a single run. With all the runners in motion, Allan calmed reared back and struck out the Cougar batter to give Rice the win. It was sheer drama, as was usually the case when Ramirez pitched.
Citation
Keyword
Sports; Ramirez, Allan; Rice Athletic Hall of Fame; Rice Owls (Baseball team); Baseball players--Texas--Houston; More... Rice University--History
Publisher
Citable link to this page
https://hdl.handle.net/1911/64017Rights
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