From an improbable November comeback to a wrestling dynasty built one match at a time, the newest members of the Wabash Athletics Hall of Fame share a common thread: they shared a Wabash Always Fights work ethic and attitude.
 
There's a certain kind of athlete Wabash College tends to produce. They aren't always the biggest or the most heralded. They don't always arrive with fanfare. But they leave behind broken records, moments frozen in memory, and a standard that the next generation has to chase. The 2026 Athletics Hall of Fame class is full of those athletes.
 
2011 Football Team: The Team That Exceeded Expectations
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 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 and played in front of a crowd that couldn't believe what it was watching.
 
That 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. Their 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 14-1 juggernaut that would play for a national championship a week 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 never lies.
 
The Anchor: C.J. Gum '12
If the 2011 defense had a heartbeat, it was number 33, C.J. Gum. The powerful linebacker came back for a fifth year after a knee injury robbed him of his 2007 season, and he made every one of those extra snaps count. In the Monon Bell rout of DePauw, he had 16 tackles. Against Mount Union in the quarterfinals, he had 13 tackles and 2.5 sacks—an incredible performance on the biggest stage of his career—causing Raiders Head Coach Larry Kahres to say, "One of the best I've ever seen."
 
By the time he was finished, Gum had made 297 career tackles, 31 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, and three forced fumbles. He was a First Team AFCA All-American and a two-time NCAC Defensive Player of the Year.
 
The Blindside Guardian: Weston Kitley '13
Offensive linemen don't get statues and rarely are seen on highlight reels. What the great ones get is the quiet, permanent respect of the quarterbacks they protected and the running backs they sprung. Weston Kitley got all of it.
 
A three-year starter and team captain, Kitley was the cornerstone of a Wabash offense that averaged 210 rushing yards and 409 total yards per game his senior year. He was a three-time First Team All-NCAC selection, a D3football.com All-North Region honoree in 2012, and an Honorable Mention All-American as a sophomore. Later, when the conference celebrated its 30th anniversary, Kitley was named to the All-Decade Team.
 
Then there was his performance in the classroom. In 2012, Kitley was a Capital One First Team Academic All-American. In 2013, he was awarded the NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. On the field and off it, Kitley was exactly what a Wabash man is supposed be: smart, fearless, and committed to his brothers.
 
The Sluggers: Matt Dodaro '09 and Jake Thomas '09
Some of the best baseball stories at Wabash come in pairs, and this one is a classic. Matt Dodaro and Jake Thomas came in together, played four seasons together, and left together in 2009 as First Team All-NCAC selections and cornerstones of one of the most productive offensive eras in program history.
 
Dodaro was pure power and consistency. As a freshman, he hit .369. As a sophomore, he hit .356 with nine home runs and 37 RBI. His senior season, he posted a .320 average with seven homers, 31 RBI, and nine stolen bases across 42 games. Twice he earned First Team All-NCAC honors.
 
Thomas was the pure hitter and opposing pitchers dreaded facing him. He led the Little Giants in hitting as a sophomore and as a senior, batting .424 as a sophomore and .404 as a senior. Along the way, he collected ABCA Second Team All-Mideast honors, Third Team All-Mideast honors, and Academic All-District recognition—a career highlight reel one hit at a time.
 
The Giant Beneath the Rim: Tom Martella '71
Long before Division III existed, before the NCAC, before the modern era of Wabash athletics took its shape, Tom Martella was pulling down rebounds against Butler, Indiana Central, and Valparaiso.
 
A 6-foot-6 center, Martella twice did something that only three other players in the entire history of Wabash basketball have ever managed to do over a full season: he averaged a double-double in points and rebounds in the 1970 and 1971 seasons.
 
More than a half-century later, his career numbers still hold up against anyone. He ranks 15th all-time in points per game (16.4) and second all-time in rebounds per game (9.5), trailing only future NFL legend Pete Metzelaars '82. He was a Second Team All-American in an era when All-American selections were far scarcer than they are today.
 
Putting in the Miles: Seth Einterz '11
Championships are built on empty roads, at 6 a.m., in weather nobody wants to run in. Seth Einterz ran a lot of those miles. By the end of his Wabash career, he was a two-time All-American, finishing 20th at the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships and third in the 5,000 meters at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He was a four-time All-NCAC honoree in cross country and team MVP in 2007, 2008, and 2010. He was a First Team Academic All-American.
 
And when the Little Giants made history in 2011, capturing their first-ever NCAC indoor and outdoor track and field titles, Einterz was in the middle of it. He won the 5,000 meters and was runner-up in the 3,000 at the indoor meet, then, outdoors, was runner-up in the 10,000 and third in the 5,000.
 
The Hurdler: Garrett Tallman '87
It took Garrett Tallman just 52.45 seconds to run the 400-meter hurdles at the 1986 NCAA National Championships—a performance that ended with a national runner-up finish and cementing him as one of the finest hurdlers in Wabash history.
 
Tallman was a four-time letterman and a four-time national qualifier, running at nationals in the 1,600-meter relay as well. He captained the team twice and, as a senior, received the J. Owen Huntsman Award as the Most Valuable Runner.
 
The Coach: Brian Anderson
Every dynasty starts with someone stubborn enough to build it. For Wabash wrestling, that was Coach Brian Anderson.
 
The peak came in 2022, when the Little Giants finished second at the NCAA Division III National Championships, the best team finish in program history. They ended the tournament just one point behind national champion Wartburg. Five Little Giants earned All-America honors. Three finished as national runners-up in their weight classes. Anderson was named the NCAA Division III Wrestling Coach of the Year, D3wrestle.com Coach of the Year, and NCAA DIII Central Region Coach of the Year—a remarkable coaching triple crown.
 
That season is just one of two decades of excellence. Coach Anderson helped Riley Lefever do something no other wrestler in Division III has accomplished: winning four straight national championships.
 
In 2023, senior Jack Heldt capped his career by winning the 285-pound national title, joined on the All-America stand by Chase Baczek at 184 pounds. In 2016-17, Wabash finished third in the country with a school-record seven national qualifiers, one individual national champion, four All-Americans, a Midwest Regional title, and Regional Coach of the Year honors for Anderson.
 
In 2015-16, Wabash was fourth in the country with two national champions and a 13-1 dual-meet record. In 2014-15, Wabash was third in the country with two more national champions and a fifth-place NWCA Scholar All-America team finish (3.51 GPA). Going farther back to 2004-05, Wabash captured its first NCAA Regional title since 1983.
 
The 2026 Wabash Athletics Hall of Fame class will be formally inducted at a ceremony on Friday, September 25. Reservations can be made online.