(Editor's note: This is the sixth in a series of feature profiles on this year's Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor selections that will be posted every Thursday, leading up to the Nov. 22 Hall of Fame banquet.)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
When Josh Ford got the call this summer about being elected to the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, his initial thought was that one of his former teammates was just pulling a prank.
"I had actually just talked to my college roommate (Michael Griffin) not too long before that, and I thought it was him pranking me," said Ford, the starting catcher on the Bears' last College World Series team in 2005.
Once it hit home that this was real, though, "it made me step back, and all those memories and feelings came flooding back about being at Baylor and being able to celebrate and even getting beat. You don't forget those things. It was just a very humbling, appreciative feeling."
Ford is part of the 2019 Hall of Fame class that will be inducted at the Nov. 22 Hall of Fame Banquet and honored the next day at the football team's game against Texas.
A blue-chip recruit coming out of Baytown Sterling High School, Ford committed to Baylor after a recruiting weekend that included the football team's 16-13 overtime win over New Mexico.
"We actually left the facility, and I said, 'I want to go here,''' Ford said. "We got about 30 minutes down the road, and we turned around and went back to see if anyone was still there. They were gone, but I called the next day and said I'm going to commit here."
Ford had the unenviable task of following consensus All-American catcher Kelly Shoppach, a 2011 Hall of Fame inductee who played eight years in the major leagues.
"I did get that question, 'Hey, are you going to be the next Kelly?''' he said. "I always tried to say, 'No, but I want to be the first Josh.' For me, our games were different, but it was good to be able to step into that with big expectations, because I think a lot of people that we recruited that year that came in with our class had high expectations. So, in terms of big shoes to fill, we all kind of felt like that and thrived off of it."
As a sophomore, Ford hit .314 with 12 home runs and 63 RBI for a 45-23 team that fell one win short of the College World Series. After winning the opener of the LSU Super Regional, the Bears had a 5-4 lead on the Tigers before giving up back-to-back homers in the eighth and then losing the decisive Game 3, 20-5.
"It was kind of a fluky thing that we lost at LSU," Ford said. "It's funny, you remember more about the losses than you do the wins."
Going into his junior year, Ford had shoulder surgery when he "couldn't even brush my teeth" after a fall ball workout and a summer in Cape Cod.
"The next day, we went to Dallas to see Dr. (John) Conway, and he said it looks like you've been in a car wreck," Ford said. "There was rotator cuff issues they had to fix, my labrum was torn in three or four places, I had bursitis, I had cracks on my humerus, there were bone fragments. It was kind of a mess. I remember before the surgery, he said, 'Hey, just to be clear, do you want me to fix this where maybe you play this year? Or, do you want to be able to play catch with your kids?' I told him I think I want to be able to play catch with my kids. And he said, 'OK, well you're not going to be able to catch this year.'''
Limited to designated hitter duties, Ford hit .310 with a career-best 14 homers and 43 RBI for a 29-31 team that lost 16 one-run games.
"That was the first season I had not been in the field, so it was pretty difficult," he said. "Catching is a pretty involved position, so it was difficult not being able to be there. It got better toward the end of the year, but as a whole it was tough to just be able to contribute that one way."
Going undrafted following his junior season was a humbling experience, Ford said, "but it makes you take a step back and realize there is more to life than just baseball."
But, that tough 2004 season served as motivation for what happened the next year when the Bears finished 46-24, won a share of the Big 12 regular-season title and made it back to Omaha for the first time in 27 years.
"I remember talking to Mike (Griffin) and Paul Witt and Zach (Dillon) and all those guys and it, 'This is not the way we want to go out,''' Ford said. "One thing we talked about, even as freshmen, was trying to build a winning culture. That was a big year of, even if you're not a senior or junior, it doesn't matter where you come from, we're going to win here. That was that winning culture we wanted to develop, and it was good to see that come to fruition."
After sweeping through the Waco Regional, the Bears dropped Game 1 of the Super Regional against Clemson before dominating the next two games and earning a berth in the College World Series.
"It was unbelievable," Ford said. "I was nervous all the way up to the last pitch. I remember catching Ryan LaMotta's last-pitch changeup, the guy swung and missed and we all celebrated and ran around the field. We were pretty good at being able to take that win and set it aside and say, 'OK, there's still work to do.' But, for a night, we celebrated."
At the World Series, Baylor dropped a 5-1 game to Texas after beating the Longhorns four times during the season. But, the Bears bounced back with a 4-3, 10-inning win over Oregon State and rallied from a 7-0 deficit to eliminate top-seeded Tulane, 8-7.
"That whole year, we had put together some rallies that were pretty unexpected," said Ford, who started the ninth-inning rally with a leadoff single, "so I don't think anyone panicked. We had pretty much faced phenomenal pitching all year, so it didn't scare us or anything like that. I led off the ninth with a little single and thought, 'Here we go.' That was definitely one of the most fun games I've ever played in."
That emotion was flipped the very next day when Chance Wheelis came off the bench to hit a pinch-hit, walk-off homer off LaMotta leading off the ninth in the Longhorns' 4-3 win
"Wheelis was hurt, we didn't think he could turn on a fastball, and he did," Ford said. "We didn't make a terrible pitch. We made a pretty good pitch, and he hit it. And you just tip your cap to him, but that's baseball. You know at that point it's win or go home, and that particular game they won."
Drafted in the ninth round by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ford made it to Double-A Mobile by his second full season and appeared to be on a fast track to the majors, but he missed the next two years with a pair of Tommy John surgeries and walked away from baseball in 2012.
"At that point, I had had three elbow surgeries, four other shoulder surgeries and my shoulder was starting to bother me again," he said. "I didn't mind the games, but it got old trying to prepare for the games, the constant ice and heat and massage and treatment on this and arm car. It just wore on me to where it wasn't as much fun as it used to be. I was 30, and it was just time to be done."
Since leaving pro baseball, he coached select and youth baseball teams in the Austin area before taking a position with Thrivent, a Christian financial services company. He is now a regional development director with the Austin-based company.
Josh and his fiancé, Kristen, have a 6-month-old daughter, Camryn, and live in Cedar Park.
Joining Ford in the 2019 Hall of Fame class are former All-Americans Ryan Baca from men's golf and Lauren Hagans Paquette from track & field, football players John Adickes, Steve Beaird and Robin Jones, softball's Lisa Ferguson Murphy and Curtis Jerrells from men's basketball. Additionally, Mark Hurd and Jody Conradt will be added to the Wall of Honor.
The Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, in the Brazos Room at the Waco Convention Center. Tickets cost $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available for $600 (green) and $800 (gold), and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at
Tammy_Hardin@baylor.edu.
