By: Kevin Ruple 

BEREA, Ohio -- When Jim Hilvert took the reigns as the head football coach at Baldwin Wallace University, one of his main priorities was to try to connect the legendary Yellow Jacket history and tradition to its current and future team and student-athletes.

On Saturday, October 28, Hilvert, his Yellow Jacket football staff, the 2017 BW football team and the rest of "Yellow Jacket Nation" will welcome back many of the very best to ever step on the field at either Watts Stadium or The George Finnie Stadium when it hosts the first, inaugural Past Football Captains Day.

The event will begin with a reception in the Tressel Lounge in the Lou Higgins Center on campus at 11:30 a.m. The Tressel Family is named for legendary at BW and College Football Hall of Fame Coach Dr. Lee Tressel '49.  The reception is from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Hilvert is expected to greet and speak to the group at noon.

The former standouts and team leaders also will be recognized during the pregame coin toss when BW plays Ohio Athletic Conference rival Capital University at 1:30 p.m. on Tressel Field inside The George Finnie Stadium. The returning former players will join the current five Yellow Jacket team captains at midfield for the coin toss.

"We look forward to welcoming back some of the best to ever play at BW as well as many other gentlemen who have been instrumental to the success of the BW Football Family," said Hilvert.  The men who are returning to campus were their team's leaders.

"Our goals are to both expose our current student-athletes to the leaders of the past and hopefully instill in them what an honor it is to be a BW football team captain and what it means to be a Yellow Jacket," said Hilvert. 

TO REGISTER for this event, please either call Kelly Cirbus in the Athletics Department at 440-826-8060 and e-mail at kcirbus@bw.edu or Head Coach Jim Hilvert at 440-826-8051 and jhilvert@bw.edu.