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Dwaine Roche - LNC interview

Athletics Department WIU Athletic Communications

Dwaine Roche - Leatherneck Club Interview

Bryce Weiler interviews Dwaine Roche in the latest installment of the feature interviews.

Bryce Weiler: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, this is Bryce Weiler interviewing a distinguished member of the Western Illinois Leatherneck Club, Mr. Dwaine Roche. Dwaine, how are you doing this afternoon?
 
Dwaine Roche: Doing great, Bryce, I'm happy to be here with you.
 
 
BW: It's great to be here chatting with you this afternoon. Now Dwaine is an integral member at Western Illinois, as if it wasn't for his contributions to an annual event in August, it probably wouldn't the same. In fact, it probably wouldn't exist unless someone thought up the idea after him, because Dwaine thought up the idea for the Purple & Gold Auction. Dwaine, talk about what made you want to dream up such an idea and what your favorite item has been that you've been in on or that you helped get for the auction since you helped create the whole thing.
 
DR: Well, initially what got me interested in wanting to look into an auction was attending a few from some of our few institutions. I went to one down at Southwest Missouri State, at the time, which is now Missouri State, and I watched them raise about $75,000 in one night, and I thought, 'Wow, this looks like something we should be doing.' They had a great auction, it was a big auction actually, they had a lot of people, a lot of items. And because of their population base and some things, they have a lot more opportunity than some things that we did.
    But I thought it was something that we could do here and generate some more revenue for our athletic program, so I came back and got some people involved, and we talked about some of the things we could do to put one on, and the first one we put on was at the old Holiday Inn, which I think now is the Macomb Inn. We had a tent setup and some bales of hay, some little bleachers with two or three rows, and got some people out there, and sold some items. The first one was probably around $7,500 to $10,000. The people at the Holiday Inn made a fish fry out of it, so they donated the money from the fish fry. It was a small thing, but we got it started and we made it bigger and, first of all, we moved it to the Union's Grand Ballroom until we outgrew it. Then we moved it here to Western Hall and it's just been a great event ever since, and the people that are here now at Western have just continued to make it bigger and better every year.
It's really one of the best events in the community. We used to call it the biggest social event in Macomb and the area, and it was a great way to kick off the fall season. So it's turned in to be a really great event. It's very labor-intense, there's a lot of time and effort that goes into it, but the revenue off of it and the social aspect off of it are certainly well worth it.
 
 
BW: Now you did work at Western Illinois for a great number of years. What were some of your favorite interactions with student-athletes?
 
DR: Well, the time that I had with the student-athletes was great, and I've got a lot of friends that I still communicate with today and follow their families. But as much as the student-athletes, was making friends with their parents. I've been very close to a lot of parents. As a matter of fact, I still communicate with a lot of parents. It was just great to be around the young people and watch them grow from young men and women into ladies and gentlemen who are having their own families.
I've been invited to weddings and received birth announcements and follow them on Facebook, just keeping track of their families. And just being around the young kids, keeps you young too. Knowing the parents and meeting the kids and their families now is really a great experience.
 
 
BW: You've helped out at sporting events by doing the public address announcing for football games. Talk about how you enjoyed doing that and maybe a memorable game or touchdown you got to be on the public address system for.
 
DR: Well, I initially started that because the PA announcer that they had had for a lot of years was a professor here on campus and took a job and moved to the East Coast and another university. I was the president of the booster club at the time, I was working at the bank downtown, I was the vice president of the local bank, and as a member of the Leatherneck Club, I was going to try to find someone.
I didn't know that they were paying the public address announcer to do it. And when they told me they were paying, I told them that I knew someone that might be interested, but the only way that they would be interested was if the only money they'd pay for football, they'd put back into the football program, and whatever they paid for basketball, they'd put back into the basketball program. And they said, 'We want to talk to that person, have them come in.' And I said, 'Well, it's me.' And I said, 'I would like to save you paying someone.' So they were a little nervous, they had me audition at the Spring Game, and they said, 'Hired!' So I started doing that probably around 1971 or '72, somewhere around there, and I did it until I retired in 2010.
Now, basketball, I gave it up a little sooner. I probably gave it up about 10 years or so before I retired because too many things going on at basketball games, and at the time, I didn't have graduate assistants and some other folks helping out.
 
 
BW: Now you have been a part of the Leatherneck Club since its earliest days, so you'd be among the best individuals to ask why a person should join the Leatherneck Club and the benefits they could give themselves, Western Illinois and Macomb as well.
 
DR: Right, I think the Leatherneck Club was originally started in 1970. When Gil Peterson became the athletic director here, he came from Huron College in South Dakota, he knew that we needed to generate some revenue for our sports to compete in the conference that we were in. We were a Division II institution at the time, but it was important for our student-athletes for scholarships and other essentials that go on with running a large-sport program.
We have 400 student-athletes so the need was found then by Gil that we needed to do something so he started the Leatherneck Club and they got several people involved that were working as captains that they used to solicit members to join and just canvassed the community, went after alumni, parents of athletes and got it started that way. Initially, there were a few hundred thousand dollars raised, but it's grown over the years and the Leatherneck Club has been a big part of the athletic program, and it's getting to be a bigger part all the time as our state funds are being reduced.
            So the Leatherneck Club is very essential to our student-athletes in helping them not only get their education, but to also be able to travel. We've got the hotel expenses, meal expenses, transportation expenses… it's very expensive. When you look at our conference, and the travel we have to do to the Dakotas, and over the years we've had some even crazier ones (Centenary; Buffalo, New York; Troy, Alabama). But it's been something the university needed and the athletic department needed to generate more revenue for our sports programs.
 
 
BW: Well, Dwaine, it's been a great pleasure chatting with you today, thank you for all the work you've done for Western Illinois previously and the work you continue to do now and in the future.
 
DR: Well, thank you, it's probably been the most enjoyable years of my life. I came to school at Western in 1965 as a freshman, and never once dreamt that I would spend a career here working and enjoying all of the fruits of being associated with a Division I college athletic program. It was a great experience and I enjoyed it. It's good to have young people like you here at Western doing all the things that you do for us. I appreciate your time too.
 
 
BW: Thanks, Dwaine. This has been an interview from Bryce Weiler with Dwaine Roche of Western Illinois.
 
 
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