Wabash College Athletics

Few if any Wabash men better define the term "student-athlete" than James A. Freeman, who came to Wabash from Gambia, West Africa in the fall of 1986. From your high school, St. Augustine's in Banjul, you vaulted to national prominence as a member of the top division junior team. It was while playing for that team that you caught the eye of Wabash soccer coach, Al Fye, who is also a native of Gambia. Fye recruited you to Wabash and Little Giant soccer would never be the same.

You broke every game, season, and career scoring record, were named Wabash's Most Valuable Player three straight years, and earned first team all-conference honors three consecutive seasons. In your first season at Wabash, you broke the single game scoring record by recording all five goals in a 5-0 win over Greenville. You would score 22 goals that season, 19 goals in your second year, and set a new Wabash record with 23 goals in your third and final season in a Wabash uniform. You accomplished such outstanding scoring feats unselfishly, and you rank third all-time with 24 career assists despite playing only three seasons. You were such a talented economics student, that you graduated from Wabash in just three years, earning GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America and NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship honors.

You also graduated magna cum laude and received distinction on your senior comps. Your individual contributions helped the team produce a three-year record of 28-12-2, the best record in the history of the sport at Wabash until 1992.  {After leaving Wabash, you received your master's degree from UNC-Greensboro and were awarded an Academic Excellence Medal. You earned the Irvin Sobel Award for best academic achievement among Ph.D. candidates at Florida State University, where you also won the Charles Rockwood Award as the best graduate student instructor. You are a member of the Society of Labor Economics and spends your spare time as a volunteer soccer coach at Lincoln High School in Tallahassee.} The National Association of Wabash Men is proud to induct James A. Freeman into the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame.