***Editor’s note: The equine program at Black Hawk College East Campus is observing its 50th anniversary during the 2024-25 school year concluding next May. Beginning with the horse science program, officially adopted in 1974, followed by the equestrian science program in 1986, The Kewanee Voice will share a series of stories by Dave Clarke in the coming months on the origin, development and accomplishments of the program and its highly successful judging and competition teams.
Fall semester at Black Hawk College East Campus had just begun in 1972 when three “green” freshmen marched into the office of agriculture coordinator Eldon “Bud” Aupperle and asked why the 5-year-old junior college didn’t have a course on horses.
Assistant Professor Dan Hoge’s animal science class focused on cattle, hogs and sheep, but offered nothing on horses. Ben Wessels, of Rio, Roy Ball of Galva, and Steve Waechter, of Geneseo, all owned, raised and showed horses and wondered why there was nothing for them at BHE.
Aupperle’s response, “Because the only thing I know about horses is what I learned from watching ‘Mr. Ed,’” a TV show about a talking horse. In the 1970s, horse racing was a popular sport, but since they stopped using horses to pull plows and buggies, most people thought of them as a hobby in a world where saddle clubs and a pony for the kids were about all horses were good for.
The threesome convinced Aupperle, however, that there was a blossoming horse industry in the country creating a demand for people with more professional expertise on the species. Aupperle said if the trio could come up with a framework for what they thought should be taught, he would handle the administrative side. Coming up with the outline for a program, the four went to Springfield where they discussed the possibilities with state community college officials. The outcome was the first-ever accredited community college horse science program in Illinois.
News of what was afoot appeared for the first time on a list of “other items reported” in a story in the Nov. 16, 1972 Star Courier on the previous night’s BHC board of trustees meeting which announced “that a course in horse science in being attempted to explore the possibilities of that program area at the East Campus.”
All was quiet in the media, while wheels were turning behind the scenes at Black Hawk and in Springfield. Then, on March 20, 1974, the news broke in a story with an eye-catching headline — “Horses win race for college dollars, computers finish second.:”
The board of trustees, meeting at the East Campus, approved a proposal to develop a horse science curriculum…and table for further study a competing proposal to develop a data processing center.
According to a staff study, about 20 job openings per year could be found by horse science grads in the Tri-County area, and about 50 per year in northwestern Illinois. About 15-to-20 new students could be expected to enroll, the study found.
One reason for jumping on the horse bandwagon over the data center was a March 29 deadline set by the state for junior colleges interested in establishing a horse science program to submit curriculums. The statewide plan called for seven junior colleges to be designated as regional centers for horse science.
Star Courier Editor Howard Hoffmaster wrote an editorial a few days after the meeting addressing the rationale behind picking horses over computers and pointed out that the field of data processing “is still growing and still a miracle world (in 1974).” Hoffmaster wrote that preparing students for a growing horse industry was “an important addition to a good animal sciences program in an area that needs one.”
In April of 1974 the BHE Agri-Business Club sponsored the first BHE Invitational Illinois FFA Horse Judging Contest set up by Wessels, Ball and Waechter, along with Aupperle, Hoge and ag faculty members Lanny Anderson and Ron Raber. It was held at Friendship Farms in Milan and drew over 25 teams and more than 100 students.
Coached by ag instructor Dave Bugos, BHE’s first horse judging team placed third overall that spring at the National Junior College Livestock Judging Contest in Wooster, Ohio. The team consisted of Ball, Wessels and Waechter along with Ken Guens of Geneseo and Paul Thomas of Heyworth.
The seeds had been sown for what has become a nationally recognized program. The goal of three young horsemen, all from different high schools, had been met. Wessels and Waechter graduated in 1974. Ball stayed one more year, graduating in 1975.
Black Hawk East had a horse science program, now it needed someone to develop it, someone with “horse sense” and the ability to impart their knowledge to students. That person was Jon Wolf, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois who was managing the university’s South Farm at the time. Dan Hoge, another U of I alumnus, had heard of Wolf and suggested him to administrators at BHE. Wolf was considering a better offer at the time, but decided to “Go East,” instead. More on that in the next story in our series.
