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| Cameron Walton ’13 and Seth Parker ’12 |
“Since being at Wittenberg University, I have heard many stories about how Coach Maurer changed people’s lives,” Parker said. “I know that Coach Maurer was a man who was intelligent and who had an intensity to win, yet [he was] a kind person. He was one of the greatest coaches/mentors of all time, in any division, and I am thankful for being chosen to receive such a great award.”
Created in 2008 following a fundraising campaign led by many of Maurer’s former players, the Dave Maurer Honorary Endowed Scholarship is awarded to a sophomore, junior or senior male student with financial need who has demonstrated such qualities as self-discipline, teamwork, cooperation, hard work, self-confidence, pride in accomplishment, competitive spirit, and the ability to deal with adversity. It is a tuition scholarship that may be renewable on an annual basis or may be rotated, per a selection committee’s discretion. Walton and Parker each received $7,500 from the fund following a nomination process.
For Walton, Maurer’s lifelong ability to push through adversity connected strongly with him.
“I am not the most gifted athlete,” Walton explained in his application, but “I knew that if I pushed myself …it would pay off, and I would become an asset to the [men’s basketball] team.”
Having played basketball for 14 years, Walton, a history major and education minor from Waterville, Ohio, personifies perseverance, having earned an eventual spot in the team’s rotation his sophomore year. Things were clicking, Walton recalled, and then the unthinkable – an elbow-to-the-head-induced concussion followed weeks later by season-ending injury – a torn ACL.
“To be told that (you) cannot play a sport you love [for the next six months], having played it non-stop for 14 years, is a terrible feeling,” Walton said. But, in the spirit of Maurer, Walton knew that he had to stay focused and keep working hard.
“His remarkable attitude toward it all [has been] an inspiration to all around him,” Head Coach Bill Brown wrote in his letter of support. “He really wanted to be at Wittenberg and has worked extremely hard to become an important person for our program.”
To date, Walton has earned his first varsity letter as a member of the Tiger men’s basketball team in 2011 after appearing in 16 games and averaging 8.3 points, third-best on the team. Although he missed the last four weeks of the season due to his ACL injury, he has returned to action at the start of the 2011-12 season to average 5.3 points and 2.3 rebounds through the first four games.
Back on the gridiron, Parker, an economics major and math minor from DeGraff, Ohio, also has impressive athletic stats, including being a four-year letterwinner and three-year starter at safety for the Tiger football team. Parker earned first-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference in 2010 and 2011 while ranking among the team leaders in tackles both seasons. In addition to being a key member of one of the top defensive units in all of NCAA Division III football in 2009 and 2010, Parker was a standout on special teams as well, earning the program’s Special Teams Award in 2008 and 2010.
Yet, it is his personal perspective on life that caught the committee’s and Head Football Coach Joe Fincham’s attention during the nomination process. Growing up in a blue-collar family where the automobile industry provided his parents’ livelihood, Parker explained that neither of his parents was able to go to college. And then the recession hit, and his mother found herself unemployed.
“My mother has since worked multiple low-paying jobs so I can continue to play football and pursue my academics at the very same university Coach Maurer made famous,” Parker wrote. “My parents have taught me that anything can be accomplished with hard work and that nothing comes for free.”
“There is no question Seth would be an outstanding representative for the Maurer Scholarship,” Fincham wrote in his letter of support to the scholarship committee. “His work ethic, willingness to compete and leadership skills would have enabled him to fit in well with Coach Maurer’s teams in the ’70s.”
Maurer remains one of the most beloved Wittenberg leaders and mentors in the illustrious history of the university’s varsity athletics program, especially among the student-athletes he guided on and off the field during his 40 years (1955-95) as an athletics administrator, professor and coach of the Tiger football, swimming, track and field, and golf teams.
Maurer led the Tigers to two NCAA Division III football national championships as a head coach, in addition to a West Region title in 1969. He also served as assistant coach for two other national title teams. In addition, the 1978 and 1979 squads finished second in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Maurer earned national coach of the year honors twice, district coach of the year four times and conference coach of the year five times. His career culminated with induction into the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1991, the first “true” NCAA Division III coach to garner such recognition.
After more than a decade as an assistant football coach, Maurer took the reins in 1969 from fellow National College Football Hall of Famer, Bill Edwards. Maurer posted a career record of 129-23-3, good for an astounding .842 winning percentage, best among active coaches at that time. His Tiger teams went undefeated three times and won seven Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) championships in his 15 seasons as head coach, to go along with seven OAC crowns during his years as an assistant coach.
Walton and Parker are the first two Wittenberg students to receive scholarships from the fund since Brad McKinley ’11 earned the distinction as the first-ever recipient during a special Dave Maurer Day in 2008.
Upon graduation, Parker plans to pursue the field of clean and renewable energy in hopes, as he explained, “of making the world a better place.” Walton initially plans to teach with a long-term goal of high school counseling or serving as an athletics director.
--Karen Gerboth ’93
