The Wabash Little Giants are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent

Wabash College Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832, by a group of Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, the institution was originally named "The Wabash Teachers Seminary an ...

, a small private school for men in

Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville () is a city in Montgomery County, Indiana, Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The c ...

, United States. The college belongs to the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

and participates in

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

sports. The Little Giants compete as members of the

North Coast Athletic Conference The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III which is composed of colleges located in Ohio and Indiana. It sponsors 23 ...

(NCAC). Despite the college's small enrollment and that it is "not a jock school", the Little Giants have had success in several sports. The most popular among Wabash fans are

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

. The Little Giants also have a well-respected cross-country team.''

Yale Daily News The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut, since January 28, 1878. Description Financially and editorially independent of Yale University since its founding, th ...

'' staff
''The Insider's Guide to the Colleges''
p. 337,

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

, 2004, . In football, Wabash has an important

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

with

DePauw University DePauw University ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College and changed its name to DePauw University in 1884. The college has a Methodist heritage and was ...

, and each season they meet for the Monon Bell Classic. Wabash and DePauw compete annually to win the trophy, the Monon Bell, and as of 2015 the two teams have played 122 games in the series with Wabash holding a 60-53-9 advantage. The Little Giants currently sponsor 12 varsity teams. Volleyball is the newest sport, having been added for the 2021 season (2020–21 school year); since the NCAC only sponsors volleyball for women, that team plays in the single-sport

Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League The Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division III, Division III. History The MCVL was founded in March 2014 by a ...

Varsity sports

Wabash sponsors 12 varsity sports, which include baseball, basketball, cross country,

, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.

Basketball

Wabash College began varsity intercollegiate competition in men's basketball in 1897. Wabash was retroactively recognized as the pre- NCAA tournament national champion for the 1905–06 and 1907–08 seasons by the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

. The 1922 National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament was the first national championship tournament ever held in intercollegiate basketball. The 1921–22 Wabash College team won the championship game, 43–23, over

Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo College is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, K ...

. Wabash finished with a season record of 21–3, winning all three tournament games in convincing fashion. They were coached by Robert E. "Pete" Vaughan and their players were Fred Adam, Paul Schanlaub, Lon Goldsberry, John Burns, and Clyde Grater. Paul Armstrong 1948

Wabash also won the 1982 NCAA Division III championship. Coached by Mac Petty (whose name now adorns the Chadwick Court floor) and captained by Mike Holcomb and future NFL star

Pete Metzelaars Peter Henry Metzelaars (born May 24, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for 16 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Seattle Seahawks, the Buffalo Bills, the Carolina Panthers and the D ...

, rolled their way to a 23-4 season. They were considered an inexperienced squad (their captains being the only seniors) coming into the season. They did win their opener in Greencastle against rival DePauw in a comeback effort, 63-62. Of the four games they lost, only one was to another Division III school,

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan, United States. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman coll ...

, in a thrilling overtime game in Crawfordsville. The other three were to Division I

Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – Hig ...

and UT San Antonio and Division II Texas A&I. The team finished the year on a 19-game winning streak. Along the way, they broke Rose-Hulman's 12-game win streak, defeating the Engineers 100-51. The team received their NCAA bid the next day. They closed the regular season defeating DePauw by 10 in Crawfordsville. In the regional tournament, Wabash first met Ohio Northern and rode Metzelaars' 30 point effort to an easy 81-61 win. Next up, the Little Giants were able to avenge their only Division III loss of the season against Hope, winning 82-70. The next two games did not come so easily, squeezing out a 54-51 win against Augustana and sweating out a 68-64 win against

Stanislaus State California State University, Stanislaus (Stanislaus State, Stan State) is a public university in Turlock, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. It was established in 1957 and offers 45 bachelor's deg ...

. Wabash then faced defending champion Potsdam State. The champs had no answer for Metzelaars, however, as he poured in 45 points en route to an 83-62 victory. It was the largest margin of victory in the championship at the time.

Football

In 1884, Wabash played its first game of intercollegiate football when it defeated a team from

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

on October 25, 4–0. The first intercollegiate game in the state took place on May 31, between Butler and

. From the 1890s to the 1910s, the Wabash football team played schedules against many much larger colleges, such as

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

, against whom the Little Giants occasionally won impressive upsets. For instance Wabash won all five games against Purdue between 1906 and 1911.The Little Giants
(PDF), ''College Football Historical Society Newsletter'', vol. 19, no. 4, p. 5, August 2006.

References

External links

* {{North Coast Athletic Conference navbox