[3] The UO team made one College World Series appearance, in 1954, and was eliminated from the tournament after losing to Arizona and Massachusetts.

One reason was the success of the rival Oregon State Beavers,[11][12][13] who had repeated as College World Series champions a month earlier.

In the Ducks' first game in PK Park, they defeated the defending national champions, the Fresno State Bulldogs, 1–0 on a walk-off single by senior Andrew Schmidt.

[15] Two weeks later on June 11, it was announced that Mark Wasikowski was the successor; he was previously an assistant at Oregon from 2012 through 2016, then was the head coach at Purdue in the Big Ten Conference.

Howe started teaching at UO in 1901 and was its original faculty representative to the Pacific Coast Conference in 1915, partially responsible for the league's founding.