William Carey’s Bobby Halford passes Ron Polk

• In his forty-year career Halford’s won twenty conference championships, been to the NAIA postseason 27 times, and only had one, yes only one, losing season.

This isn’t my normal weekly blathering’s about the outdoors, but I recently had the privilege to write this article about a man that has meant as much to me as almost anyone on the planet. Without him, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today. He gave me the opportunity to not only play college baseball, but to stand next to him in the dugout for sixteen seasons after I finished playing. For that, I am eternally grateful. I know this article won’t do him near the justice he deserves, but I hope in some way it shows my appreciation and the appreciation of all of the guys that came before me. 

Bobby Halford has spent the last forty years quietly at the helm of the William Carey University baseball program. During that time period he’s racked up win after win unbeknownst to much of the country. 

William Carey University, located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is an NAIA school with an enrollment of around 5,500 students. Located in the same city as NCAA Division I Southern Miss, Carey often goes unnoticed on the bigger stage. Halford has even likened it to Chicago. “We are kind of like the White Sox in town,” said Halford. “The Cubs get most of the attention and we are kind of like the Southsiders.” An outsider might not know it, but his Crusaders used to go across town to the larger school and give them more than they could handle. The last time the two cross-town teams met in a three-game series the Crusaders swept the Golden Eagles. With RPI being such a deciding factor for NCAA postseason berths there’s no way Southern Miss can afford to play them now. 

It wasn’t always the way it is now, though. Halford and the Crusaders leaned into being the “giant killers” early in his coaching career. He racked up midweek victories over plenty of bigger Division I schools, including Ohio State, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. “Playing against those guys in midweek games made our weekend conference schedule seem a lot easier,” he said. “We’d be at Dudy Noble Field in front of 6,000 people on one night then we’d be playing a conference game two days later against Mobile in front of 200.” Playing the tough midweek schedule paid off for Halford’s teams and it showed by the fact that they won eight conference championships in his first ten seasons.

Fast forward to 2025 and Halford and the Crusaders just keep on winning. In his forty-year career he’s won twenty conference championships, been to the NAIA postseason 27 times, and only had one, yes only one, losing season. That one blip on the record was in 2019, and what have Halford’s Crusaders done since then? They’ve won either a regular season championship or a conference tournament championship every year since, including this year’s Southern States Athletic Conference regular season championship. 

Up until 2017, there had really only been one thing eluding Halford, a trip to the NAIA World Series. In January 2017, a tornado ripped right through the middle of the William Carey campus, decimating much of the area and rendering Milton Wheeler Field, the Crusaders’ home stadium, unplayable for much of the season. Carey had to lean on Southern Miss, local junior colleges, and surrounding high schools to play their early season home games. One would think this inconvenience would derail a team, but it had the opposite effect. The team took off and by the time they were able to play on their own field again, they’d put themselves in a position to be one of the nine host sites for the NAIA Opening Round. This is where the magic begins. Three ninth inning comeback wins put the Crusaders in a winner to the World Series championship game versus Southeastern University (FL). Halford had been in this situation several times in his career, only to come up just short. With the game tied 9-9 in the bottom of the 9^th with two outs and a runner on second, Halford’s persistence was rewarded. A groundball single through the left side and a bang bang play at home plate sent Halford and the Crusaders to the NAIA World Series for the first time in his career. Halford was later named as the NAIA National Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the season.

After all of the years of trying to reach the World Series and coming up short, it would have almost been the perfect way to hang it up on an already legendary career. But Halford kept coming back. “I really enjoy what I get to do,” said Halford. “I don’t hunt or fish or play golf, so this is what I like to do. We have such a great support system here at Carey and it makes it hard to want to stop.” It’s a good thing he keeps rocking along, because his teams have been to the World Series two more times since that first trip (2023 & 2024). The 2017 and 2023 teams both made it to the semi-finals of the World Series.

Even with all of the wins and all of the awards, including being inducted into the 2024 NAIA Hall of Fame, you’d never know it if you met him. Humble and soft-spoken, Halford always defers credit elsewhere. “It’s never about one person,” said Halford.  “We’ve always had a very supportive administration and really good players and assistants. It’s collectively a group effort to make all of this possible.” And good players is right. Halford has had over fifty players go on to play professionally during his career, including four former players currently still playing. 

Entering the 2025 season, Halford needed 37 wins to pass another college baseball legend, Ron Polk. You can’t mention successful college baseball coaches without Polk being toward the top of the pile. Polk’s teams reached the College World Series eight times, and he won 1,373 games over the course of his career. Early in Halford’s career, his Crusader teams battled it out with Polk’s Mississippi State Bulldogs on several occasions. “I always thought he did things the right way,” Halford said regarding Polk. “His guys were always ready to play, and they always executed so well. I learned a lot by playing against them early in my career.” On May 1^st Halford surpassed Polk with his 1,374^th career victory making him the winningest college baseball coach in arguably one of the most successful baseball states, Mississippi. “I’m honored and blessed to have been able to get to this point. It’s great for our program and our university. None of this could have ever been possible without the support of my family,” said Halford.

At 72, Halford is often teased about when he plans to retire. But why would he? The Crusaders just keep winning and are in line to make a run at another NAIA World Series berth. They’ve already been chosen as one of the hosts for another NAIA Opening Round this year. “I really don’t think about it much. I just kind of go day to day trying to be better than we were yesterday,” said Halford. Who knows what will happen next? Maybe this is the year Halford adds that final piece to his glorious career, a national championship.