On Saturday morning, Taylor University in Upland, IN held commencement ceremonies for its 2026 graduating seniors.
Missing were 10 prominent members of that class.
Turns out they were 2,000 miles away — not protesting, but playing, in the late rounds of the baseball World Series for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in Lewiston, ID.
So instead of attending their graduation, their “graduation” went to them.
Immediately following the morning ceremonies at Taylor’s campus, the University’s President, Dr. Michael Lindsay and its Provost, Dr. Jewerl Maxwell, boarded a plane for Idaho. Taylor defeated Nebraska’s Doane University 10-8 that afternoon, and the next morning the seniors replaced their baseball caps with mortar boards, donned purple gowns and assembled on the diamond to receive their diplomas.
Joining them on the field was their coach, Kyle Gould. Scores of traveling family members cheered on from the stands.
Taylor, a small (2500 students) Christian university in its 180th year, is perhaps most famous for its annual Silent Night basketball game in early December. But in recent years it has excelled in other sports for both men and women, including women’s cross country (NAIA national champions in 2022 and 2025), as well as strong performances in track, soccer and volleyball.
On the baseball diamond, Taylor has secured a regular season or tournament title in the Crossroads League in each of the past five years, winning a fourth-straight regular season CL Championship in 2026 and sweeping the season and tourney titles for a third-straight season. The Trojans broke their season record in each of the last two years, topping 50 wins in 2026, while advancing to the NAIA World Series for the second and third times in school history and reaching a No. 1 national ranking for the first time ever.
This just in: This afternoon (Memorial Day) Taylor beat hometown favorite Lewis-Clark State University 8-5 to advance to the next round. The tournament concludes with the championship next Saturday.
Courtesy of Rob DeRocker