Semore is one of five 2025 inductees, joining Ken Hayes, Ann Pitts-Turner, Don Porter and Wes Welker in being formally inducted on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, during a ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Semore, the winningest coach in OU baseball history with a record of 851-370-1 (.697), led the Sooners from 1968-89. He directed OU to five straight College World Series appearances from 1972-76 and collected a program-record 62 wins in 1976.
A 2005 American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee, Semore’s OU teams won seven Big Eight Conference titles, with six coming in a seven-year stretch from 1972-78 when the Sooners went a combined 316-97 (.765) and the other in 1986. His squads finished third or higher in the Big Eight standings in 19 of 22 seasons and finished no lower than fifth.
In his final season of 1989, Semore was named the Big Eight Coach of the Year. Additionally, he helped spearhead the building of L. Dale Mitchell Park in 1981, the Big Eight’s first true baseball stadium, moving the program from its previous home at Haskell Park to its current location on south campus.
The Sooners retired Semore’s legendary No. 24 in the spring of 2024 in a ceremony before the May 11 game vs. Baylor. The number is forever enshrined upon the left field wall at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
Prior to his tenure at Oklahoma, Semore spent five seasons as the head coach at Bacone (Okla.) Junior College where he compiled a 152-22 record. In 1967, his team won the national junior college championship.
A graduate of Northeastern (Okla.) State University in 1956, Semore was a four-year letterman in basketball and baseball for the Riverhawks and was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame in 1989.
Born in Haskell County, Okla., Semore still resides in his home state, retiring in Noble, Okla. He and his late wife, Mary, have three children: Lee, Janie and Scott.