Coached by "interim" skipper Wayne Franke (subbing for head coach Dave Mason who was on academic leave to work on his doctorate), this Huskie nine made Northern Illinois history by clinching the program's first Division I NCAA tourney bid in any sport and gaining national exposure on several levels. Based on a 24-6 regular season, winning the Midwestern Conference title, and taking two out of three games at defending NCAA Regional champion and College World Series national runner-up Southern Illinois, NIU gained an at-large NCAA bid at the District Four Regional hosted by Bowling Green State. Northern Illinois ranked among the major-college leaders in many team and individual NCAA statistics---finishing No. 3 in team batting average (.318). Among the Top 20 hitting clubs in the country, NIU led that elite group with a .484 slugging pct. Individually, junior OF Bob Jackson ranked 9th in NCAA hitting (.426) and senior 3B Tom Wittum rated 13th in slugging (.693). Wittum was also named the program's first baseball CoSIDA Academic All-America that spring. At the NCAA Regional, Jackson made the 11-man all-tourney team and finished 2nd in hitting (.429) with Wittum 4th (.375). A league-leading six Huskies garnered First-Team All-Midwestern Conference honors---Jackson and Wittum (both All-MC repeats from 1971), plus 1B-OF Bruce Meredith, OF Lindle Dailey, P Lee Hansen, and P Bob Mestek. With an 8-3 spring trip, a two-game sweep of Big Ten Wisconsin, and a 10-2 league record, the Huskies tied the school single-season victory total (24 in 1971). In the NCAA, NIU lost to host BGSU (2-0) and Regional kingpin Iowa (8-1).
The 1972 Northern Illinois baseball lettermen: Student Mgr. Mike Baar (Des Plaines / Maine West), OF Lindle Dailey (Genoa / Genoa-Kingston), SS Bruce Frase (Arlington Heights / Hersey), 1B Andy Hannigan (Chicago / Burbank-St. Laurence), P Lee Hansen (Springfield / Mt. Carroll), P Randy Hlad (Hammond, IN / Morton), OF Bob Jackson (Harvey / Thornton), P Bryan Jacobs (Lincolnwood / Skokie Niles West), 2B Randy Kersten (Naperville / Central), P Gary Lathrum (Indianola, IA), SS Jim Lidwin (Milwaukee, WI / Notre Dame), P Terry Lorenz (Lincolnwood / Skokie Niles West), 1B-OF Bruce Meredith (Milwaukee, WI / North), P Bob Mestek (LaGrange / Riverside-Brookfield), OF Brian Moore (Waterloo, IA / East), OF Tim Moore (Waterloo, IA / East), C Ralph Radtke (Waukegan), C Bob Taylor (LaGrange / Lyons Twp.), P Burt Von Hoff (Batavia), P Gary Wagner (Niles / Park Ridge Maine East), 3B Tom Wittum (Round Lake), OF Jim Yagen (Maple Park / Kaneland). Interim Coach: Wayne Franke. Head Coach: Dave Mason. Assistant Coach: Ken Anderson.
