Zach Canon ’16 – Alumni from the past seven decades, hailing from all over the United States gathered for Wabash’s tenth annual Big Bash Celebration that took place last weekend on the Wabash campus. Alumni as fresh as 2013 and as experienced as 1943 congregated for a time of festivities, story telling, and an opportunity to relive the glory (or shame) of the time-honored Wabash tradition, Chapel Sing.
Chapel sing, one of the most anticipated events of the weekend, brought plenty of laughs and reminiscing as each class had its chance to display their school spirit. Class after class took their position on the chapel’s front steps with lyric cheat sheets in hand. Their goal was simple — entertain the crowd and refrain from embarrassing themselves. Though many alumni failed at the latter, each class’ rendition of Old Wabash was nothing short of entertaining. From pre-prepared choreography to recruiting current students to help, the cherished school song, Old Wabash, echoed time and time again through the campus mall.
On Friday and Saturday afternoon, alumni supported one another by attending colloquiums presented by fellow alumni on a wide variety of topics. From Indiana Pacers’ play-by-play announcer Chris Denari ’83 to Buhdist Monk Jotipalo Bhikku ’88, Big 10 referee Steve Woods ’93 to David Weglarz ’03 and his journey of founding a small craft-distillery, Wabash Men and their family’s listened intently with the stories told. These alumni demonstrated well that learning does not end upon graduating – it only begins.
Though dark clouds hung and threatened all weekend, not even the weather could extinguish the bright-eyed alumni exploring and marveling the renovated campus and one another. They toured the Allen Athletic Center with amazement and the old academic buildings with fondness. Each took delight in the success of one another and never once was there a shortage of intelligent conversation.
Big Bash is but a brief reunion of a grand story. Each Wabash man has a unique story. Though many years separate some of these alums, they are all unified as Little Giants and they all live with the same two mottos engrained in their mentalities: “Wabash Always fights” and “DePauw to hell, we want the Bell!” One can be assured no alumnus needs a cheat sheet for those phrases.
Canon is a summer intern in the College’s Communication and Marketing Office.
