Wabash College Athletics

Byron P. Hollett Little Giant Stadium hosted a lot of memorable afternoons, but on a November Saturday in 2011, it hosted something closer to a miracle. Wabash trailed North Central in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. The starting quarterback was out, and the season was on the brink. What followed was, in the opinion of anyone who was there, the most improbable comeback in Wabash football history—a 29-28 victory engineered by backup quarterback Tyler Burke played in front of a crowd that couldn’t believe what it was watching.
 
And that crowd? About 100,000 people swear they were at that game, though Brent Harris lists the official attendance at 1,655. That last-minute comeback stands as the greatest game ever played in Crawfordsville – with all due respect to the 1982 team’s win over Dayton.
 
The North Central game was the gem in the 2011 Little Giants’ crown. The team ripped through a 10-0 regular season, claimed the NCAC Championship, and fought all the way to the NCAA quarterfinals with a 12-1 mark. The defense was suffocating, forcing 32 turnovers, allowing just 12.9 points, and holding five teams to a touchdown or less.
 
The Little Giants dismantled DePauw 45-7 in the Monon Bell Game, holding their arch-rivals to just 150 total yards. They ran through Illinois College 38-20 in the opening round of the playoffs. And after the North Central miracle, they met mighty Mount Union—a juggernaut that would play for a national championship two weeks later—and made the Purple Raiders sweat. Wabash lost 20-8. But the Little Giants held Mount Union to 236 total yards, forced a fumble, made four sacks, and picked off a pass. The final score doesn’t tell the story, but the film doesn’t lie.
 
Gentlemen of the 2011 Wabash football team, all of us who wear the Scarlet today admire your accomplishments and, most important, your Wabash Always Fights mentality. We are honored to join with the NAWM to induct you in the Wabash Athletics Hall of Fame. You are Some Little Giants!