Hall of Fame
Sandra O'Rourke was a member of a select group at St. Francis, a near-Olympian for classification purposes. To this day, some 27 years since the inception of the St. Francis athletic program back in 1972, she remains as one of only three CSF individuals, male or female, to have received an invitation to try out for the United States Olympic team. Her bid came on the heels of a storybook senior season in 1993 when she led St. Francis to a ninth-place World Series finish, while securing NAIA All-America First Team accolades for herself at first base. O'Rourke's 76 hits that season still rank as the program's all-time top mark, while her .455 batting average and seven triples remain in the No. 2 spot. Her 11 doubles and 37 runs batted in that year currently sit third on the single-season charts. O'Rourke proved to be one of the toughest Saints to strike out during a career in which she batted .363 (2nd-best) with 28 doubles (fifth) and 94 RBI (fifth). She became the victim of the K just 3.8 percent of the time in 498 plate appearances, including just twice in 167 at bats (1.1 percent) during her final campaign, figures unfathomable for a sport ruled by pitchers. Defensively, the numbers are just as mind-boggling. A mere 18 errors in better than 1,000 career chances at first base leading to a .982 fielding clip. Just two miscues in 379 opportunities during the final run, when she also nabbed all-conference and all-district acclaim, not to mention all-district tournament honors for the second straight year. O'Rourke went on to earn a bachelor's degree in English with certification in Secondary Education from St. Francis in 1993 and followed that up with her master's in Educational Administration last year.
