The Iowa baseball team will welcome back the only squad to ever qualify for the College World Series in school history on Friday before its contest against Ohio State.

Some 26 members of the 1972 baseball squad will be back in town to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the trip to the College World Series.The Hawkeyes won 25 games against 17 losses that year, winning the program’s first Big Ten title since 1949. The team was under the tutelage of Duane Banks, the eponym of the Hawkeyes’ ballpark.

In the District 4 Playoffs (NCAA regionals and super regionals had not been created yet), Iowa recovered from a 7-2 Game 1 loss to Central Michigan to bounce back to win the district. An 8-1 win over Northern Illinois set up a rematch against Central Michigan, which the Hawkeyes won, 4-3. Iowa then topped Bowling Green in two-straight championship games to qualify.

Once the team got to the College World Series, a 2-1 opening round loss to Arizona State and 13-9 consolation bracket loss to Temple bounced the Hawkeyes from the tournament.

Jim Sundberg anchored the Hawkeyes in 1972 and later went on to a career in the MLB with four teams, mostly (12 seasons) as a Texas Ranger. With the Rangers, Sundberg was a three-time All-Star (1974, 1978, 1984) and six-time Gold Glove winner (1976-81). He won a World Series with the Kansas City Royals in 1985.

— by Blake Dowson