Only Two People Have Ever Played in a World Series and an NCAA Final Four – and they Hail from the Same High School

There are only two people on the planet who have ever played in both a World Series and an NCAA Final Four – Tim Stoddard and Kenny Lofton. Amazingly, they both attended the same high school

Kenny Lofton (left) and Tim Stoddard are the only two people to have ever competed in the World Series and Final Four - and they went to the SAME high school. / Photo by BaseballHistoryNut

There are only two people on the planet who have ever played in both a World Series and an NCAA Final Four – Tim Stoddard and Kenny Lofton. Amazingly, they both attended the same high school

Washington High School was a public high school in East Chicago, Indiana which opened in 1898 and closed in 1986. While the school no longer exists, long since merged with Roosevelt High School to become East Chicago Central High School, commonly known in the area as simply “Central,” it remains an answer to a trivia question that has bandied around the internet for decades.

Tim Stoddard and Kenny Lofton are the only players to appear in a World Series and a Final Four. They went to the same high school. pic.twitter.com/yoQHiIsHYN

— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) February 22, 2025

From 1968-1971, Stoddard, a 2011 inductee in the Indiana Basketball High School Hall of Fame roamed the halls of Washington School and was a member of the 1971 Washington High School Senators team which compiled a perfect 29-0 record and won the Indiana state high school basketball tournament, defeating Elkhart 70-60 in the title game. This team also featured Junior Bridgeman who played at Louisville and 12 years in the NBA, and Pete Trgovich, who was a later a key piece on the 1975 UCLA national championship team alongside Bill Walton.

“Yeah, we had probably one of the best teams in the nation my senior year of high school,” Stoddard told MLB.com in 2021. “We averaged about 96 points per game in high school, and that was before three-pointers.”

No less than seven players on that 1970-71 Washington High School team went on to play collegiately at the Division I level and the 70-71 Senators are members of the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame. 

On the pitching mound, the hard-throwing righthander was a dominant force whose talents led him to gain two-sport offers from major college across the nation, including Texas, Arizona State and Tulsa, before he finally settled on NC State.

The 6’7” Stoddard reached the Final Four as a member of North Carolina State’s famed 1974 national championship team under head coach Norm Sloan and featuring sky-walking 6’4” guard David Thompson and 7’2” Tom Burleson. A two-sport standout for the Wolfpack in basketball and baseball (where he played on three ACC Title teams), Stoddard later went on to pitch for the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 and 1983 World Series. The O’s won the latter in five games over the Philadelphia Phillies in what was dubbed “The I-95 Series.”

He was originally signed by the Orioles in 1977 and the reliever’s 1.71 ERA in ‘79 helped the O’s to claim the AL pennant. Stoddard earned a victory while appearing in four World Series games (Baltimore lost the Series to the “We are Family” Pirates). All told, Stoddard compiled a career record of 41-35 in the big leagues with a 3.95 ERA and 76 saves while pitching for six different organizations from 1975-1989.

Some 10 years after Stoddard’s 1971 high school graduation, along came Kenny Lofton, who, from 1981-95, was Washington High School’s second generational talent. The ultra-quick and athlete 5’10”, 170-pound Lofton batted .414 for the Senators as a senior while earning All-State honors. But during his high school days, Lofton was regarded as a better basketball prospect as he earned All-State honors on the hardwood as well.

It would be basketball that would be Lofton’s ticket to college as he played four seasons under head coach Lute Olson at Arizona, helping the Wildcats to an NCAA Final Four appearance as a junior in 1988 while serving as backup point guard to current Golden State head coach Steve Kerr. He was the starting point guard his senior season when the Wildcats reached the NCAA Sweet 16.

Lofton did not become a member of Arizona’s baseball team until his junior season. Though seeing action in just five games with only one official at-bat while at Arizona, baseball scouts were well aware of his potential as the Astros selected him in the 17th round of the 1988 MLB Draft. He played minor league baseball in the summer but, in keeping a promise to his grandmother, Lofton returned to Arizona to complete his degree.

Lofton would go on to play 17 seasons in the major leagues, become a six-time All-Star, a five-time stolen base leader and four-time Gold Glove winner while playing for 14 different organizations. He made World Series appearances with the Indians in 1995 and again with the Giants in 2002.

What are the odds of an athlete to make appearances in both the World Series and the Final Four? Well, it’s only been done by two people. And to think, they hailed from the very same high school.