Not Your Average Day in the Field
Brent Harris - Brock Graham has been involved in many interesting projects during his two years at Wabash. The 2007 Wabash Freshman of the Year traveled to Botswana with 20 of his fellow students, each paying $3,000 to make the trip to serve as missionaries to the people of Maun during spring break. He's been a force on the football field as a starting J-Back, helping the Little Giants win back-to-back North Coast Athletic Conference titles and a berth in the 2007 NCAA Division III football playoffs. He's worked so hard in the classroom as a religion major that he will be able to graduate in December, a full 17 months ahead of the remaining members of his freshmen class.
Wednesday afternoon, however, he spent the day in a different field --- a corn field.
Graham will be featured in the third issue of Champion, the new magazine produced by the NCAA. The magazine tells the stories of the many student-athletes competing at the collegiate level in addition to providing information about various events and happenings throughout the members of the NCAA. When Champion editor Gary Brown heard the story of Graham's trip to Botswana, he and the rest of his staff at the NCAA office decided to put the Wabash sophomore on the cover of the third edition.
Art director Arnel Reynon from Sport Graphics in Indianapolis, brought an NCAA photographer from Denver, Colorado to Crawfordsville to set up a photo shoot for the cover. The afternoon was spent not only on the main football field at Hollett Little Giant Stadium --- a familiar setting for Wabash's leader in pass receptions in 2007. The crew started the shoot on the train tracks behind the stadium in a tribute to the Monon railway which provided the famous trophy for the annual Monon Bell Classic between the Little Giants and DePauw University. Reynon had one more idea for the final location.
"We saw some great corn fields on the way into campus. Any chance we could find one to use in the photo shoot?"
A quick phone call to Mike Warren, Wabash associate director of alumni and parent relations, and we were on our way to a local farm east of town. The final hour of the shoot must have had the local farmers perplexed as to why a young man was wearing football gear in the middle of corn field about to be tilled for the upcoming planting season.
The day came to and end, just in time for Brock to return to campus to get to the weight room to lift with some of his teammates.
We'll have the full story of the students' trip to Botswana in the next edition of Wabash Magazine. The next quarterly issue of Champion will be sent to NCAA members in late July. You can check out the current issue online at www.ncaachampionmagazine.com.