Football
10/26/2021 9:54:00 AM

written by Rachel Wachman ’24

Phil Rockwell ’65, MALS ’73, P’11 always loved sports.

 

During high school in his hometown of Topsfield, Massachusetts, Rockwell played baseball, football, and basketball before becoming co-captain of each team by senior year. At Wesleyan, he dedicated himself to football and baseball, as well as to majoring in English.

 

Rockwell’s coach and mentor, former Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach Don Russell, who passed away in February, supported Rockwell throughout his time at Wesleyan and beyond. In fact, Rockwell originally applied to Wesleyan after his high school coach met Russell at a conference. Alongside many of his teammates, Rockwell went on to foster a decades-long relationship with Russell.

 

By graduation in 1965, Rockwell, who also played for the Cape Cod League, became the first Wesleyan athlete to win the Walter MacNaughten Memorial Baseball Award and the C. Everett Bacon Football Trophy in the same academic year. Since then, only four other students have received both honors concurrently. Rockwell was inducted into Wesleyan’s Baseball Wall of Fame in 2016, and the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

 

The first member of his family to graduate from college, Rockwell attributes much of his Wesleyan success to his fraternity (DKE) brothers and his teammates.

 

“What becomes very striking to me is that all of the great things that have ever been accomplished, whether in medicine, politics, government, science, the arts, and sports, haven’t been just the efforts of one person,” Rockwell said. “It’s been really a team of people….A team wins together and a team loses together.”

 

Rockwell recalled how busy he was as a multi-sport student-athlete.

 

“That made Wesleyan an even greater experience because if you played a sport, there wasn’t a minute of the day that wasn’t planned for practice, because you practiced every day, and then you had to go to class, and you had to write papers and fulfill other commitments,” Rockwell said.

 

Though he had a very full schedule, Rockwell explained that athletics enriched his Wesleyan experience and taught him important life skills.

 

“I always think about how you had to make use of every minute—whether you were on the bus going to a game or whether you were reading and thinking about papers and pulling all-nighters,” Rockwell said. “I remember my father saying, ‘I want you to play sports, but if it’s too difficult, I would understand totally if you just focused on your academics.’ And I always thought that was a great thing for him to say. I said, ‘No, I’m going to do both.’ So I ended up playing football and baseball for four years.”

 

 

“In 1995, a number of former Wesleyan teammates played in a senior baseball tournament in Fort Myers, Florida,” Rockwell recalled. “We were in our 50s, and Don Russell…flew to Florida and spent a week with us for the tournament. It was fantastic to have our former coach there with us.”

 

Rockwell emphasized how highly he values the friendships forged during his college years, both through sports and through his fraternity. These friendships, according to Rockwell, had a great effect on his life.

 

Thanks to the Class of 1965’s 50th Reunion, held in 2015, Rockwell is still making new Wesleyan friends.

 

“In putting together this Reunion, a number of people have said, ‘I didn’t realize how much I had in common with this person,’ and other friendships have come up from that,” he explained.

 

For over 40 years, Rockwell has served as secretary for the Class of 1965, a role he greatly enjoys.

 

“That has kept me in really close touch with both Wesleyan and my classmates,” he elaborated. “And so it’s this love affair with Wesleyan that has continued all these years.”

 

Post-graduation, Rockwell served as a naval officer for three-and-a-half years before returning to Wesleyan to work in the Office of Alumni Relations, where he stayed from 1969 to 1976. During this time, Rockwell worked with the legendary Bill Wasch ’52, who supported his desire to apply for the position of vice president of fund development at Middlesex Memorial Hospital.

 

“It was a tremendous experience,” Rockwell said. “I felt so fortunate to get the offer to come back to Wesleyan, because I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do after the Navy…. And fund development and community relations became my career.”

 

Wesleyan also led Rockwell to fall in love with Cynthia Rockwell (née Scott), MALS ’19, P ’11, who retired as managing editor after three decades in the Wesleyan’s Office of University Communications. As class secretary, Rockwell met his future wife through his quarterly submission of 1965’s class notes for the Wesleyan Magazine. Their son, Christian Morehouse, graduated from Wesleyan in 2011.

 

The Rockwell’s, now married for 25 years, both retired and living in Canton, Connecticut, remain close to Wesleyan through friends and sports.

 

“I come to a lot of sporting events, as many as I can,” Rockwell said. “We went to the Colby game up in Maine earlier this year. We really stay connected through sports.”

 

He emphasized the joy of coming back to Wesleyan to see a new generation of athletes excel on the field.

 

“For those of us who’ve had a long relationship with Wesleyan and a long relationship with athletics to come back today and see what Director of Athletics Mike Whalen ’83 has put together with his outstanding team of coaches is astounding,” Rockwell remarked. “The idea of having an emphasis on excellence—whether it’s football or physics—is a great accomplishment for the University.”

 

Rockwell also offered advice to current students on balancing academics with their passions.

 

“Don’t let the fact that you get knocked down hold you back,” Rockwell said. “All you have to do is just get up and keep going….That’s kind of the mantra I’ve tried to follow…I’ve always been able to just keep going and try to be resilient.”