• We're in! That seemed to be the most used phrase of the weekend from fans of the Wabash football program, gleefully excited about the Little Giants first trip to the NCAA Division III playoffs in exactly 25 years. The sports page will cover the team's 42-22 win over Wooster that locked up the conference title and the automatic berth in the playoffs.
Where Wabash will play, we don't know. We do know that the game will be played on November 23, a week after the Monon Bell game and on the same weekend when the Little Giant basketball team opens its season.
• On the topic of football, the Monon Bell game will be a sell-out and tickets are going quickly. Swing by the Allen Center during normal business hours and look for Debbie Starnes in the athletic offices, just inside the main entrance to the right. Tickets are $10 and will permit fans to sit only on the Wabash side of the field.
• An old friend received a high honor on Saturday when Horace Turner, long time director of the College‚s Malcolm X Institute, was named an honorary Wabash alumnus. Turner chose to become a member of the Class of 1976, the first class he saw through Wabash after his arrive on campus.
Over the years he has been father, mentor, friend, brother, and counselor to the men of Wabash. His work was of particular importance to those African American men who came to the campus in the early 1970s when civil unrest made life for them very difficult.
• Award-winning author Russell Banks will give a reading from his forthcoming book in a Visiting Artists Series event this Thursday evening at Salter Hall. Many will know Banks by name and others by his best-selling books turned movies, Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter.
Banks is one of the most moving American fiction writers of our time, and his work reflects the daily struggles of real life characters. The event is free and open to the public, but is a ticketed event. Please call the Fine Arts Center box office for ticket information.
• For the second consecutive year, Wabash students will team up with DePauw students in what has become known as Co-Motion, a project that focuses some of the Monon Bell media attention on abused women and children.
Mark Hannaford is spearheading the project from the Wabash side of things, with good supervision from alumni Bill Padgett and Paul Jefferson. The idea is to use the game's hype to raise awareness of abuse and raise funds for the Montgomery County Family Crisis Shelter and the Julian Center in Indianapolis.
Students at Wabash will donate money for points scored by the Wabash football team in the Monon Bell game; donate money when attending the Monon Bell Chapel pep rally on Thursday, November 14; and will make donations at the game as part of a raffle.
It's a great idea for the young men of Wabash to understand how terrible domestic violence is, and to do their part to support the women and children who seek shelter.
• Finally, a special thanks to the Wabash College Student Senate for once again providing a safe and happy Halloween for children of our community. The Senate purchased a truck load of candy and distributed it to the living units on campus. For those of us who took part—and whose children had the time of their lives—a very special thanks to the men of Wabash.