This guy was a no-brainer. Liston, a 1913 Baker graduate, devoted most of his adult life to making Baker University athletics what it is today.
He started his Baker career by being a four-year letterman in football. A good friend of basketball’s inventor James Naismith, Liston created the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and was the brain-child behind its first basketball tournament – which is now considered the most competitive hoops tournament in the country – in 1937.
He served as the school’s athletic director from 1920 to 1945 and is the man who built the stadium where the Baker football, soccer and track teams participate. It’s no wonder it is named after him.
He retired from Baker in 1945 to begin his post as the first-ever NAIA executive director. Liston has been enshrined in the Baker Hall of Fame, the NAIA Basketball Hall of Fame, the Kansas All-Sports Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He died Oct. 26, 1949, but will forever be remembered as one of the top ambassadors for Baker University athletics.