Athletic Memories fuel alumni spirit
In the last issue of @Hanover, we asked alumni to submit their favorite athletic memory. Quite a few of you wrote in to tell us how much your experience as a student athlete meant.
Tim Barnard '90 wrote, "playing in a five overtime game in 1989 against Oakland City, (the) longest game in school history. Final Score was: Hanover 121, Oakland City 111.
C.L. "Tuffy" Hamilton '58 wrote, "As a member of the Hanover Track team 54-58 winning the conference meet all four years I was at Hanover. (I set) three Hanover track records my freshman year qualifying for the Olympics trials in the National AAU meet in Sacramento, Calif. and later competed for a place on the 1956 Olympic team in Los Angeles. I am currently still (the) holder of the Hanover Broad jump record set in 1956.
Steve Dills '76 wrote, "It was the winter after my sophomore year of playing football at Hanover. I had finally worked into a starting role for the last two games of the season. Coach Carter had one-on-one meetings with each player to review the last season and map the plan for next year. We were a marginal team in that year (1973). "Dillsy, I know you are giving 100 percent, but let's face it, a 100 percent from a 175lb. guard is just not good enough." My job the next year was to teach "Ben" to play left guard. I never stepped on the field during a game my junior year. As a senior, I was the captain of "Bomb Squads" and really got to do what I liked, fly down the field and run into people like a wild man. I learned several lessons that I still use today.
I am sure Coach Carter did not like telling any player he was not good enough to play but for the good of the team he had to do it. Secondly, he was right, in 1974 and 1975 we went undefeated in the regular seasons. Third, I really learned offensive line play by coaching this other player. I went on to be an offensive line coach at Jasper High school for five years. The first two years I was there we never lost a regular season game, being State Runner up both years. I coached eight All State players in the five years I was at Jasper. I coach my teams at work to be all winners, look at the big picture, and find their place on the team and contribute. I am sure I would have missed all that by doing something different in my life had Rick not given me the "not good enough" speech.
I am sure all the other guys who played for the "Little General" have similar stories. I for one miss him.
Classmate Ed Deiwert '76 wrote, "Racing to the 1975-76 cross country conference team championship was the greatest single experience of an amazing four years of running at Hanover. Our squads had won numerous championships, including the prestigious IIAA 'Little State' title the preceding fall, and twice competed in the national championships, but an early November day at Earlham saw the event that epitomized the Panther Pack of the 1970s.
As the defending champs, we were favored to repeat, but other teams had more talent. As the race unfolded on Earlham's challenging course, the Trojans' Steve Gradeless and Findlay's Mike Kempf broke away from the field early. By the halfway point of the five-mile race, however, Hanover's depth and balance asserted itself, as Gary Green '77, David Olson '78, Don Strunk '77, Brad Ferguson '78, Mark Wilhelm '79, and I were all running in the top ten. Running within a seconds of each other as we crested the final hill, the finish chute in sight, we showed the assembled coaches and spectators what being a Hanover Harrier meant. Gary looked back over his shoulder, and seeing nothing but red and blue, jogged to let his fellow Hanoverians catch up so that we could finsh the race side by side. Six Panthers crossed the finish line together in fifth place to win another conference crown for Coach Dick Naylor - and for each other.
Tony Vittorio '88 wrote, "My favorite Hanover College memories as an athlete are:
- Being on the Hanover College Baseball Team that won the first Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference (ICAC) Championship in 1988 - my senior year.
- Being on the Hanover College Baseball Team that won the last Hoosier Buckeye Collegiate Conference (HBCC) Championship in 1986 - my sophomore year.
- Our Spring Baseball Trip to Hawaii where we stayed nine days and played 12 games - six against Hawaii Hilo and six against Hawaii Pacific. What college program in the country has a chance to travel to Hawaii and play the sport that the players love to play? An unbelievable experience from an education and athletic standpoint.
- More importantly the life lessons that were taught from our baseball coach, Coach Naylor, and the life lasting friendships that were developed during my four years at Hanover College are things that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Being a Hanover College student and athlete is something that I would not trade for anything.
Kevin O'Donohue '98 wrote, "My senior year (football season 1997) beating Wabash 10-7 at home in the rain on a muddy field to clinch the conference championship and stay undefeated. After the game, most the entire team was doing mudslides down the middle of the field.
Steven Rider '96 wrote, "I have many fond memories and recollections of running cross country and track at Hanover. If I had to pick just one, my favorite is the time that 1993 (maybe the 1992) team was out on a training run in the middle of the season. When we were out putting on distance runs, we had a habit of developing challenges or creating diversions to pass the time. Mainly, my diversion was to talk incessantly about nonsense, which bothered most of the team at some point in time. This particular run I'm sure I was in rare form being obnoxious or insanely competitive when we stopped to check out a drainage culvert that ran underneath the road.
Riley Snook '95 mentioned the idea that we should see who could crawl through it the fastest. From what I can recall, Brian Stark '95 and Robert Webster '95 and I'm sure other members of the team (it has been more than fifteen years since this happened) agreed to participate in the challenge. I was elected to go first. Trying to set the time to beat in this first "under the road race," I set off into the pipe. When I emerged on the other side, I was alone. In the distance, I could see the faint image of my teammates. They were sprinting. I caught up with them about a half mile down the road, most of them still chuckling. I learned a few things from this experience. The first was that I was extremely gullible. The second was that Riley, Robert and Brian were really clever. The final thing that I have learned, and this has come years later, is that what I remember most vividly about my time as an athlete at Hanover isn't the few victories, good races, bad races, PR's or awards, it is the people that I met and ran with on almost a daily basis from 1992 to 1996. Thanks to all the cross country and track athletes for a lifetime of memories.
Jim Hammond '79 wrote, "Some of my best memories include winning the (then) Hoosier Buckeye Collegiate Conference in basketball our last three years in a row and forging bonds with my teammates in workouts and road trips. This all culminated in the District 21 Championship, and taking our place as one of the select Hanover teams going to the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City. In tennis, being on the road for the NAIA District Tournament in my junior year the same weekend when my then fiancé, now wife of 30+ years (Polly Sallee Hammond '78), was crowned homecoming queen (fortunately my good friend, Mike Burkert '79, was able to handle the escort duties). During my senior year at the District Tournament, our tennis coach allowed my new young wife (a former Hanover Women's Tennis player herself) to stay with me in the players' dorm to assist in, dare I say, all phases of pre-match preparation.
"However, while those memories were great during my years at Hanover, it was almost 30 years later, this past September 2008, where special memories were confirmed at the Hanover College Basketball Alumni Reunion to honor former Coach John Collier '51, spearheaded by the current new coach, Jon Miller '97. While I have stayed in touch with several of our teammates over this period of time, it was refreshing to see many again after these considerable years, yet the bond was as if we were still working out, practicing and playing together. I recall during the post game radio interviews at the District 21 Championship game, teammate Bill French '79 declared, "This team is made of love." And it was. It is amazing how close people can become when they engage collectively in an activity over an extended period of time. The activity requires the commitment of one's total being with simultaneous effort (teamwork) toward a goal that is not necessarily always achievable - yet the mutual investment of time and exertion, including the blood, sweat and tears, is what binds you for a lifetime.
"Many life lessons were learned along the way, especially the development of self-discipline, perseverance, enjoying the victories as well as dealing with disappointment and picking yourself up after a defeat - all the while moving on to battle once again.
"In the center of it all was Coach John Collier, the steady, driven and goal-oriented basketball coach, later headed to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. He knew how to win and he was and is a winner. He required us to be on time, to sacrifice for the team and to represent Hanover College well, especially when on the road with the admonition of, "Don't do anything to embarrass the institution!
"At the September 2008 reunion, Coach Collier and his wife, Jean Matson Collier '54, looked great, as they have lived life well and at the same time have honored their Creator with the use of their time and talents. When it comes down to it, it was not the wins or losses, going to the national championship, or even who scored the most points or who received the most recognition, but it was the investment of people, one unto the other, and the bond for life that this forged - that is my greatest lasting memory."
