Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame
Eric Anthony Schoettle, your arrival in Crawfordsville in 1989 from Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Illinois, ushered in a re-emergence of football excellence at Wabash College. At a school with a proud history of producing very impressive linebackers — Kilbane, Herrmann, and Gallman, to name a few — you carved a spot for yourself on the College’s Mount Rushmore of Linebackers. You started only once as a freshman, but you gave the Wabash coaching staff a sense of things to come when you blocked four kicks and recovered a fumble in limited duty. You started the next 27 straight games, and with swagger and confidence became the leader of an in-your-face defense that produced back-to-back Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference championships in your junior and senior seasons. Statistically, however, your sophomore season was your best — 74 tackles, six sacks, and six forced fumbles. Then everything fell into place in 1991 and 1992 when Wabash dominated league play by going 10-1-1. You were a versatile and fast outside linebacker who could get to the quarterback, run with receivers, and make key stops in big moments of big games. As a junior, when you led the league with seven interceptions, you picked off two passes in a tight 16-15 win over Denison. You made a huge tackle on DePauw’s final drive to give Wabash a 23-18 win in Greencastle. As a senior, you single-handedly led the Little Giants to a 16-14 win over Franklin when you forced a fumble that set up the game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter — a game in which you made 11 tackles, two sacks, and forced two fumbles. Your career statistics indicate what a special all-around athlete you were: 216 career tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 12 interceptions, nine forced fumbles, and seven blocked kicks. Your post-season honors speak for the intensity of your play: Champion Second Team All-America in 1991, Champion Third Team All-American in 1992, three-time All-Conference linebacker, Wabash and ICAC Most Valuable Player in 1992, and the Pete Vaughan Award as the Outstanding Athlete in the Class of 1993. Eric Anthony Schoettle, when the great linebackers in Wabash history talk about their favorite players, your name is high on the list because you played with passion, speed, and intensity. Therefore the National Association of Wabash Men is honored to induct you in the Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame.
