Frederick W. Dixon

Frederick W. Dixon| Coach

Class of
Inducted in 2017

Frederick W. Dixon was an innovative athletics director and coach who served at Ohio Wesleyan from 1911-17.  He was gymnasium director and men’s track & field coach when he arrived at Ohio Wesleyan in 1911.  The 1912 track team defeated Denison, Ohio State, and Oberlin indoors, claiming the state championship in indoor track.  Outdoors, the team lost to Ohio State and defeated Cincinnati, then “for the first time in its history OWU sent its relay team to compete with the best in the country at the national meet held at Philadelphia April the 27th.  And it was well worth the cost, for our team succeeded in winning first place in its class as well as sixth place in the free-for-all.”  The 1913 track team defeated Miami and Cincinnati, then finished second to Ohio State in the Big Six (Ohio Conference) meet.  Meanwhile, with military being phased out of the physical education curriculum, his program eliminated formalized work, with squad work in tennis, baseball, football, soccer, cross country, and swimming replacing military drill in the gymnasium.  In the fall of 1913, Dixon coached Ohio Wesleyan’s first men’s soccer team, playing Ohio State in what was reported as “the first game of intercollegiate soccer ever played on Ohio soil.”  After the fall 1913 semester, Dixon was named athletics director, men’s basketball coach, and football coach in addition to his positions as track & field coach, men’s soccer coach, and gymnasium director.  His first basketball team went 11-5, with the 11 wins the second-highest in school history at the time.  The 1914 soccer team went 3-0-1, outscoring opponents 15-5, and claimed the state championship.  The 1914-15 basketball team was 8-6 overall, and the 1915 track & field team outscored opponents, 384-324, with a squad of 15 men.  The 1915 soccer team posted an undefeated season (1-0-3).  The 1915-16 basketball team won the OAC championship, defeating Wooster and Wittenberg in its final 2 games to finish at 7-1 in the league and 8-4 overall for Ohio Wesleyan’s first outright conference championship in men’s basketball.  The 1916 track team was defeated only by Ohio State in dual-meet competition and finished third in the Big Six behind Ohio State and Oberlin.  The 1916 soccer team won its first 2 games before falling to Ohio State, 2-1, in the season finale.  The 1917 track team won a pair of indoor meets, lost to Ohio State and defeated Miami outdoors, and sent a relay team back to the meet in Philadelphia before the remainder of the season was canceled because of World War I, with Dixon resigning as well at the end of the academic year.  Along with his innovative physical education program, his soccer teams went 7-2-4 (.692) with 2 undefeated seasons and a state championship, his basketball teams went 32-25 (.561) with an OAC championship, his track & field teams won a state indoor championship and posted 2 second-place finishes and a third-place finish in the Big Six.  While he served as athletics director, Ohio Wesleyan baseball teams won Ohio Athletic Conference championships in 1914 and 1916.