Tom Marquette officially will become the 31
st Eagle Forever Award recipient during the 2026 Ashland University Hall of Fame Induction and Student-Athlete of the Year recognition, Oct. 3 at 9 a.m. at the John C. Myers Convocation Center – prior to the Eagle football team's 102
nd Homecoming game at 1 p.m. vs. Tiffin at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field.
"Being chosen for the Eagle Forever Award is special to me, and I really appreciate it," Marquette said. "The Eagle Forever is probably a very good description of my life. We moved to Ashland when I was 11 years old, and I was the boy with a ball and a dream, and came into Kates Gym countless times to watch basketball games.
"That was kind of the beginning of that attraction and wanting to be at Ashland and be a part of it."
If there is anyone who embodies the spirit of the award, it is Marquette. 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.
While Marquette has assisted both Ashland University's game-day and athletic communications staff regularly over the last decade, his association with the institution goes far beyond that.
A 1978 graduate of Ashland High School, Marquette also is a 1982 graduate of then-Ashland College – after taking a detour.
"My senior year in high school, I was recruited by (former AC head men's basketball coach)
Joe Gottfried, and was seriously thinking about coming to Ashland," Marquette recalled. "And then Joe left and went to Southern Illinois that summer."
Marquette went to the College of Wooster for one year, playing basketball and competing in track and field – the same two sports he would come to AC to participate in.
"I came home, took a semester off, then enrolled in Ashland," he said. "Just had a great experience here.
"I was in the gym one afternoon, just playing pickup basketball, and coach
(Frank) Condino walked in and called me over and said, 'Hey, I heard you were a long jumper. We're looking for long jumpers.'"
Continuing athletic pursuits after graduation, Marquette did what a lot of men in the Ashland area did at the time – played fastpitch softball.
"That was back in the era when summers in Ashland were all about men's fastpitch softball," he said. "It gave people an opportunity to kind of continue their athletic careers. Probably played for a dozen years or so."
Marquette's professional career consisted of teaching, coaching and administrative roles – concluding with retirement as the principal at Ashland High School in 2015. It turned out to be an interesting career path for someone who graduated as a Business major.
"I decided to get into education, so made that switch a couple years later," he noted. "Just that connection and that support that I got from the University was a big part of how my career ended up playing out."
That retirement indirectly led to the beginning of Marquette's time working with the AU athletic department – first assisting athletic communications, and now as a staple of the gameday crew in the football press box, and on the scorer's table at basketball and STUNT games.
Marquette's daughter-in-law,
Brandy, Ashland's associate head cheer/dance/STUNT coach.
"Being around those types of events, there's nothing I'd rather do," said Marquette. "They were looking for someone to run the shot clock at a few games, and I volunteered to do that. And the next year, they asked me to take it over full time.
"People ask me what I do now that I am retired, and I say I have the most fun job I've ever had."
This isn't the first honor for Marquette involving a Hall of Fame, as he was a 2024 inductee into the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame. His father,
Ron, was a 2014 Trustee inductee into the ACSHOF.
Ashland University is a family affair for Marquette. His wife,
Jennifer, and his sons,
Scott and
Ryan, all are graduates. A nephew,
Marc Matteson, and a niece,
Katie Bacon, also graduated from AU.
"The tradition of Ashland runs deep through our family," Marquette said.
What would Marquette's sales pitch for Ashland University be to any prospective student, athlete or not?
"That's an easy one," he said. "I just talk to them about my experience. Staying around home is not for everybody, but for those who that's what they're looking at and looking for, I would say you couldn't make a better choice."
