Tuna Fishing Tigers

In 1972, the Intercollegiate Game Fish Seminar and Fishing Match needed a replacement team for an upcoming tournament. Learning of the opening, Tom Hanzel, director of Trinity’s Research Services and coach of Trinity’s trap and skeet team, viewed it as an opportunity for Trinity to compete with Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and others. So, Hanzel persuaded Trinity’s Public Relations Office to sponsor a team. Public relations staff member Wayne Witt ’64 was appointed coach and rounded up five team members (Rusty Fuqua, Sandra Champion, Marsha Wheeler, and John Schlichenmaier) to make the trip.

Neither they nor Witt had any experience deep sea fishing.

Teams were housed in Yarmouth and fished out of Wedgeport on the southernmost tip of Nova Scotia. Braving the choppy Atlantic waters, the novice Trinity team entered into the three-day competition to see who could catch the largest tuna and the most fish, determined by weight. While other universities’ contestants donned fashionable blazers bearing university crests, the only Trinity identifiers were white caps with a maroon T on the front. Trinity finished last or next to last (accounts vary) out of 13 teams. However, Fuqua nabbed a 25.6 lb. cod for third place in the individual prize competition, and Champion reeled in a 10 lb. cod, the largest among the fish caught in the female division of the event.

Determined to improve the Tigers’ performance, Witt returned the next year with a team consisting of John Cornyn ’73, Dennis Werner ’74, Ben Lobdell ’75, Bob Shaw ’72, and Doug Earle ’74, all members of the Chi Delta Tau fraternity. The sailed on a 30-ft. tuna boat guided by an experienced Arcadian captain and mate, neither of whom spoke a word of English. While each boat came prepared with one case of beer, the Trinity team found this to be inadequate, and they rushed to the local liquor store after the first day of the tournament to purchase an additional case for the next day.

“Each boat came stocked with a case of Schooner Beer, but officials warned participants not to share refreshments with the crew if they wanted to return safely to port.” - Trinity magazine

The first day of the 1973 tournament, Lobdell eagerly reeled in what he thought was an enormous fish. After a 15-minute struggle, he pulled in a large rock covered in seaweed. The second day, many members lay on the bottom of the boat moaning, groaning, and becoming violently ill because of turbulent sea. The Tuna Fishing Tigers never caught any tuna, but they did land bottom-feeding fish such as cod, haddock, halibut, and mackerel. They finished a respectable sixth in the twelve-team field, with a catch of 233 pounds. The following year, Witt left Trinity, and the University never fielded another team.