Ozzie Smith paid a visit to pay homage to the first Cal Poly basketball team to make the NCAA tournament.
ST. LOUIS – Cal Poly made its alumni proud by making it to the NCAA tournament for the first time. One of them – Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith – visited the Mustangs in their locker room before Friday’s game.
“It was great to meet a legend. He said that we just put Cal Poly on the map as far as making it here. He said we won before the game even started,” Cal Poly senior guard Kyle Odister said after the 16th-seeded Mustangs lost 64-37 to No. 1 seeded Wichita State (35-0).
Smith, who played his career as a shortstop primarily with the St. Louis Cardinals, is a 1977 graduate of the school in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame for athletics.
“He signed things and he hung out and talked and visited, and that’s cool,” Cal Poly Coach Joe Callero said of the locker room visit. “ … I guess one of the goals next is to get John Madden (also a Cal Poly alum) to come in the locker room. … You know, we’re a weird team. Maybe we’ll get Weird Al Jankovic (singer, songwriter and holder of a Cal Poly degree in architecture) to come back here as well.”
Though it finished the season 14-20, Cal Poly made it here by winning the Big West Tournament as a seventh seed and beating Texas Southern in a play-in game.
A visit from Smith, a.k.a “The Wizard,” was another bonus.
“It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life, my first time being in the NCAA tournament and meeting Ozzie Smith,” said Odister. “ … It would have been nice if we had got a win, though.”
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