Wabash College will celebrate the publication of a long-awaited book written by Crawfordsville native Max E. Servies at a reception on Friday in Lilly Library. A reception will begin at 4:30 p.m. with remarks from Servies and editor David A. Phillips at 4:45 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
Servies researched and wrote “Some Little Giants: A Brief Wabash College Athletics History in the 1980s and 1990s.” He used scores of primary resources to trace Wabash’s athletic tradition back to 1866. The 260-page book provides readers stories of the early pioneers of Wabash’s sports teams, including the Little Giants’ wins in the first intercollegiate baseball, football and basketball games played in Indiana.
Servies was the College’s wrestling coach for 40 years and served as director of athletics for 35 of those years. He also assisted in football and track and field. He retired after coaching Wabash’s wrestling team to 487 dual meet victories and 38 straight winning seasons.
Servies finished his work in 2000 and the book sat unpublished — it’s 300-page appendix that contained each team’s records, lettermen and award-winners growing out-of-date with each passing year.
Phillips, emeritus professor of chemistry at Wabash, picked up the project five years ago and compiled statistics and records to bring Servies’ history through the 2017 fall sports seasons. The bulk of the information from Servies’ appendices is now available online.
Phillips arrived at Wabash in 1968 as the College’s first professor of inorganic chemistry. He began helping out as a scorekeeper and timer at wrestling meets in his first year, and continued to volunteer over the arc of his career. Her served as Faculty Athletics Representative for six years.
Some Little Giants is available at the Wabash College Bookstore on the lower level of the Sparks Center or online.
