Occidental College

Murray Via '54 is Occidental's all-time batting leader in baseball with a .435 career average and holds the school single-season batting record at .500 (in 1954). Playing center field for Coach Bill Anderson, Via was selected First-Team All-Conference for three consecutive years and co-captained the championship 1954 team, which was inducted in the Oxy Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. A longtime supporter of the baseball program and team historian, he and fellow Tiger Ed Harper '51 co-authored Bringing Back Bengal Baseball, published in 2014.