Oscar George "Ox" Eckhardt (December 23, 1901 – April 22, 1951) was an American professional baseball and football player.

Eckhardt holds the known[A] all-time professional baseball record for batting average, counting both major and minor league stats with .365.

[2] In spite of his outstanding ability to hit for average, Eckhardt – a poor fielder who lacked much home run power – was never able to establish himself in the major leagues.

He spent a few years as a football coach and assistant professor at West Texas State Teachers College (now West Texas A&M University), so he was already 26 when he started seriously playing minor league ball,[2] which is older than the average age of major league debuts.

[2] This finally earned him a slot on a major league club, the 1936 Brooklyn Dodgers, with a chance to win a job as a regular.