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It started as a public/private experiment and now, more than 50 years later, Omaha is synonymous with the College World Series.
The College World Series was first played in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1947. Kalamazoo hosted it again in 1948. The tournament was then moved the following year to Wichita, Kan and that year former President George Bush Sr. was captain of the Yale baseball team.
The College World Series was first played in Omaha in 1950 and total attendance was 17,805. Although the College World Series is now a profitable event, it lost money for 10 of the first 12 years that it was in Omaha – 1950-1961. Four Omahans who maintained their faith and interest in the College World Series during those "lean" years are due much of the credit for the tournament's continued presence in Omaha. They are the late Ed Pettis of the Brandeis Stores, the late Morris Jacobs and the late Byron Reed, both of Bozell & Jacobs, and the late Johnny Rosenblatt, Mayor of Omaha and an avid baseball fan.
How this community nurtured the College World Series from humble beginnings to its status as a nationally recognized event is quite a story. A story of how the people of Omaha, its business leaders, city officials and volunteers, embraced the Series and teamed up with the NCAA to make it grow.
Today, College World Series of Omaha, Inc., a non-profit organization, is the local organizing committee for the annual NCAA Division I Championship Baseball College World Series.
Guiding the activities of the local contributors and the many volunteers involved in the Series is the executive committee of the College World Series of Omaha, Inc. board. This group of dedicated individuals meets each month to develop policies and plans that assure the success and growth of each year's Series.
It has been our pleasure to host the CWS for more than 50 years. The Series is an event in which we take pride. A lot of hard work, dedication and commitment of many volunteers, local business contributors and the city, has built the College World Series from its humble beginnings to the enjoyable event it is today.
Continued fan support of the College World Series has made the event a very special place for teams that have had the opportunity to compete for the National Championship.Since 1892 Iowa State University had an NCAA Division-I baseball team. But on April 2nd, 2001, ISU Athletic Director Bruce Van de Velde announced that the Iowa State baseball program would be eliminated due to "budget cuts".
Largely as a result of that decision, the Iowa State Baseball Club was started in the Fall of 2001 by Jake Reichling. The club officially registered and received GSB funding in November. The club played it's first season in the spring of 2002, with it's first 55 members dividing into 4 teams and playing a 6 game schedule with a season-ending tournament. Games were played at various community fields until it was allowed access to Cap Timm, the field formerly used by the NCAA program.
In the fall of 2002, a similar league was played, but with 7 teams due to increased interest. The club's membership had almost doubled in membership during it's first year. In the spring of 2002, the club's best 19 players were selected to play on the travel team which would compete in the Central Plains Conference of the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA). In it's inaugural season in Spring 2003, the club won the conference, putting them into a regional against the Western Lakes Conference champion, University of Wisconsin. The Cyclones came up just short after losing the close 3-game series two games to one. The winner of the regional advances the the NCBA World Series, played in Bradenton, Florida. Iowa State won a back-to-back conference title in 2004 as well, before once again falling short in the Regional.

The 2005 spring team played a difficult schedule and missed the regional for the first time in club history. A tough Nebraska team who went 15-1 stormed through the conference, suffering their only loss of the year to Iowa State. The team finished strong with 9 consecutive victories in 2005 to finish second in the conference.
The 2006 season was plagued by weather form the very beginning. Of the 25 scheduled games, 13 were cancelled due to bad weather conditions, leaving the Cyclones to only play 12 games, finishing with a conference record of 5-6, and an overall record of 5-7. The 2007 Spring team will return a strong core group of 16 players, setting up what should be a very exciting team next year.