Baseball
Inducted 2005
Austin Peay has had a long line of great shortstops, especially during the Gary McClure coaching era. But no shortstop stands above Chuck Abbott, who combined terrific wide-ranging defensive abilities with a productive bat during the mid-1990s. In fact, he combined with last season’s Hall inductee, Nate Manning, to form perhaps the greatest defensive left side in school history.
From the day McClure and Assistant Coach Brian Hetland recruited Abbott to APSU, they knew they had something special and, in turn, the Schaumburg, Ill., native became a cog in arguably the greatest team in APSU history, the 1996 team that captured a school-record 44 victories.
Abbott still has his name dotted all over the Austin Peay record book. He ranks in APSU single-season Top 10 in runs scored (second/66), hits (third/97), doubles (third/23) and games played (first/66). His .326 batting average ranks 21st all-time, while his runs scored (153/ fourth), hits (218/sixth), doubles (42/sixth), triples (10/t-second) and stolen bases (60/fourth) all rank in the career top 10, despite playing just three seasons.
As a freshman in 1994, Abbott needed little transition to the college game, batting .338 with 25 RBI and 20 stolen bases, earning All-Ohio Valley Conference in his first season. A year later, Abbott’s batting average slipped to .256, but he still had 14 doubles and three triples while driving home 30 runs. Almost amazingly, the sure-handed middle infielder committed just 10 errors in 252 chances.
But it was Abbott’s 1996 season, a magical one for the Govs, that perhaps stood above all APSU shortstops in history. He batted .369 with 23 doubles, four triples and 22 stolen bases in 26 attempts.
That season, he broke the OVC hitting-streak mark, resetting it at 42 straight games. It was the nation’s longest that year and still the fourth-longest in NCAA history. He would go on to earn first-team All-OVC and OVC all-tournament as the Govs claimed advanced not only to the NCAA Play-In game but later the NCAA tournament. Abbott also was named NCAA All-South Region second team.
After the 1996 season, he was selected in the second round of the Major League baseball player draft, the 55th player overall, to become the highest-drafted Gov in history. He played five seasons in the Angels organization before signing a minor league agreement with the Cleveland Indians. However, an elbow injury all but ended his baseball career. He returned to APSU in Fall 2001 to complete his undergraduate work, earning his bachelor’s degree in health and human performance in December 2002.
Abbott was a true student-athlete, being named to the Dean’s List and Athletics Director’s Honor four times during his career and the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll twice. After returning to complete his degree requirements, he was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society.
Since graduating, Abbott serves as a substitute teacher in the Township High School District in the Chicago area, as a baseball instructor at the Fox Valley Sports Academy and an inclusion aide at the Northwest Special Recreation Association.
