If there are two people who embody why Ashland University Hall of Fame's Eagle Forever Award is presented, those two would be
Bob and Jan Archer.
The Archers will be honored along with five 2025 Hall of Famers (see release link) and two 2024-25 AU Student-Athletes of the Year at the 2025 Ashland University Hall of Fame Induction and Student-Athlete of the Year recognition, Oct. 11 at 9:30 a.m. at the John C. Myers Convocation Center – prior to the Eagle football team's 101
st Homecoming game at 1 p.m. vs. Thomas More at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field.
Bob and Jan Archer are the 29
th and 30
th Eagle Forever Award recipients all-time. The award is presented annually at the Hall of Fame Induction to a person or persons who have demonstrated extraordinary loyalty and support in a non-athletic capacity to the AU athletic department in ways not usually recognized.
"It's certainly an honor," Bob said. "We'll be there on Homecoming day."
The complex which houses Tomassi Stadium and Donges Field (baseball) and Deb Miller Field (softball) is the Archer Ballpark Complex. They also have funded improvements at Ferguson Field, and given scholarship monies for men and women's basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and wrestling.
Speaking about Jan, Bob said, "She loves basketball. Even if she's not feeling well, she'll go to a basketball game. Football, when the weather is OK, she'll come. Volleyball, every once in a while."
In 2024, the Archers were the Trustee Achievement Award recipients during the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame induction.
Bob and Jan Archer first met at an eighth-grade spelling bee. That, after Jan went to Baldwin Wallace and Bob went to Case Western Reserve, eventually led to a long, successful marriage which started on March 31, 1957.
"Our goal is to get to 70 (years)," Bob noted.
The Archers and their three children –
Pam, David and John – moved to Ashland in 1973. Bob recently retired as CEO of Kent Watersports, now Kent Outdoors, in nearby New London.
"I had worked for Eagle Rubber," Bob said. "We got a chance to buy Kent at a really good deal, six of us, and we decided to go ahead and do it, and never looked back. The year we bought it, it was like a million and a half dollars, and when we ended up retiring and selling it, it was like $300 million. It was a pretty good growth.
"Kent Watersports made and sold more life jackets than anyone else in the world. Everything was developed in New London."
Bob also is on the AU Board of Trustees, which means his investment in the university extends well beyond athletics. The campus library is the Robert M. and Janet L. Archer Library.
"All my life, I've had a lot of energy, and I don't like to be sitting around doing nothing," he said. "As long as I'm around, I want to be productive. I have an office in Dauch (College of Business and Economics) 204. I have interns still working for me today."
For the Archers, their interest in Ashland College/University athletics began in the
Bill Musselman days of men's basketball in the late 1960s.
"I came to a basketball game…you couldn't get a seat," he recalled. "It was wild. It was unbelievable, and you couldn't help but come. In 2013, when they (women's basketball) went all the way, I said I can't miss a game."
For the Archers, the morning of Oct. 11 at the Hall of Fame induction brunch will be special.
"We gave the commencement speech a few years ago (2022)," Bob recalled. "Say a few words, and thank everyone for supporting AU. AU and Ashland go together. AU is very important to this community. Want it to be around…1878, I want it to be around for 2978."
