Wabash College Athletics

Gail Moll Pebworth, coach, mentor, and inspiration to countless Wabash swimmers and divers, it seems appropriate that you, the College’s first female coach, becomes the first woman to be inducted into the Wabash Athletic Hall of Fame. As a pioneering woman on the Wabash campus, you captured the state attention when you were featured on several videos and a year 2000 calendar depicting Trailblazing Women of Indiana. You have known Wabash nearly all of your adult life, coming to campus with your husband, Robert, in the fall of 1967. In 1974, you became head coach of the amazingly successful Sugar Creek Swim Club, and over 14 years produced more than 100 state champions. We hired you away from the SCSC in 1984, and few coaches in Wabash’s long and storied athletic history have had a bigger impact on their programs than you. Over the last 16 seasons you have produced a win-loss record of 120-16, a winning percentage of 88 percent. From 1988 through 1995, you never lost a meet, going 54-0. Best of all, you have defeated DePauw in 20 of 23 dual meets. You have captured six conference titles; 52 major invitational titles; and won 13 Liberal Arts Invitational titles in 15 years. You even shocked the Irish with a stunning win at the Notre Dame Relays in 1992. Your teams have placed in the top-20 nationally five times, taking eighth place twice at the national championships. 

You have produced 48 All-Americans; 21 members of the CSCAA All-Academic Team; three NCAA Postgraduate Scholars; three CoSIDA Academic All-Americans; the 1989 Academic All-American of the Year; and two Rhodes Scholar finalists. Even with all of the elite accomplishments of your career, you set yourself apart by working every bit as hard with the novice swimmer and diver as with the All-American, helping each and every Wabash man to achieve his personal best. For being a champion coach and role model; for living and modeling for hundreds of Wabash men your devotion to the pursuit of excellence, the National Association of Wabash Men is proud to induct you, Gail Moll Pebworth, into the Wabash Athletic Hall of Fame.