Usually, offensive linemen toil in relative obscurity on the football field. They slug it out in the trenches and do the dirty work so the folks in the backfield can reap the rewards. Not all offensive linemen are Chris Meskan, however.
The husky farm kid out of Aledo, Illinois put together a career for the Vikings in the late 1990’s that can rival any of the great ones who helped open holes for Augustana running backs. He saw time at both offensive guard and center and was a stalwart performer. A team captain on the 1998 team that finished the year 7-2, Meskan combined a tremendous work ethic with a desire to be great in the classroom and in the end, it paid off for him – literally.
He was a two-time first team all-conference performer and as a junior was a first team GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American and an NCAA Division III All-American as selected by Hewlett-Packard. Before his senior season he was a pre-season All-American and in the last week of the 1998 campaign he was honored by the Burger King Corporation as a “Scholar-Athlete of the Week” for his combined work in the classroom, where his GPA was 3.89 while majoring in math, finance and business and on the football field.
The honors just poured in for Meskan and he had one of the most memorable weeks in Augustana history in early December of 1998. It all started on December 7 when he was boarding a plane for New York to attend the National Football Foundation’s annual awards banquet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. While he was landing in the Big Apple, his teammates were gathering for their annual team awards banquet where he was named the Vikings’ Most Valuable Offensive Player.
On Tuesday, December 8, he donned a tuxedo for the first time since his high school prom and was awarded an $18,000.00 postgraduate scholarship by the National Football Foundation as a scholar-athlete, one of just 17 players in the whole country and just two were from NCAA Division III.
While he was packing his bags in New York on Wednesday, December 9 to get ready for the second plane flight of his life, the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America team was announced and Meskan was named to the first team for the second year in a row.
After a flight home to the Quad Cities and another hasty plane flight to Monterey, Mexico, the now travel-hardened Meskan added further to his trophy collection. The Hewlett-Packard NCAA Division III All-American team was selected on Thursday, December 10 and he was one of just six offensive guards picked nationwide. While getting acclimatized to Mexico and trying to learn plays for the United States Division III All-Star team at the Aztec Bowl Monterey on Friday, December 11, the Football Gazette announced its NCAA Division III All-America team and Meskan’s name was on it as one of just 15 offensive linemen honored.
The final feather in his by-now-burgeoning bonnet was his appearance in the Aztec Bowl on Saturday, December 12. He was selected by the American Football Coaches Association and Meskan played for the victorious United States team and one of his biggest thrills was getting to play for former Augustana head coach Bob Reade, who was serving as the offensive coordinator for Team USA.
On Sunday, December 13 he boarded a plane for the fourth and final time of the week and he flew back to his home in Aledo and for the first time in six days, no awards were announced in his name. When he got back to campus on Monday, December 14 he found that he had missed more class time in the past week than he had in his entire college career.
Later in his senior year he would be awarded a $7,500.00 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, meaning that his combination of athletic prowess and academic achievement netted him $25,500.00 toward graduate school. He put that to good use by earning a Master’s of Business Administration in finance and entrepreneurship from the University of Iowa.
“I look back fondly on my years at Augustana,” said Meskan. “I was fortunate to spend my time there with my now-wife and we both consider our college years some of the best of our lives. I think the main education that occurred for me was learning how to learn. I didn’t have much sense of the world before I came to Augustana and my eyes were opened to areas of learning that I didn’t know anything about.”
Chris and his wife Penny, a 2000 Augustana graduate, live in Aledo and have three daughters, Olivia, Violet and Charlotte. He is a financial analyst for Deere and Company, a job he has held for the last 12 years.
