Knox College Athletics

In the annals of Lombard College athletics, Theodore Wright stands out as one of the most talented competitors in the school's history.  He earned a total of eight letters during the course of his inter-collegiate career and excelled equally in three sports – football, basketball, and baseball.  One of three accomplished sons of legendary Lombard faculty member, Philip Green Wright, Ted Wright graduated from Lombard with the school's highest academic honors in 1915.
           
On the football squad he played end and was also his team's punter.  He started all three seasons and was regarded as one of the best all-around players from the entire middle west.  He was a "Little Five Conference" all-star his senior year and was also selected that fall to the State of Illinois All-Star team.
           
On the basketball court he was fast and quick, though his college yearbook called him in his time "shifty."  He played forward on the hard court, captained the team his senior year and was remembered years after he graduated for his long and accurate set shots.  The Chicago Herald described him his senior year as a "whirlwind" on the floor.
           
In two seasons on the baseball field, playing mostly as an outfielder, he led the team in batting and was known as a consistent hitter in the clutch.  But his most remarkable accomplishment was that in the course of the two seasons he played, he did not commit a single error.  Unfortunately he contracted smallpox in the spring of his senior year and was unable to play baseball his final season.
           
Ted Wright went on to have a distinguished career as an aeronautical engineer with Curtiss-Wright Corporation.  He was honored with a United States Freedom Medal, Wright Brothers Medal, and was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Knox College.