Matt Dawicke was an outstanding all-around athlete in the late 1960’s. He earned six varsity letters in baseball and football, played basketball two years and ran track one season.
Baseball was his best sport. He played on the Tiger Varsity three seasons and was named to the Journal Herald All-City Second Team as a catcher his senior year. Dawicke played 4 years on the Stivers football team, three on the varsity. The 1966-1967 team was the best of the 60’s decade. He was the starting quarterback of the 1967-1968 team, and was named to the Honorable Mention All-City Squad that year.
Matt was also very busy with other activities at Stivers. He was class president, a member of the Royal Bengals for 3 years, was named to the prom court and was a sports writer for the Stivers News.
Matt was drafted by the U.S. Army within 9 months of graduating from Stivers. He thought his destination would be Vietnam, but Army policy considered him the remaining surviving son to carry on his family name which kept him out of combat. Matt served overseas in Berlin and Fulda, Germany and El Paso, Texas while stateside. While serving Matt participated in coaching baseball at various Army bases. During breaks in service Matt enrolled at Wright State University for two years with future plan to teach and coach.
Matt’s total military commitment consisted of 30 years of which 8 years were active duty and the balance as full time National Guard. Upon retirement as Sergeant First Class, Matt worked for 5 years as a military contractor at Camp Atterbury deploying soldiers to Iraqi, Afghanistan and Africa.
Matt and his wife Shelley have been married 49 years and live in Columbus, Indiana. They have one daughter, Maria. She has given them 4 grandchildren and 4 adopted grandchildren to include 2 great-grandchildren.