Over the weekend a Division III matchup between Cleveland-based engineering school Case Western Reserve and Indiana-based Wabash took place in what might be a first in college football history.
With storms in the Indianapolis area, the game initially started about an hour late due to a weather delay.
Case Western jumped out to a 14-7 lead late in the first quarter after a pair of rushing touchdowns before Wabash answered with a pair of rushing touchdowns of their own to push the game in the Little Giants favor 21-14.
Just before halftime, a short run by CWRU knotted the game up at 21 a piece.
While the second half got started, after just a minute of action lightning and heavy rain moved in to force another lengthy weather delay.
This time, an interesting conversation took place among school officials.
What if they moved the game to nearby Crawfordsville HS (IN)? Located under two miles away, and just a five minute drive south.
Looking at the radar and weather patterns, both schools decided that while unconventional, that would be the right move. So the players, coaches and fans loaded up on team busses to take the game to a new location.
Unsurprisingly, as both teams adjusted to the unique change of venue, the third quarter went scoreless.
In the fourth quarter, Wabash pulled ahead with a field goal and didn't look back pushing their lead to 38-21 before a late touchdown pass from Case Western ended the scoring for the night at 38-28.
While the change of venue after the game started is certainly unique, Crawfordsville HS has served as a bit of a home away from home of sorts for the Wabash program before. The school's recap of last weekend's game notes nearly 25 years ago to the day, Wabash moved their 2000 home game and North Coast Athletic Conference opener to Crawfordsville HS due to weather and field conditions to take on Wittenberg. That game lasted more than 7 hours before the Little Giants fell 41-10.
The win marked the first win at home for first-year Little Giants head coach Jake Gilbert, who ironically enough served as a high school head coach in the town of Crawfordsville for six seasons at North Montgomery HS (IN) back in the early 2000s and had coached on the visitor sideline. He would go on to serve as the head coach as the head coach at Westfield HS (IN), where he went 103-55 in over a decade leading the program, leading them to the Class 5A state title in 2016.
Gilbert joined the Wabash staff in 2024 as defensive coordinator and took over for Don Morel as head coach in 2025, ensuring a smooth transition for the storied small college program.
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