Football
11/3/2021 9:51:00 AM

written by: Rachel Wachman ’24

Don Dandelske ’78 could have gone to Princeton, Dartmouth, or Columbia but chose Wesleyan. Dandelske, who played football and lacrosse at Wesleyan for four years, picked the University because of the opportunities a smaller school would afford him, both on and off the playing field.

 

At Wesleyan, he majored in sociology and government, joined the Chi Psi fraternity, of which he later became president, and played two time-consuming sports, even becoming the All-State defenseman in lacrosse in 1974 and captain of the team by his senior year. Before Wesleyan, Dandelske, who began playing football in 6th grade, was a member of the 1972 Connecticut State Champion Football squad, as well as the captain of his hometown lacrosse team in West Haven, Connecticut.

 

Dandelske emphasized that he consistently felt driven towards success during his time at Wesleyan, both in terms of playing sports and balancing academics.

 

“The motivation was always there, mainly because I knew I was there to get a great education, and I really loved playing sports and I didn’t want to jeopardize either one of those by becoming less motivated than I needed to be,” Dandelske said.

 

Of course, being a student- athlete requires dedication, but Dandelske highlighted how helpful it was to have such a concrete schedule.

 

“It really gives you a regimen, a kind of a framework to keep you focused because you have a certain amount of things you have to get accomplished in a day, so you don’t get off track,” Dandelske explained.

 

Athletics also led Dandelske to bond with his teammates and forge lasting friendships, including through Chi Psi, a fraternity which no longer exists on campus. During his term as president of the fraternity in 1977-1978, Dandelske had the opportunity to build leadership skills.

 

“It seemed like most of the people that I was close with and involved with were in [Chi Psi],” Dandelske recalled. “It was a good experience because not only because of the friendships and all of that, but also [because it] had jobs within the house that you had to do [and] you got a minimum wage for pay, you know, busing tables or serving meals and those kinds of things [at the eating club].”

 

Dandelske also remarked on the diversity of interests among the people he befriended. His freshman year roommate, John McVicar ’78, later became a two-time All-American player for football on defense.

 

“From my freshman year on, I had a lot of the same friends from the Foss Hill dorms all the way through my fraternity experience,” Dandelske said. “But you run into a lot of different kinds of people. For example, some of the people I played with and lived with in my dorm and in my fraternity [became] an NFL coach, superior court judges, transplant surgeons, mayors…. All kinds of different people focusing on different kinds of majors and [coming from] different backgrounds. It was very educational.”

Dandelske emphasized how close he became with the people he lived, ate, played, and hung out with on a regular basis.

 

“Once you get away from that, you find new relationships and so forth, but the ones that I developed back then seem to be and still are some of the closest friendships that I had,” he said.

 

In fact, Dandelske and some of his Wesleyan friends come together every year for Homecoming, with the exception of last year due to the pandemic. Some of these friends Dandelske still feels close to today, and he’s especially looking forward to Homecoming this year, since he hasn’t seen many of his friends since 2019. Sports continue to bring him and his former teammates together for this celebratory weekend.

 

“We’re having a special event on Friday night for the 1970s All-Decade football team, which I was lucky enough to be selected to,” Dandelske said. “I’m also serving as the honorary captain for the game on Saturday.”

 

He also spoke about coming back to campus after so much time has passed since his undergraduate years, emphasizing the ways in which Wesleyan has grown both physically and in terms of diversity.

 

“It’s been interesting over the years to watch the changes and the new facilities, things like that,” he explained. “There are places that were there when I was there… that vanished.”

 

Regardless of time and distance, Dandelske and his friends have been able to connect over the years through technology.

 

“I don’t pick up the phone and just call people to chat,” Dandelske said. “So the internet has been helpful to me because you’ll get a lot of these email chains or text groups, and that’s helped. It’s also helped us to organize gatherings, whether it’s golf or we went to the Florida Keys once with groups of guys that I went to school with. It’s helped [to] stay in touch. Obviously I’ve lost touch with a few people and every now and then they’ll pop up on LinkedIn or on Facebook and [we’ll] get a chance to connect that way.”

 

In addition to owing many of his lasting friendships to Wesleyan, Dandelske remains thankful for the way the University kick-started his career.

 

“I had no idea what I was gonna do after Wesleyan initially,” Dandelske said. “So I ended up in the insurance industry just because different companies were coming to campus to interview candidates for jobs. And I happened to go to interview for an insurance job with a company…and I ended up staying there for 30 years, had a 35-year total career in the insurance industry.”

 

Circling back to his decision to attend Wesleyan, Dandelske reiterated that he’s grateful to the way his life unfolded as a result of his Wesleyan education.

 

“I’ve never looked back on it and regretted the choice,” Dandelske said. “That was always a choice that was always something that I was happy about.”