Baseball is often described as a game of fathers and sons.
Arkansas Tech University alumnus Steve Walker can tell you all about that.
“I would have to say it goes back to my dad (Eulis Walker),” said Walker. “He was a big baseball fan, and he coached me from the time I was 6 years old up through American Legion. He loved it so much, and that rubbed off on me a little bit.”
Walker is paying forward his love for the game and for Arkansas Tech by creating the Steve G. Walker Endowed Baseball Scholarship and Fund through the ATU Foundation.
The gift will provide scholarships for members of the Arkansas Tech baseball program as well as field maintenance and equipment.
A graduate of Ozark High School, Walker and several friends from his youth came to Arkansas Tech together in 1971. Over the next four years, Walker pursued and attained a bachelor’s degree in recreation and parks administration.
Beyond the classroom, Walker was a catcher for the baseball program at Arkansas Tech from 1972-75.
“We weren’t very good,” said Walker. “I don’t know that in the four years I was there that we had a total above .500 baseball, but we had guys from Flippin, Little Rock, Trumann, Danville, Searcy…just all over the place. It was a good bunch of guys.”
The Wonder Boys might not have collected any hardware during Walker’s playing career, but he served as a student assistant coach during the fall 1975 semester and helped prepare the team for its 1976 run to the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference title.
Walker’s association with Arkansas Tech has remained strong over the years. He met his late wife, Lynda Pierson Walker, there in 1973. They were married for 46 years. Their three daughters — Valerie, Emily and Julie — all graduated from Arkansas Tech. Valerie was a member of the dance team, while Emily played basketball for the Golden Suns. Walker is a former member of the ATU Alumni Association Board of Directors.
These days, Walker is back home in Ozark. He and his wife, Anita, raise beef cattle.
The Arkansas Tech baseball program that Walker gave four years of his life to has never been stronger. The Wonder Boys won Great American Conference championships in 2021, 2024 and 2025, making it the most successful five-year span in Arkansas Tech baseball history.
The Wonder Boys play their home games at Carl Baswell Field and train indoors at the ATU Multisport Complex. It’s a long way from the hardscrabble diamond upon which Walker and his Wonder Boys teammates played a half-century ago, and with gifts like the Steve G. Walker Endowed Baseball Scholarship and Fund, the future of Arkansas Tech baseball appears to be bright.
“It’s absolutely fantastic,” said Walker when asked about the ATU baseball program’s 21st century facilities. “I would’ve loved to have played on that new field. Hopefully these guys that are playing now are playing for the love of the game.”
