PHOENIX – As a freshman baseball player at Arizona State in the early 1960s, Jim Merrick found himself arguing with a teammate over which state was better, California or Texas. Coach Bobby Winkles overheard the debate and decided to settle it his own way.
“He said, ‘Hey, you two, get up here,’” Merrick recalled.
The punishment came quickly. Winkles ordered both players to start running laps around the field during a game and said he would tell them when to stop.
“To say the least, nine innings later, we were still running,” Merrick said.
When the game finally ended, Winkles delivered the punchline.
“He told us, ‘Actually, Arkansas is the best state,’” Merrick said.
The punishment was lighthearted, but the message was serious. Winkles demanded discipline, accountability and a commitment to the team above all else. Those values helped transform the Sun Devils into a national powerhouse and helped guide them to the program’s first national championship in 1965.
More than six decades later, the players who helped build that championship team remember the wins and losses. They remember the bus rides between games. They remember the close-knit culture of the team.
Most of all, they remember the lessons left by coach Bobby Winkles: advice that continued to guide them long after they left the diamond.
“Winkles was an unbelievable individual,” outfielder Glenn Smith said. “He impacted a lot of people’s lives in a positive way.”
The 1965 Sun Devils finished 54-8 and laid the foundation for future titles in 1967 and 1969. The roster featured future stars such as Rick Monday, the first player selected in Major League Baseball’s inaugural draft in 1965, and Sal Bando, who later became a four-time All-Star and captain of the Oakland Athletics dynasty in the ‘70s.
Former players say the team’s success was more due to the culture Winkles instilled in the team and less in the overall talent of the group.
For Merrick, the winning pitcher in the national championship game, Winkles’ philosophy shaped the way players approached both baseball and life.
“The game owes you nothing,” Merrick recalled. “You owe it all to the game.”
Winkles demanded discipline and selflessness from every player on the team.
“Your job was to go out, play hard, play smart, and let the chips fall where they may,” former infielder Jack Smitheran said. “We had stars like Monday and Bando, but they weren’t treated any differently from anyone else.”
Smitheran said that approach helped keep egos in check and created mutual respect.
“They never became too big-headed or took themselves outside of the club,” Smitheran continued. “They weren’t better than anybody else, and I think everybody respected them for that reason.”
Most players on the team knew that Monday was bound for Major League Baseball.
“He knew that he wasn’t going to graduate from ASU and that he was going to sign with a professional club,” Merrick said. “He knew he was going to be the first or second guy taken.”
Despite this, Monday never acted like someone who was destined for greatness.
“He still played hard,” Merrick said. “He did everything that we had to do.”
Bando earned similar respect from his teammates.
“Sal was just generally a great person on and off the field,” Smitheran said. “He was a good friend to me.”
Many on the team agree that Bando was the unofficial leader of the group, with Smith calling him “a man amongst men.”
“I think he was kind of the bedrock of the club,” Smitheran said. “I think a lot of people looked up to him. I know I did.”
Bando’s leadership skills weren’t the only things he provided the team. During the 1965 College World Series he batted .480 with nine RBIs and was named the most valuable player for the tournament.
“You wanted Bando to have the bat in his hands,” Merrick said. “He got all of the big hits.”
Outside of Monday and Bando, there were plenty of other unsung heroes on the team.
Tony Alesci was a leader behind the plate, while fellow catchers Ray Stadler and Duffy Dyer provided depth and reliability. Dyer, a future 1969 “Miracle Met,” even provided positional flexibility, often playing some innings in the outfield.
Jim Armstrong anchored the defense at shortstop, and Luis Lagunas and Jan Kleinman played vital roles throughout the season, knocking in big hits when needed. Lagunas, a 1965 first-team All-American, also drove in the winning run during the national championship game.
The leadership provided by players such as Monday, Bando and Alesci helped the team rebound from a disappointing ending the year before. The Sun Devils had reached the College World Series in 1964 but fell short of a title. The experience proved invaluable.
“The following year, we fed off what we had gone through in ’64,” Smitheran said. “We were much more experienced and knowledgeable when we got there, and we knew how to handle the situation much better.”
Their maturity showed throughout the 1965 season and culminated in a national championship victory over Ohio State.
For the players, the title meant more than just a baseball accomplishment. Arizona State had only become a university less than a decade earlier in 1958, and the championship helped elevate the school’s national profile.
“We were starting to be accepted as a university,” Merrick said.
Smitheran believes the victory helped create a standard that future Sun Devil teams followed.
“I think it told other teams and programs at the university that anything is possible,” he said.
The biggest turning point during the season however, was when ASU beat Arizona entering the postseason.
“Everything came down to that series,” Smitheran said. “We finally got the monkey off our back and established that we were the best college baseball team in Arizona.”
When the team returned home from Omaha as champions, it was stunned by the reception waiting for it.
“There were like 10,000 people at Sky Harbor,” Smitheran said. “We thought nobody was there at first. Then we turned the corner and the old Sky Harbor terminal had people packed everywhere, all there to congratulate us.
“That was special.”
Today, the players speak less about what happened on the baseball field and more about the relationships they built and the impact Winkles had on their lives.
Smitheran went on to coach baseball at UC Riverside for 31 years, amassing a record of 974–723–3. He credits Winkles for his success.
“A lot of what I did in my career was built on the foundations he laid,” Smitheran said.
For Smith, just simply being on the team and winning a national championship seemed like something he could only dream of doing. Growing up in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, he never imagined he would help Arizona State win a national championship.
“What were the odds of something like that ever happening?” Smith said. “Some kid out of Kansas, goes to ASU and plays on the national championship team as a sophomore.”
As the anniversary approaches, those memories continue to elicit heavy emotions for those who played on the team.
“Yeah, it brings a lot of emotion back,” Merrick said. “We had some good times playing together.”
Sixty-one years later, the 1965 Sun Devils remain a source of pride not only because they won Arizona State’s first national championship, but because of what they built.
“We carried the legacy of being the first team at ASU to win a national championship,” Smitheran said. “It’s not something to sneeze at.”
For Smitheran, that legacy is not measured by trophies or statistics, but by fond memories that he will never forget.
“It just takes your breath away to have those experiences and memories,” he said. “Nobody can ever take that away from you.”
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