The Bates Bobcast

Colleen O’Brien '92 starred as a women’s soccer and softball player during her time as a Bobcat. She was a two-time All-American in women’s soccer, leading Bates to the 1991 ECAC championship with her game-winning goal against Smith College in the final.

Playing third base, O’Brien helped lead the Bates softball team to multiple winning seasons as well, earning regional All-America honors in 1990. O’Brien went on to play some pro soccer in Sweden and the United States. Today, she joins the Bobcast.

This week we honor Leigh Campbell from the class of 1964, who passed away Friday at the age of 79.

In his 39 years of service as a financial aid officer at Bates, most of that time as director, Leigh Campbell became a trusted confidant, adviser, and friend to thousands of students.

He first became involved with Bates men’s basketball as a student manager in the early 1960s. Campbell graduated in 1964 and after serving in the Vietnam War, eventually returned to Bates in 1973. He then served as the official scorer for the men’s basketball team for nearly 50 years and was inducted into the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019 as a Legend of the Game.

Men’s basketball head coach Jon Furbush '05 just completed his 12th season at the helm of the program and played four seasons of basketball at Bates as well. Like many Bates alums, he developed a strong bond with Campbell.

Today, the Bates rowing program is a national powerhouse, with the women having won four NCAA championships in the last five seasons and the men having become the first NESCAC program to compete at the IRA National Championships. Sporting a donor-funded boathouse on the Androscoggin River that is the envy of collegiate rowing, the Bobcat program is a force to be reckoned with.

But Bates rowing has humble beginnings. In 1985, the Bates College Rowing Association was first established, before the college even owned a boat. Then it took until 1999 for rowing to become a varsity sport at Bates.

On this week’s Bobcast, we take you back to the early ‘90s, when the program was first getting its feet wet. In 1995, men’s rowing coxswain Lisa Hamasaki '95 put the Bobcats on the map, becoming the first All-American in the program’s history. She joins the Bobcast to reflect on what first took her from California to Bates and what it was like being a coxswain in the time of wooden boats and a much-different Androscoggin River.

This week, with Major League Baseball's season finally starting, we take a deep dive into Bates baseball's past, as we learn about the Bobcats' first big leaguer: Harry Lord '08.

During his nine seasons in the major leagues, Lord captained both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, and spent a year in the outlaw Federal League. And recently, Bob Muldoon '81 found out a bit more about Lord's time as a Bobcat.

Muldoon graduated from Bates in 1981 with a degree in economics and earned a Masters from Columbia in 1991. He played a year of lacrosse at Bates for Web Harrison and later became a bit of a boxer at Columbia. But his real passion: early 20th century baseball.

Recently, Muldoon found himself looking up the story of Harry Lord, a Mainer from the class of 1908. Starting in the fall of 1904, Lord only spent a little under a year on the Bates campus as a student. But his story is a wild one, culminating in him playing nine years in Major League Baseball and returning to Bates during World War I to coach the team he'd left in the lurch 13 years earlier.

Muldoon is the author of a novel on his beloved Hartford Whalers hockey team. But this story about an early Bates baseball great is all true. Here's Muldoon on his interest in history, the Bobcats, and Harry Lord.

Rob Thompson '66 starred on the soccer pitch for Bates in the program’s first four seasons as a varsity sport. Starting in 1962, the Bobcats went 24-10-7 during Thompson’s collegiate career. And in 1965, he became the first All-American in team history.

The big fullback stood six-foot-four and anchored the Bobcat defense. He also starred on the tennis court for two years, playing doubles with James “Stu” Wallach '64 and helping Bates achieve a 10-1 record in 1963. Thompson’s soccer prowess was such that he even got recruited to kick for the football team.

In 1965, he made a field goal and played a soccer match against Bowdoin on the same day. And today, Rob Thompson joins the Bobcast!

Sherry Deschaine, at the time Sherry Yakawonis, was hired to teach physical education at Bates in 1968 straight out of the University of Maine at Presque Isle and immediately became the school’s first women’s basketball coach.

Thirty years later, she retired after having had a hand in almost every women’s sport on campus. She served as the head field hockey coach for 26 years and as the head softball coach for 21. Deschaine also at various times coached women’s lacrosse and volleyball, and she assisted with the track and field team. She even coached varsity badminton and bowling during her time at Bates.

Yes, Sherry Deschaine did it all, and today, she joins the Bobcast.

Nancy Ingersoll Fiddler '78 was a pioneer in more ways than one during her time as a Bobcat. She joined the field hockey team as a first-year in 1974. Then that spring, she led the charge to start a women’s lacrosse program at Bates.

As a sophomore, she joined a young Bates women’s Nordic skiing program despite having no experience with the sport. But she immediately started winning every race, eventually becoming Bates’ first female All-American in 1978. Before she was done at Bates, Ingersoll Fiddler led the way in starting a women’s cross country club, which earned varsity status soon-after.

10 years after she graduated, Ingersoll-Fiddler qualified for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Nordic skiing. She followed that up by qualifying again in 1992. A 14-time United States national champion, Ingersoll-Fiddler was one of the top 20 Nordic skiers in the world for many years.

Her daughter, Laurel Fiddler, also competed for the Bates Nordic team, graduating in 2017. A 2016 inductee into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame, Ingersoll-Fiddler joins the Bobcast to reflect on her remarkable career.

Along with classmate Rudy Smith, John Douglas '60 starred for the Bates men’s track and field team in the late 1950s. Bates became a regional powerhouse during his time in Lewiston, at one point defeating 31 opponents in a row over the course of 21 meets between 1957 and 1959.

Douglas competed in numerous events for the Bobcats and his name is still number one in the Bates record books in both the indoor and outdoor long jump, as well as the outdoor triple jump. His indoor record long jump of 25 feet, 0.75 inches took place during his junior year in 1959 at Madison Square Garden, with Jesse Owens -- yes, that Jesse Owens -- officiating. Later that same year, representing Bates in the segregated south, he set the program outdoor long jump record of 25 feet, 1.5 inches. Both jumps also established New England records at the time.

During Douglas’s years as a Bobcat, the men’s track and field team won the state championship every year except 1959, when Douglas missed the meet due to injury. After graduating in 1960 with a degree in physics, Douglas went on to have a remarkable career, working for the likes of Lockheed Research Laboratories, Bank of America and Dole Foods. Then he became a media mogul, starting his own television station and purchasing a number of radio stations as well. Douglas served as a Bates trustee from 1995 to 2000 and he still owns and operates numerous radio stations.

And today, John Douglas joins the Bobcast!

You can find Thom Freeman '63 all over the Bates baseball record book. He pitched 18 complete games in three seasons and struck out 181 batters -- both are program records to this day.

In 1962, Freeman was the winning pitcher in seven of the Bobcats’ 12 victories, leading Bates to the Maine State Series title and the Eastern NCAA Finals. And in 1963, he was named a second team All-American in the college division by the American Association of College Baseball Coaches.

Standing at 6'6'' or 6'7" depending on who you ask, Freeman also starred on the basketball court, helping Bates advance to the NCAA Regional Finals in 1961. Freeman graduated with a degree in psychology and a career Earned Run Average of 2.47.

He then signed with the New York Yankees and played four seasons in their farm system. As a Yankee minor leaguer, Freeman learned from the great Whitey Ford and his height was even the subject of a Yogi Berra quote. The Hall of Fame catcher turned Yankee manager was quoted in The Sporting News as saying “These are the tallest kids I’ve ever seen in our camps. Good thing we don’t pay rookies by the inch.”

Freeman went on to have a long career at IBM and in 2016 he was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Today, he joins the Bobcast to reflect on his time at Bates, including his close relationship with famed Bates head coach William “Chick” Leahey '52.

Liz Wanless's list of athletic accolades is long and impressive. As a Bates volleyball player, she was a four-time All-NESCAC selection and one time All-American, while the Bobcats went a combined 105-41 over four seasons.

But Wanless '04 stood out even more competing for then-head coach Carolyn Court as a track and field athlete at Bates in her specialty, the shot put.

As a senior in 2004, Wanless won the Division III shot put title in both indoor and outdoor competition. She even had a legendary Bobcat teammate in her friend Keelin Godsey '06, who also went on to win NCAA titles and played a pioneering role as a transgender athlete.

As it turned out, Bates was only the start of Wanless's rise as a shot putter. She won Division I All-America honors in her final year of eligibility at the University of Florida, then went on to compete in the World Championships for Team USA.

Now working as an Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Analytics at Ohio University's College of Business, Wanless joined the Bobcast via Zoom to talk about her unique story at Bates and beyond.