Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2024: Ken Hayward

Ken Hayward was a record-setting player for Michigan during some of the program’s most successful seasons.

LANSING, Michigan (WLNS) – When Ken Hayward was learning to play baseball as a young boy, his father told him about the great Ted Williams and forced his son to bat left-handed like Williams.

“Everyone always wondered why I threw right-handed and hit left-handed, but my dad didn’t give me a choice,” Hayward said. “He said I hit left-handed because the best swing he’d ever seen was Ted Williams’.”

There is no doubt that his father’s persistence paid off, as Hayward developed into one of the best left-handed hitters in the history of the University of Michigan.

Hayward played for the Wolverines from 1982 to 1985. Along with players like Chris Sabo and Barry Larkin, Hayward was a key figure in some of the program’s most successful seasons. Michigan won two Big Ten titles and appeared in the College World Series twice in his four years with the program.

“Looking back, I think it was really a special era for Michigan baseball,” he said. “I was happy to be a part of it for the four years I was there. They had some good years before and some good years after, but I think the heyday of Michigan baseball was the early 1980s and I’m really proud to have been a part of that.”

In 1983, Hayward and the Wolverines lost in the College World Series semifinals to a Texas Longhorns team that included Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi and would go on to win the national title. The 1983 season was Michigan’s second-best finish in the last 50 years, surpassed only by the 2019 team that lost to Vanderbilt in the College World Series championship.

“We expected to be playing to get to Omaha every year,” Hayward said. “When you walked onto campus, you knew that right away. So we were really motivated to not only be successful in the Big Ten, but we knew the Big Ten was a means to an end to get to a regional and then to Omaha. Luckily, I was able to get there twice, I really think we should have been there three times, and it was a pretty amazing experience.”

It was that expectation of success that helped Hayward have a record-breaking career. He still holds the Michigan program’s career records for batting average (.376), runs batted in (207) and games played (234).

In his senior season, he posted a remarkable .432 batting average and also received the Big Ten Medal of Honor in recognition of his outstanding achievements as an athlete and student. Hayward said that of all his accomplishments, the Big Ten Medal of Honor means the most to him and that his individual success is the result of his drive for team success.

“All of those records are a result of my efforts to help Michigan win. I mean, that’s what it was about for me. That was back when Bo (Schembechler) was at his peak. ‘The team! The team! The team!’ That’s what we were about. We would do anything we could, sacrifice anything it took to win a Big Ten championship and make it to Omaha. All of that leads me to say that I’m really grateful to my dad for teaching me to bat left-handed. I’m really grateful that baseball was a part of my life because it really opened up a lot of things for me that maybe wouldn’t have been possible without baseball.”

After his playing days, Hayward began a highly successful business career. For many years he was the general manager of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Today he is vice president of public relations and special assistant to the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

“I think the discipline that you need as a student and as an athlete can’t be underestimated,” Hayward said of how his baseball career prepared him for the business world. “Being able to keep up with your studies. Being able to keep up with a training schedule and a practice schedule and then a travel schedule and a game schedule certainly teaches you great discipline, life discipline, that I think can be transferred to any career that you really aspire to.”