Ohio Wesleyan University will bestow Team of Distinction honors upon its 1961-62 men's basketball team and its 1990 men's soccer team during ceremonies on Homecoming & Family Weekend on Saturday, Oct. 5.  For more information about Homecoming & Family Weekend, click here.

The Team of Distinction was created to recognize individual teams that have distinguished themselves and made extraordinary contributions to OWU athletics.

The 1961-62 men's basketball team opened the season with 4 straight Ohio Athletic Conference wins, swept an Eastern trip with wins over Carnegie Tech, Baltimore, and American, and won the Ohio Methodist College tournament by defeating Mount Union and Ohio Northern.  After a loss at Xavier, the Bishops won their final 10 OAC games to finish with a 15-1 league record and win the Ohio Athletic Conference championship for the first time in 13 years.  Included in that stretch was a 38-31 decision over Wittenberg in a game referred to as the greatest ever played in Edwards Gym.  Ohio Wesleyan finished the season with a 21-3 record, setting a school record for wins in a season, and was undefeated at home.

Battling Bishop head coach Frank Shannon was named Ohio College Coach of the Year by The Columbus Dispatch.  Barry Clemens '65 and Ray Slabaugh '63 were first-team All-OAC selections, and Larry Washburn '64 was a second-team all-conference pick.

The 1990 men's soccer team opened the season with wins over Washington (Mo.) and Kean in the annual Fred Myers Invitational.  Starting in mid-September, the Bishops put together a 10-1 stretch that included wins over Miami (Ohio) and Dayton.  Ohio Wesleyan lost a 2-1 decision to Kenyon that decided the North Coast Athletic Conference championship, but bounced back to win the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional with a 1-0 win over Kalamazoo on a goal by Chris Duff '94 and a 3-0 win over Kenyon in which Matt Schrader '91 scored the Bishops' first 2 goals.  Andy Kessinger '92 scored both goals, including the game-winner in overtime, as Ohio Wesleyan moved on with a quarterfinal win at Elizabethtown (Pa.).  Kessinger and Schrader teamed up on a goal that lifted the Bishops a 1-0 win over Wheaton in a national semifinal at Roy Rike Field, marking the first time that Ohio Wesleyan would play for a national title.  In the national championship game, Schrader's second-half goal wiped out a 1-0 deficit, but Ohio Wesleyan and Glassboro State played to a 1-1 tie.  Glassboro State went on to outscore the Bishops on penalty kicks, 4-3, in the first NCAA Division III national championship to be decided on penalty kicks.

Head coach Jay Martin and the Bishops finished the season with a 20-4-1 record.  Schrader was a second-team All-America selection, and Kessinger won third-team All-America honors.  Both were first-team all-region selections, along with Scott Gillanders '91.  Mark Molter '91 and Reed Welch '92 also received all-region recognition.