Athletics at AU
By Heather Lowhorn
Anderson University has always encouraged students to be physically active, embracing the idea that one must be in good health to be one’s best mentally and spiritually. The first school catalog in 1917 states, “Clerical workers and those who devote much time to study must give some attention to athletics and other forms of recreation if they would do their best work.” To that end, the dining hall of the Church of God campground was made available to students as a gymnasium. [Pictured right: Football is added as an intercollegiate sport the 1947-48 season.]
In 1922-23 students were more than encouraged to be physically active; they were required to take classes in “physical culture” for 45 minutes each day. During the ’20s, various club sports were available to men and women, with basketball being the most popular and consistently available club sport. In the ’30s, intramural athletics were introduced with the freshmen taking on upperclassmen in sports such as basketball, baseball, and tennis and in events such as pillow fights, tug-of-war, and ice skating.
But intercollegiate sports, what people now associate with the Anderson athletic program, got its official start on Nov. 23, 1930, when the Anderson Tigers, as they were then called, played the Shining Stars in basketball and won 36-33. The basketball schedule for the 1930-31 season looked much different from more recent varsity schedules. While Anderson played Huntington College, they also played teams representing J.C. Penney, East Side Dairy, Central Christian Church, and the Anderson College Married Men team.
Barrett Bates BS ’63 played basketball at Anderson as a student athlete. He later returned to Anderson to serve as the athletic director and head men’s basketball coach. He retired from the university in the spring of 2003. Bates believes a strong athletic program at a university reaches far beyond the athletes participating within the program to impact the entire student body and the university at large. [Picture right: Barrett Bates]
Bates says a strong program can provide three important elements: publicity, a sense of community, and an attraction for students. Sporting events provide headlines not only in the Anderson area but also in the regions surrounding opposing schools. That helps keep the university in the public eye — especially if the programs are successful. The sense of community that a strong intercollegiate sports program provides is one of the strongest and most nostalgic aspects. Sporting events can keep students on campus during the weekend and bring them together to support their teams. And, of course, many alums have fond memories of taking a date to a basketball or football game. This sense of community that sports can build attracts student athletes as well as students who don’t participate. “It gives you an edge in recruiting students,” says Bates. Many non-athletes consider attending sporting events to be part of the overall college experience and won’t give much consideration to schools without athletic programs. Sports help complete the college experience for many students. “They see the university as being a total university,” says Bates.
From its beginning in the ’30s, the athletics program at Anderson grew in spurts and sputters, with winning cycles and periods of uncertainty and low morale. During the Depression, enrollment shrank and teams were hard to fill. World War II also drained the athletics program of athletes, and the rationing of gas made it difficult for sports that could field teams to travel to events. There were no varsity sports at all during the 1943-44 school term. But as soldiers returned home and the G.I. Bill sent them to college, more students went out for sports, and the program began to grow.
n 1946, Frank “Pop” Hedden came from Butler University to coach football, basketball, and baseball at Anderson. Hedden aggressively recruited top athletes, including Johnny Wilson, who was Indiana Mr. Basketball and a member of Anderson High School’s state championship team. [Pictured Right: Frank "Pop" Hedden]
The athletic program again struggled in the late ’40s as allegations of questionable recruiting practices and improper gifts from local supporters caused problems between Anderson and the other schools within the Hoosier College Conference. Anderson withdrew from the conference and then petitioned to be readmitted to the conference after a series of meetings between Robert Reardon, Russell Olt, and James Sibert and representatives from the other schools.
In 1953, President John Morrison asked two former Anderson student athletes to return and build a high caliber athletics program rooted in integrity. Bob Macholtz BS ’49 and Jim Macholtz BS ’51 accepted the challenge, ushering in what many consider to be the golden age of sports at Anderson and the beginning of the modern 
program. With the help of department chair Ernie Rangazas and later Gertrude Wunsch, the athletics program began to blossom, producing both wins and upstanding graduates. [Pictured Right: Larry Maddox]
Larry Maddox BA ’66, who was the head track and field coach for 22 years and the head cross country coach for 27 years, considered Jim Macholtz to be one of his coaching mentors. “[Macholtz] asked this question: ‘Does our athletic program want to be different in kind or in degree?’” says Maddox. Being different in degree meant winning was the most important objective, but being different in kind meant the athlete was more important than the performance. “We want to be different in kind. The person is important, the student is important, the spiritual development is important, the academics are important, the interactions are important, the athletics are important. It’s a much greater holistic approach to coaching than being different in degree where the emphasis is, ‘If you don’t win, I’ll get somebody in here who can.’”
While the men’s teams continued to grow and build on their successes, women were limited to club sports. Wunsch was a pioneer in women’s athletics at AU, coaching several sports. In 1975 women had the opportunity to play intercollegiate varsity 
sports at Anderson, as programs were established in tennis, basketball, and volleyball. Softball started in 1977. “Now we have eight women’s varsity teams and eight men’s teams,” says Marcie Taylor BA ’84, AU athletic director and head coach for women’s basketball and women’s golf. “The interest in the community and in society in general has been great in contributing to the growth in women’s athletics.” [Pictured Right: Gertrude Wunsh]
Like many of the coaches at AU, Taylor played for Anderson as a student athlete. “A lot of us who are coaches here were also student athletes here, and I think a lot of us had a special experience,” says Taylor. “You knew that your coaches were interested in more about you than just how you performed on the court or on the field. That experience was meaningful … and you want to impart that to other student athletes. I think that’s why we draw so many of our alums back here and why so many of us stay here.”
The Anderson University athletics program still exemplifies the idea of being different in kind, more than 50 years after the Macholtz brothers were hired. “We’re very well-rounded,” says Taylor. “We’re focused on the development of the whole person, not just the physical, competitive part.”
Don Brandon BS ’63, head baseball coach, agrees. “I would not trade what I do as an AU coach for any other work anywhere,” says Brandon. “It has been God’s calling for my life. I prepared well, and it is my ministry just as it is for others who serve at AU. Coaching at AU has given me the opportunity to build lifelong relationships that have grown more meaningful as the years pass.” During his more than 40 years at AU, he has had stints coaching football and basketball as well and has even had the opportunity to coach two generations in the same families. [Pictured Right: Don Brandon]
Like all AU coaches, Brandon is also proud of the academic accomplishments of his players. “At the 2009 commencement, all the baseball players graduated with over a 3.0 GPA … two with honors,” says Brandon. Academics are heavily stressed in all the athletics programs.
“Studies have shown that athletes have a tendency to have a higher GPA than the general student body,” says Bates.
When recruiting athletes to come to AU, coaches have to consider more than a student’s athletic ability. They also have to take into account factors such as academic ability and character. Coaches want athletes of integrity who will represent the school and the Church of God well. This important point was made crystal clear to Maddox when his daughters became old enough to date and a young man he coached asked permission to ask one of Maddox’s daughters on a date.
“All of a sudden, every young man that I am recruiting to this campus is a potential person that may be dating one of our daughters,” says Maddox. “I think before I had tried to recruit good people, but that really put an emphasis on it.” It’s true the athletic program at AU has produced many conference titles and championships over the years and can claim All-American in many sports. Anderson University can boast of superior facilities and nationally recognized coaches. The level of competition at AU is as good as an athlete will find anywhere. But those are not the things that make Anderson University “different in kind.” What makes AU different in kind is how those things combine with Christian ethics and personal growth to make sports about more than just a “W” in the record book. “[AU] has a good Christian atmosphere,” says Bates. “I’ve always felt that we tried to win in the right way at Anderson University — with good people, by following the rules. I think that is important.” [Pictured Below: Basketball in the "Barnatorium" in 1937.]
Editor’s note: Don Brandon has announced his retirement at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. He will be featured in the summer 2010 issue of Signatures.
Drawn By The People
By Heather Lowhorn
Anderson alums from the late 1940s remember the excitement of seeing “Jumpin’ Johnny” Wilson BS ’56 play basketball for the Ravens. During his three years as an athlete at Anderson, he earned 11 letters in four sports. After graduation he played baseball for the Chicago American Giants in the Negro Leagues, and he traveled the world as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. Wilson has also coached at both the high school and college levels. Wilson gained notoriety during his senior year at Anderson High School when he was named Indiana Mr. Basketball. He had hoped to play college basketball at a certain large state school, but the coach there told him that he didn’t think Wilson would be able to make the team — the school’s conference did not allow black players.
While that coach turned Wilson away, Anderson’s coach, Frank “Pop” Hedden, was trying to recruit him. Hedden was trying to sell him on the athletic program, but it was the quality of the people at Anderson that sealed the deal. Wilson rode with Anderson students Bob Macholtz and Dorothy Whalen to watch a baseball game at Earlham College. “Bob and Dottie, who later became his wife, talked to me all the way over there and all the way back,” says Wilson. “Not about basketball or baseball or track — they just talked to me in general about Anderson College and the people at Anderson College. After talking to them, I felt that [Anderson] would be a good place for me to go.”
Wilson attended college during a period of history when racial segregation was prevalent, but he says the acceptance extended to him by Anderson students had a tremendous impact on him. “I would say 40 to 45 percent of the students at Anderson College were from the South … and there was definitely a lot of segregation in the South … but they were some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life.” He says that acceptance continued after college and into his travels as a professional athlete. While traveling he would meet former Anderson students — this time not in the North, but in their hometowns in the South — and they would welcome him into their homes and show him around their towns. “I felt they were true individuals,” says Wilson. “There was no false front. And I felt that was one of the biggest things I gained at Anderson, the relationships with people from anywhere.”
Wilson was in the first class of inductees into the Anderson University Athletic Hall of Fame. In speaking about his place in the Hall of Fame, Wilson defers to other athletes who played with him. “If I’m in the Hall of Fame, Jim Woodward BS ’46 should be in the Hall of Fame because he was the one that made me the scorer that I was in college,” says Wilson. “Even when three people were guarding me, Jim would get me the ball.” He praised his former baseball teammates Sam Cornelius BS ’53 and Jim “Tex” Litton BS ’52 and runner Russell Smith, saying, “If they can’t be in the Hall of Fame, I don’t think I deserve to be in there.”
Life Lessons
By Heather Lowhorn
After retiring from professional baseball in 1960, Carl Erskine enrolled in classes at Anderson College. Jim and Bob Macholtz took Erskine out for a cup of coffee and floated an idea past him. Explaining to Erskine that the college didn’t have a baseball coach for the upcoming season, the Macholtz brothers wondered if Erskine might fill in on an interim basis until a permanent coach could be found. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it for a year,’” says Erskine, “and I stayed 12 seasons.” Erskine was extremely well qualified for the position. He was a famous professional pitcher with two World Series championships on his résumé. During his 12-year career in professional sports, he pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and moved with the organization to Los Angeles.
“I had all this baseball experience in my head,” says Erskine. “[The Dodgers] were a very good teaching organization.” And while the players on the Anderson baseball team were thrilled to get a coach of Erskine’s caliber, Erskine was happy to have the chance to teach all he had learned from the Dodgers. “This was a great opportunity for me to make a transition from my baseball world into the world I was now going to live in. Here were eager young athletes who would look at me with starry eyes because I had just played in the big leagues a year before,” says Erskine. “I appreciated that I could impart some good knowledge to them about the game of baseball. That was a rewarding experience for me.” Erskine believes the lessons players learn on the baseball field last long past a student’s playing days. “Athletics teach a lot about life, and from that standpoint, I think athletics has a very real place in the academic setting of a university.” And while many AU athletes will go on to careers that aren’t related to athletics, many will still be involved in sports through recreation leagues or working with kids’ teams or through volunteer work. “Getting that experience at a place like AU, even though it may not be your career direction, you’re still going to have use for it, and it will be valuable to you in your life in general.”
The university’s Christian mission extends to the athletics program, and Erskine sees that sports participation complements that mission. “It’s competitive, but it doesn’t have to be nasty, loud, wild, profane. It can be pure and beautiful and good and instructive,” he says. “I think that’s the strength of the university.” During his coaching tenure at Anderson, the baseball team won four Hoosier College Conference championships and went to the College World Series. In 1997 Erskine was among the first class of inductees into the Anderson University Athletic Hall of Fame. While his teams were very successful, he hopes his place in the Hall of Fame means more than a good win/loss record. “You always hope it means that you’ve stood for something,” he says, “that you didn’t just have a lot of wins and so forth, but that you made a contribution of developing good lifestyles. That’s the most important thing about coaching.”
A Good Balance
By Heather Lowhorn
For Angel (Hall) Bradford BA ’05, the athletics program at Anderson University was the perfect balance between sports and academics. As a member of the women’s basketball team, Bradford was an outstanding player. She was named Heartland Conference MVP twice, team MVP three times, and a Kodak All-American honorable mention twice. For two years, she led the nation in three-pointers per game, and she led the nation in free-throw percentage.
While Bradford liked the high level of competitive play at AU, she didn’t feel that she was an athlete first and a student second. “I think [basketball] kept me focused. It kept me driven,” she says. “Academics was always very important. I know at the Division I level, sometimes athletics is pushed so hard that it’s hard to concentrate on other things. It was a nice mix at AU.”
Bradford also felt that while her coaches were competitors who wanted to win, winning wasn’t the most important aspect of sports. It was a by-product of hard work. She felt her coaches cared about her development as a person as well as her development as a player. Referring to her coach, Marcie Taylor, Bradford says, “She is a wonderful, wonderful person. She helped me grow as a person. In college you’re still worrying about yourself and who you are. [The coaching staff] was there for whatever you needed — basketball or not.”
After graduation Bradford found that the lessons she learned in athletics were applicable to the business world. When UPS hired Bradford, her supervisor told her that he had hired her in part because of her background as an athlete. He felt that her accomplishments as an athlete spoke well of her work ethic and that she would bring that work ethic to her job. Bradford is now a supervisor at UPS.
Bradford feels that the athletic program at AU supports the broader mission of the university in a very practical way. “It gives us a chance as athletes to represent what AU is about every time we step on the floor,” she says. “We show that we are a Christian college. We show what our mission statement is, and we have to be examples of it. We have God in our lives, and it’s a big part of us.” She was happy to have the opportunity to play basketball at the collegiate level and to have had the chance to represent the university. “I was privileged to play there,” she says. “It was a great thing.”
