Category: Shocker Athletics

The NCAA announced July 9 afternoon that Wichita has been selected to host opening round games for the 2027 and 2028 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship at INTRUST Bank Arena.

Wichita and Dayton, Ohio, which has served as the host city for the start of the tournament since 2001, both will host three games each day on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday. The change was necessitated by the decision in May to expand the tournament field from 68 to 76 teams.

Wichita State University will serve as the host in partnership with Visit Wichita, Sedgwick County and the City of Wichita.

On Monday afternoon, Shocker volleyball coach Chris Lamb explains back-spin and top-spin to a group of 60 young women during a serving drill at camp. Across campus, work continues on locker rooms and offices at Wilkins Stadium, soon to be connected to an indoor practice facility, opened last fall, that allows the Shockers to work on softball skills year-round.

Those scenes have their roots in car rides to play days, T-shirts purchased at the campus bookstore and fights for meal money. Natasha (Matson) Fife, a teacher in WSU’s physical education department, helped start the movement for women’s college sports in the late 1960’s. She lived to see those efforts pay off with Charles Koch Arena packed for women’s sports and success and attention unimaginable in the early days.

Fife, 89, passed away July 3. In addition to her pioneering role at WSU, she was one of Kansas’ greatest golfers, winner of five Kansas Women’s Amateurs and a competing in four U.S. Women’s Amateurs. She was inducted in the Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Shocker Athletics was well represented at the 28th annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet, as current and former Shockers were recognized for excellence both on and off the field.

• Freshman sensation Kinzey Woody was named the College Female Athlete of the Year following one of the most decorated debut seasons in Shocker softball history.
• Kenyon Giles received College Male Athlete of the Year honors after delivering one of the greatest shooting seasons in Shocker men’s basketball history.
• Longtime Shocker volleyball head coach Chris Lamb was inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame, recognizing one of the most successful coaching careers in Shocker history.
• Former Shocker baseball standout Shane Dennis was also inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame.
• Legendary Shocker baseball coach and administrator Brent Kemnitz received the Excellence in Sports Award, honoring nearly five decades of service to Shocker Athletics.

“Shocker basketball ace” Gene Wiley appeared on the front page of the student newspaper in 1962 as he prepared to join the Los Angeles Lakers.

While on his way to one of the NBA’s most famous teams, his painting skills landed him on page one of The Sunflower. Wiley exhibited nine of his watercolor and tempera works, in addition to illustrations with pen and ink, in the Shocker Room in what is now the Rhatigan Student Center.

Wiley, 88, passed away June 22 in El Dorado, Kansas. Known as a quiet and reserved man, he continued painting throughout his life after a standout basketball career for the Shockers, four seasons in the NBA and a fifth in the ABA. He lived his final years at Lakepoint Nursing Home in El Dorado.

Cleo Littleton’s mark on Wichita State basketball starts when fans enter Charles Koch Arena. Littleton starred for the Shockers in the early 1950’s and prompted the construction of the 10,000-seat on-campus arena.

Without Cleo in uniform, what path does Shocker basketball take? That road is an unknown. Littleton’s foundational contributions are on the record and visible at the corner of 21st and Hillside.

Littleton’s mark on life outside basketball is just as — perhaps more — significant. His family and friends demonstrated that during Littleton’s memorial service on June 23 at University United Methodist Church, a short walk from the arena where a banner hangs to honor his career as a Shocker.

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Shocker women’s tennis head coach Jacob Eddins was announced as the 2026 ITA/Dunlop Central Region Coach of the Year June 9.

Eddins was named head coach in September 2025 and quickly elevated the program to the national stage, producing one of the best overall years in program history in his first season at the helm.

The Shockers reached as high as No. 24 in the ITA rankings during the spring 2026 season and earned an at-large bid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The team ended the season ranked No. 35 and was rated No. 3 in the ITA Mid-Major top 25 rankings as well as No. 2 in the ITA Central Region.

Shocker baseball senior third baseman Jayson Jones was named to the ABCA/Rawlings Central All-Region Second Team June 9.

Jones is the first Shocker to earn a spot on the All-Region team since Caden Favors in 2024 and the first position player to do so since Payton Tolle in 2023.

Following a national search, Denning Gerig has been named director of broadcasting for Wichita State Athletics. In his role, Gerig will serve as the next Voice of the Shockers, assuming play-by-play responsibilities for men’s basketball and baseball beginning with the 2026-27 season.

In addition to his broadcasting duties, Gerig will help lead the development of original content, storytelling initiatives and coaches’ programming in partnership with Shocker Sports Properties and Wichita State Athletics, creating new opportunities for fans to connect with Shocker student-athletes, coaches and programs throughout the year.

Gerig succeeds Mike Kennedy, whose 46-year broadcasting career made him one of the most recognizable and respected voices in collegiate athletics and synonymous with Wichita State Athletics.

“Growing up in Wichita and listening to Mike Kennedy broadcast Shocker Athletics, I knew from a very young age what I wanted to do in life,” Gerig said. “I’m deeply honored to follow in Mike’s footsteps and promise to bring Shocker fans the same level of commitment, preparation, and love for this university with every broadcast. I know from experience how powerful the connection is between Wichita State and this community. There is no place I would rather be and no job I would rather have.”

A Wichita State alumnus, Gerig has been a familiar voice to Shocker fans for more than a decade. He first began broadcasting Wichita State events in 2015 as part of the university’s initial Valley on ESPN3 productions and has since called baseball, volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball contests on ESPN+, in addition to serving as color commentator with Kennedy on the road for Wichita State baseball.

In addition to his collegiate experience, he spent five total years in professional minor league baseball with the Wichita Wingnuts and Cleburne Railroaders, earning American Association Broadcaster of the Year honors in 2021.

To celebrate this transition, there will be a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, June 12 at Social Tap in Braeburn Square. Fans will have the opportunity to meet Gerig and join the Wichita State community in honoring Kennedy as he concludes his historic broadcasting career.

In his biography, coach Ralph Miller describes basketball as “just tolerated” and overshadowed by football at the University of Wichita in 1951. Nine people cared enough to buy season tickets.

That changed with the arrival of a star player and a hall-of-fame coach. Miller brought 6-foot-3-inch forward Cleo Littleton with him from Wichita East High School and the sport quickly grew up.

Littleton, 93, passed away May 31 in Wichita. He played for the Shockers from 1951-55 and is the program’s career scoring leader with 2,164 points. He earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors four times and numerous All-American honors in 1954 and 1955. His No. 13 is retired.