Pepperdine University Athletics

From the 2010 West Coast Conference Hall of Honor induction program:

Dr. Gail Hopkins, who became the first person in his family to attend college when he selected Pepperdine over Stanford, California and UCLA in order to both play baseball and study religion, played baseball at Pepperdine from 1962-64.

He earned All-America honors as a junior in 1963 after batting .375 with four home runs. Hopkins helped Pepperdine qualify for the NCAA Playoffs in both 1962 and 1963. Hopkins also returned to serve as Pepperdine's head coach for one season in 1968.

He became the first Pepperdine baseball player to ever reach the Major League when he broke in with the Chicago White Sox in 1968. He primarily played first base in seven seasons in the majors with the White Sox, Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Dodgers, and hit a career-best .286 with Chicago in 1970. Hopkins was a member of the Dodgers team that won the National League pennant and played in the World Series in 1974. He completed his playing career in Japan.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine in 1966 as a double-major in religion and biology, a master's in religion from Pepperdine in 1974, a Ph.D. in biology from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1977 and an MD from Rush Medical College in 1981. In addition, he will complete a Masters of Divinity degree from United Theological Seminary in May of 2010. Hopkins is believed to be the only player in Major League Baseball history to have earned both an MD and Ph.D.