Excerpt from the Spring 2026 Extension
The rookie pitcher was on the mound for his first time in a major league baseball game at the Detroit Tigers Ballpark. He nervously toed the rubber and looked around the expanse of the stadium. All the seats were filled and a major attraction was the Tigers’ opponent that day—the formidable New York Yankees.
The rookie was called in as a reliever to stem the tide of a Yankee rally. The bases were loaded and there was one out. Stepping to the plate to face the rookie pitcher was the legendary Yankee slugger, Mickey Mantle. The pitcher looked into the batters’ box and swallowed hard.
That young pitcher on that day, in that fraught situation, was (speaking of legendary) Ron Nischwitz who later served thirty years as the head baseball coach at Wright State.
Ron sat down with WSURA Board members Kathy Morris and Dan Abrahamowicz last September as part of the oral history project sponsored by the retirees’ association. You can watch a recording of the entire interview here: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/archives_retirees/52/.
Ron graduated from Dayton Fairview High School and then attended The Ohio State University where he played baseball. A left-handed pitcher, Ron was good enough to be named an All American in 1958 and was eventually enshrined in the OSU Hall of Fame. Ron was signed as an amateur free agent by the Detroit Tigers. He played two years for the Tigers and one year for the Cleveland Indians. Ron recalled that once in spring training he faced Henry Aaron and struck him out.
Ron was hired as head coach of the WSU baseball team in 1975. He said, “When Don Mohr (then WSU athletic director) hired me, he said we’re here to develop young men, and we don’t care how much you win. You’re here to develop young men, but there’s one caveat. When you play the University of Dayton, you better win.”
Nevertheless, win was what Ron did. Over 30 years, he had 866 wins. His WSU teams qualified for the NCAA Division II regional eight times and finished second nationally in the 1987 World Series. He guided WSU baseball to its first ever Division I World Series appearance in 1994 and opened with a win over North Carolina State.
Ron is in the Wright State University Hall of Fame, and he is also in the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Nischwitz Stadium on the WSU campus became a reality. The stadium is named after Ron and his son Greg who played for WSU before losing his life in a construction accident. When Ron retired in 2004, his uniform number 42 was also retired and he was named coach emeritus.
Well, what happened on that day when rookie Ron faced baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle? As Ron tells it, “I threw him three straight fastballs. He fouled off the first two and on the third one he hit a sacrifice fly.”
That’s pretty darn good.
