GREENWOOD, Ind. -- Through 40 years of the frantic whirl of game notes, programs, statistics and website posts he meticulously churned out at Augustana College (Ill.), CoSIDA Hall of Famer Dave Wrath never forgot the responsibility topping his to-do list was serving students.
 
Even if deadlines were honing in on him like a blitzing linebacker, Wrath took time to start each of his students' office work sessions with the same question: "How are you doing?"
 
It was more than a conversation starter. He wanted an answer.
 
"Dave always took a minute or two or more if needed, whatever it took, to really have an understanding of what was going on in our lives, knowing what we were interested in, making sure that he was doing what he could to help us outside of the office and getting us connected with people that he knew could be helpful to us," said Jessica Leifheit, a Wrath pupil and 2014 Augustana grad now serving as associate director of athletics communications at Western Kentucky University.
 
Which at least partly explains why an oversized poster from Leifheit's biology research project on Mississippi River plant life had a home on Wrath's office wall, tacked next to other student work and crowding out his numerous awards. It remained there until the day he retired.
 
"Dave took a lot of pride in what we did," Leifheit.
 
A 1980 Augustana grad, Wrath competed on Augustana's cross country and track and field team for four years, helping the Vikings earn fourth-place national finishes at the 1979 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships and the 1980 NCAA Track and Field Championships.
 
Wrath started working there in 1981 and retired as associate director of athletics for media and alumni relations in 2021. He was so much more.
 
Wrath embraced the extra duties that SIDs are saddled with at smaller schools, whether it meant troubleshooting a malfunctioning scoreboard or overseeing athletics facility scheduling. Service is in his DNA, although he insists his motive was self-preservation.
 
"When I started in this business, there was no guarantee from year-to-year that schools our size were going to continue with a full-time SID," Wrath noted. "It was sort of a novel thing. I was going to make sure that it was going to be awfully hard for them to replace me."
 
Not just hard, but unthinkable. Over time, Wrath had more job security at Augustana than the school's yellow-bearded Viking mascot. The press box at the Austin E. Knowlton Outdoor Athletic Complex is now named for him.
 
Yet his eagerness to answer every request with a yes never diminished, nor did his legendary attention to detail and work ethic.
 
The number of full-time Division III SIDs grew in the 1980s but to his colleagues, it was always Wrath who set the standard.
 
Before the digital age dawned, Wrath found ways to remain connected, even installing a fax machine at his home. Prior to that, Wrath recalls an era when reporting results to the media required more than clicking "send."
 
"Many of us can remember standing in the rain on a pay phone, calling in the box score," he said. "And one thing you learned early in life is that McDonald's didn't have pay phones. So you always had to go across the street to a gas station when your team stopped at McDonald's."
 
The athletics communications world has changed.
 
"The position evolved but I always felt that representing the institution was still the most important thing, whether that means putting together a 60-page football program, which nobody does anymore, or using Instagram," he said. "You are still the front person for your institution and that's the important thing."
 
That, and helping others.
 
"He'd do any favors that he could do for anyone, whether it was a visiting coach or an opponent SID who was 200 or 300 miles away," said Leifheit. "Trying to take care of everybody that's in your life and working with you in some capacity. That's really what sticks out to me about Dave."
 
Wrath knew no other way.

"For 40 years, I woke up and somebody was counting on me to do something," Wrath said. "And that was something I really thrived on. The fear of letting anybody down was great and I never wanted to let anybody down."
 
Wrath's extensive CoSIDA involvement started early, his loyalty running as deep to the organization as to his school. Nearly all of daughter Leah's childhood summer vacations were built around CoSIDA convention trips taken by Wrath and his wife Joan. He missed only three conventions.

"Once you go to conventions, you start to rub elbows with people who really helped you," Wrath said. "I owe a lot to Ed Alsene, who was at Illinois Wesleyan. He's the one who cornered me at a very early age and said you've got to get involved in the Academic All-America® program."

Wrath took the advice. He received CoSIDA's Lester Jordan Award in 2005 for his work with and commitment to the Academic All-America program. His efforts to publicize scholar-athletes regionally and nationally led to the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Academic All-Conference team now bearing his name.
 
And, he's also proud that Augustana is among the national leaders with 177 Academic All-America® honorees—166 of whom were nominated by Wrath.
 
CoSIDA's Warren Berg Award recipient in 2000 (for outstanding service and contributions by a college division athletic communicator), Wrath joined the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2003 and in 2007, received his 25-Year Award. He was inducted into the Augustana Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame in 2009.
 
One other honor for his distinguished service? Starting in 2023-24, Augustana is sponsoring the Dave Wrath Sports Marketing Internship for his students.
 
So many are grateful, but Wrath insists he was the lucky one.
 
"I've never ever felt that it was work," he said. "It was always basically life in the toy store."