Academic honors arent new to Josh Kauten, but the righthanded pitcher on the Illinois State baseball team earned another one recently when Illinois State University athletics designated him as the 2003 Raymond W. Fairchild Memorial Award winner.
The Fairchild Memorial Award is a scholarship named for former Illinois State president Raymond W. Fairchild, who led the university from 1933 to 1954. It is presented annually to a junior baseball player.
Kauten (pronounced KOW-ten) earned national scholar-athlete honors during his two seasons at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa. The Vinton, Iowa, native transferred to Illinois State at the start of the 2002-03 school year.
Redbird head coach Jim Brownlee believes Kautens commitment to academics and athletics personifies what the Fairchild Award represents.
When a guy can come in from junior college and get a 3.7 GPA his first semester, it really says something about his work habits, said Brownlee. We didnt recruit Josh, but he has done a great job on an off the field. Hes the epitomy of a student-athlete and we think hell continue to be a success.
In addition to breaking into the Redbird starting rotation in his first year at Illinois State, the physical education major also earned the teams highest grade point average during the Fall, 2002 semester.
Academics has always been just as important to me as baseball, said Kauten. It is like my junior college coach used to tell me: you have to get your Bs in order ... books before baseball.
The Fairchild Memorial Award is one of 12 endowed scholarships available to Illinois State student-athletes funded by private donors. Though not one of the six fully-funded endowed scholarships at Illinois State University, the Fairchild Memorial Award provides significant support.
For information about supporting this, or other Illinois State University endowments for student-athletes, call The Redbird Club office at (309) 438-3803.
