13   Ray Hayward Position: Assistant Coach

Two-time Sooner All-American Ray Hayward begins his fourth year as his alma mater's pitching coach and offers a wealth of collegiate and professional pitching experience. Hayward returned to the university after pitching eight seasons of professional baseball in the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers organizations and most recently serving as a scout for the Detroit Tigers. In addition to the pitching coach duties he performs, Hayward helps OU draw in some of the nation's top talent as he also serves as the team's recruiting coordinator.

Hayward joined the OU coaching staff in the summer of 1999 and made an immediate impact on the team's performance. The 2000 pitching staff improved four spots in the Big 12 Conference rankings and cut down the number of earned runs allowed by almost two full runs from the year prior to Hayward's arrival. Hayward also helped guide two pitchers to All-America honors that year in Jeff Bajenaru and Freshman All-America Austin Mix. The two All-Americans Hayward helped produce in his first year was made even more impressive due to the fact that the OU program had only one pitcher achieve All-America honors in the 15 years before his arrival.

Hayward has continued to guide his hurlers to national and conference accolades as former Sooner Rocky Cherry was an All-Big 12 honorable mention selection in 2001 and current standout David Purcey racked up numerous honors last year. Purcey picked up Freshman All-America honors as well as All-Big 12 honorable mention and Freshman All-Big 12 recognition in his first season.

An Oklahoma All-State selection coming out of high school, Hayward immediately found success at the University of Oklahoma. As a sophomore in 1981, he garnered All-Big Eight Conference, all-district and third team All-America honors as both a pitcher and a first baseman. In 1983, Hayward repeated the feat by collecting All-Big Eight Conference, all-district and first team All-America accolades. It was the first time in Big Eight Conference history that a player was named all-conference at two positions in the same year.

Hayward's Sooner legacy still remains intact in the school record books as he continues to hold his place on several of OU's single-season and career lists. His 30 career complete games has yet to be surpassed and two of his single-season complete game marks currently stand third and fourth on the charts. Hayward's 293 career strikeouts stood atop of the career charts for more than 10 years before being topped only by Mark Redman (1994-95) and the 125 strikeouts he posted in 1983 stands sixth on the single-season list. Additionally, he holds the third spot on the career wins list with 26 and is eighth on the all-time innings pitched list with 275 frames logged.

After enjoying a successful collegiate career, Hayward became the first-round selection (10th pick overall) of the San Diego Padres in the 1983 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. He pitched for the Padres from 1983-1987, and then continued his major league career in the Rangers organization from 1988-1991. Following his professional pitching career, he spent several years as a scout in the Tigers organization.

Born April 27, 1961, in Enid, Okla., Hayward and his wife, the former Jeannie Benoit of Las Vegas, Nev., have three children: Jaynie (13), David (12) and Braden (7).