Wheaton College Athletics

A genuine two-sport star, Dick Messner was a four-year starter on both the baseball and basketball teams at Wheaton. In basketball, Dick played on winning teams all four years, and was captain his senior year. Closing out his career, Messner scored a career-high of 23 points against Millikin and was named to the All-Conference basketball team.

It was in baseball, however, that Messner had his greatest successes. Dick batted .359 his freshman year, which was good for second on the squad. He also led the team in home runs with seven, and tied for the team lead in runs batted in. Dick had an outstanding 7-1 record his sophomore year as a pitcher. Messner led the pitching staff again as a junior, as the team won the conference championship. When not pitching, he played in the outfield and led the team with a .375 batting average and in home runs with four. His senior year, Dick threw a no-hitter against Illinois College and had a 14-strikeout performance against Illinois Wesleyan.