NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WABASH MEN BOARD OF DIRECTORS
FROM THE ARCHIVES
RICK CAVANAUGH ’76 President
ROB SHOOK ’83 Vice President
ROSS DILLARD ’07 Recorder
JACOB PACTOR ’04
Class Agent Representative
ADAN GARCIA ’04 ERIKS JANELSINS ’02
Regional Association Representatives
GREG ESTELL ’85 Past President
BOARD MEMBERS TERM EXPIRES MAY 2017 Emmanual Aouad ’10 Mark Sutton ’92 Art Howe ’82 Ben Robinson ’01 David Woessner ’01
TERM EXPIRES MAY 2018 Gary Campbell ’99 Jim Dyer ’83 Steve Mackin ’98 Marc Nichols ’92 Joe Trebley ’01
TERM EXPIRES MAY 2019 Scott Benedict ’98 Kim Chase ’03 Jim Engledow ’78 Herm Haffner ’77 Eric Schoettle ’93
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE Dan Rogers
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Jack Kellerman ’18
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64 | WABASH MAGAZINE
From Homeless to Hero One of the largest bases in the Air Force is named after a Wabash man who came here with almost nothing. One of the largest bases in the United States Air Force is named for Frederick Irving Eglin, Wabash Class of 1914. A gifted athlete and a good friend of the College, Eglin left quite a mark on Wabash during his time here. Eglin was from the Bowery area of New York City, where his Swiss immigrant parents died when he was young. He may have been homeless for a time. He came to Wabash in much the same way as so many others— through the persistence of an alumnus. The story goes that Eglin was pretty good at basketball and was spotted by an alum. Wabash was basketball-mad in that era, and a talented player was quite a find. The alum bought his ticket to Crawfordsville but died before Eglin began his classes at Wabash. So Eglin came to Wabash with almost nothing. One friend said that when the young Eglin arrived in town, he had no money and no clothes and fainted in class due to hunger. He was taken home by a local student and, in just a few days, some good home cooking had him back on his feet. At first, college life was a hard road for Eglin. He depended upon the generosity of others for
necessities, but before long he found a job and got squared away. Eglin started Wabash as a “Special Student,” as he had not graduated from high school. He got the courses he needed and, in short order, he was on his way in the collegiate program. Eglin played football, basketball, and baseball and made many good friends. He joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and, in his junior year, he was elected class president. He was also the captain of the basketball team, where one of his acrobatic moves almost foreshadows his eventual vocation as a flyer. An article by Wayne Guthrie in the Indianapolis News recalls that “the Wabash basketball team of that era was unbeatable on its home floor, which was a box-like room— with only one side open to spectators—in the Crawfordsville YMCA. “Those players became expert at caroming the ball off the walls and Ward ‘Piggy’ Lambert; his brother, Kent ‘Skeet’ Lambert, and Eggie [Eglin] would run full tilt toward the wall, make a couple of steps up the wall and hit the floor on the run beyond the rival guard. “Sounds like a human fly stunt, but they did it.”