During the summer of 2025, Jim Peeples received a call from Head Baseball Coach Jake Martin ’03 informing him that the Director of Athletics and Recreation position was open at Wabash. Martin encouraged Peeples to apply for the job, and so he did. The rest is history. With Peeples at the helm of the 2025–26 athletic campaign, it’s safe to say that the Wabash athletics atmosphere had a different and positive vibe.
When Peeples arrived on campus in the fall, he had no intentions of making any major goals or changes within the department. Instead, he wanted to put an emphasis on being observant and learning about Wabash and its athletics programs.
“I tried to come in here with a blank slate,” said Peeples. “The first thing I did was meet with all of the head coaches to learn their expectations, their thoughts on where their team was at and what they thought their next step was. I am a firm believer that there are steps to becoming a championship program, and you can’t skip steps.”
Despite the exciting new job, the fall proved to be difficult for Peeples. While he navigated his new life in Crawfordsville, his wife was still back in Georgia near Piedmont University, where Peeples worked prior to Wabash. Thankfully, the coaches at Wabash understood his situation and gave him grace as he worked through the move.
As the fall months progressed, however, more obstacles arose for Peeples. In September, Peeples received the news from Clark Tinder ’20 that he was resigning from his position as Assistant Athletics Director of Operations to take a new job at fellow North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) school, Denison University. Tinder was a crucial part of making Wabash athletics a well-oiled machine, and he did a lot of jobs that many people took for granted. Peeples chose patience while he looked for a replacement because the position requires a lot of loyal service.
“In our roles as support staff members, we are here to serve,” said Peeples. “Coaching today in college athletics, especially at the Division III level, is probably more challenging than ever before. So we have to come in and be able to serve the needs of the head coaches and assistant coaches of every program. I think it was critical to take our time and find the right person who could work with all of us that are in that support staff role.”
Eventually, Peeples and the department found their man in Jack Crowley, who has fit into his role seamlessly.
The second problem was one that he knew about when he signed up for the job, but it loomed especially large as November neared. That problem was the Monon Bell Game. In his first year as athletic director, Peeples was the man in charge of running one of the most historic DIII football rivalries in the history of college football. The daunting task would be a challenge for any athletic director, but for someone who was in his first year, people could say that the job was too big. Peeples, however, tackled the issue head-on and leaned on his support staff to make the 131st Monon Bell Classic a step in the right direction for the integrity of both teams and their respective institutions.
“One thing that is interesting about hosting the Bell Game that I didn’t anticipate was the relationship between the two institutions,” said Peeples. “I found it hard to believe that in our seniors’ time here that they had never shaken hands with the DePauw team at the end of the game. I don’t know how that was possible. I’m sure I’ll be the most unpopular athletic director in Wabash history, but this idea of rushing the field is not right. I know that it was an unpopular decision, and that’s okay. I’m never trying to win a popularity contest.”
The move to deescalate the tensions around the game may not have been liked by many, but at the end of the day, Peeples, like many Wabash alumni, wanted to lower the temperature surrounding the penultimate rivalry game and did so this year.
The last major hurdle is still active. Allison Manwell-Huppert recently left her position as Associate Athletics Director of Internal Operations at Wabash for a new job at Denison University. With the candidate search under way, Peeples is extremely thankful for the way in which his staff has stepped up to the plate to handle the work Manwell-Huppert once did.
Despite all of these challenges, Peeples has continued to show up day in and day out for his student-athletes. His form of showing up is not just with an open office door, however. He has literally been to a sporting event for every single athletic team this year, and some of those games have been away games. He went to John Carroll University to watch the football team. He went down to Georgia to watch the baseball team take on Piedmont. He went to Wittenberg University to watch the NCAC Indoor Track and Field Championships. The list keeps on going, and his high attendance rate at Wabash athletic events has caught the attention of plenty of people.
“One of his biggest strengths is how much he cares about his student-athletes,” said Brent Harris H’03, the Athletics and Campus Wellness Communications Director. “Find an event he hasn’t gone to. He’s everywhere. He knows the student-athletes, and the student-athletes know him. It’s a two-way street. To have a director of athletics with that as a skill set in their tool belt allows everything else to run extremely well. That’s something he has shown since the moment he walked on campus.”
One of the first people Peeples met on campus was football and track and field star, Quinn Sholar ’26. Sholar praised Peeples for his efforts to show up for Wabash athletes.
“I’ve never seen an athletic director who is as enthusiastic about supporting athletes as Coach Peeples,” said Sholar. “He is the definition of what fighting means as a Little Giant.”
“How can you really support a student-athlete if you’re not immersed with them,” said Peeples. “The young people around this age don’t just easily trust others. So trust is earned, and the way you earn people’s trust is by being present and being there to support them. I don’t see myself as a fabulous administrator, but I think I’m good at student development. That’s what I really care about — the development of young people. That’s what people did for me during my college athletic experience, and that’s all I’ve ever really wanted to do as an athletic director.”
As this academic year wraps up, Peeples is happy about where the athletic department is, and he’s excited to help develop each team to compete at the highest level. Peeples has been a man of the people, and that is why Wabash athletics is in good hands for many years to come.