Joe Bevelhimer (2010) - Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame

Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame

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Joe Bevelhimer

Class

1986
Induction

2010
Sport(s)

Golf, Football, Coach

Joseph Brian Bevelhimer ’86
Wabash Athletics Hall of Fame
November 12, 2010

Joseph Brian Bevelhimer, when you came to Wabash as an Honor Scholar from Logansport, Indiana in the fall of 1982, you were entering a football program at the top of its game. Still you cracked the starting lineup immediately on the 1982 team that posted a 10-0 record for Wabash — the College’s first undefeated, untied season since 1910. In fact, you knocked home 32 conversion kicks and six field goals in your rookie season for Coach Stan Parrish. And you would only get better.

As a kicker, you are virtually without peer in Wabash’s storied football history. At one time or another, you set and held every kicking and kick-scoring record in the books, and to this day you remain fifth on the all-time scoring charts with 219 points; only running backs and receivers rank higher. These days, we never say never, but there are a few of your records we believe will linger — 16 kick-scoring points in one game, 34 career field goals, five field goals in one game, and 117 career conversion kicks. What we know for sure is that you were 3-1 in games vs. DePauw, and that no kicker ever had a bigger, better Monon Bell game than you did in the 1985 bell-ringer. In that game you twice set the record for the longest field goal in Wabash history — hitting first from 49 yards and later from 50 yards, and you nailed five fields in that contest. By game’s end, you alone had outscored DePauw 16-8, knocked the Tigers’ out of the playoffs, and etched a spot in our memories and in our hearts.

Indeed, 1985 was special; your 14 field goals ranked second in all of Division III football. Even with that square-toed shoe and straight on kicking style, you refused to be lumped into the category of “kickers,” and you routinely led the Little Giants in special teams tackles.

Never let it be said that kickers don’t get their due — the National Association of Wabash Men is thrilled to induct you into the Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame. Joe Bevelhimer — Some Little Giant!

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