The following piece appeared in The Daily Record on Saturday October 19, 2013:

Al Van Wie Tribute

J. Douglas Drushal

I first met Al Van Wie some time in the summer of 1961.  I was 8 years old and Al and Judy and their 3 children had just moved into our neighborhood on East University Street.  Our houses were a short stroll from The College of Wooster campus, to which Al had just returned to be a rookie coach.  Thus began a life-long friendship between the Van Wie and Drushal families.

Much has been written about Al’s storied career at the College and in the community since his recent death.  All the accolades are well deserved.  There could be more, but such articles can only be so long.  Please permit me in this space to share a few memories that did not make it into the other publicity.

Mike Van Wie was also 8 in 1961 and fit right into our happy little world of softball in our back yard, basketball in driveways during decent weather and in basements during snow storms, marauding around the rest of the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night, and sneaking around the College campus.  We probably thought we were pretty adventurous at the time, but I am sure by today’s standards the worst of our behavior was pretty tame.  I remember Mike informing me of Paul’s birth, a somewhat late arrival to the Van Wie clan, and thinking “OK, that’s nice, now let’s go outside and play.” 

The growing Van Wie family needed larger quarters, so their first move was just up the alley that connects University and Henrietta Streets.  You can tell the house today by the concrete slab which fills most of the back yard which Al installed to have a basketball hoop with a decent surface from which to shoot.  Before too long, another move took them out of the neighborhood, but we kept in contact.

My next personal memory of Al goes back to the first Camp Fighting Scot, in the summer of 1970.  I was there, as the entirety of Al’s administrative staff.  (OK, I was really just a Go-Fer, and paid accordingly, but it seemed prestigious at the time.)  Other publicity about Al’s career has told the story of Al creating this new program at the College, which has grown into one of the premier summer athletic camp programs in the region.  But that other publicity omitted the fact that the creation of Camp Fighting Scot was quite controversial at the time in some circles.  The NCAA thought that the Camp was nothing more than a thinly disguised recruiting tool, illegal under NCAA rules.  This was, of course, not the case, but the NCAA put the College on probation.  The College’s President knew this was nonsense and fully backed Al and the continuation of the Camps.  (I have this on first hand information, too.)  The NCAA finally came to its senses and now summer athletic camps are found on college campuses around the country.  But Camp Fighting Scot was first.  Al had a great vision.

Others have written about Al’s leadership in the creation of the North Coast Athletic Conference, still going strong today, but it must be emphasized that one of the key motivations for this was to upgrade women’s athletics.  After Title IX was enacted in the early 1970s, opportunities for intercollegiate athletics for women increased dramatically, but without a league which had other women’s teams to play, that promise was hollow.  The NCAC had as one of its key features a roughly equal number of men’s and women’s teams, and it has worked.

One of the key backers of Title IX was New York Senator Jacob Javits, a liberal Republican who authored the extension of Title IX to athletics.  Al liked to add “There’s a phrase you don’t hear too much anymore:  ‘liberal Republican’.”  But that’s pretty much what Al was, and he was proud to wear that label.

After fully retiring from the College, Al undertook a new endeavor as Publisher of The Intercollegiate Athletic Forum.  This periodic newsletter focused on college athletics outside of the Division I context and became a popular forum for many of Al’s colleagues around the country to address a wide variety of issues of concern.  Al asked me to contribute articles on legal themes (actually, he just told me that I would do so!) and I enjoyed doing so.  While the newsletter eventually ran its course and stopped publication, it remains a good source for ideas for coaches and athletic administrators who do not have the billion dollar budget of an Ohio State University.

Al’s interests ranged far beyond athletics, and involvement in the Wooster community was a high priority.  He and Judy had a special place in their hearts for the Crippled Children and Adults organization.  He recruited our son, Ben, to serve on that Board with him, and both enjoyed the mentorship experience.  And even on the College campus, Al’s interests extended beyond the gym.  At the Van Wie Christmas Open House, there were usually more professors from other academic disciplines than coaches in attendance.  This is the heart of the small college experience.

At a recent meeting of Rotary, I gave the invocation and used Micah 6:8 as my source.  Al asked me after the meeting if I would send an email to him with that verse included, as it was one of his favorites.  That was the last time I saw Al, and this was my last email to him: “and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  This is how Al lived his life.  We will miss him.