Carthage College Athletics

Herbert L. “Hub” Wagner, a native of Davenport, Iowa, enrolled at Carthage College in the fall of 1921 with his older brother, Ehrhardt H. “Big Wag” Wagner.  Their father, Christian H.W. Wagner, a china and housewares merchant, eventually put four children through school at Carthage.
 
Wagner was a four-year letterwinner in both football (1921-24) and basketball (1922-25).  He graduated in 1925 and earned a Carthage scholarship to continue his studies at the University of Illinois.  Wagner received his master’s degree in history from Illinois in 1926.
 
After returning home to Davenport, Wagner was hired by Carthage in the fall of 1927 as a history instructor, head men’s basketball coach and assistant coach for both football and track and field.  In the summer of 1927, he took a two-week coaching class at the University of Notre Dame with Knute Rockne. 

Wagner went on to compile a 170-107 basketball record over the next 16 years before he retired following the 1943 season. His 170 coaching victories remained a Carthage record until surpassed by Bosko Djurickovic in 2006.  Wagner coached the Red Men to their only Little 19 Conference championship with a 15-1 record in 1932.


 
For four-straight summers, 1931-34, Wagner took a bus to New York City to take graduate courses in education at Columbia University, where he received his master’s in education in 1934.  Wagner also served as Carthage’s head track and field coach from 1931 to 1943 and as head football coach from 1936 to 1942, compiling a 20-29-6 mark over seven seasons in the latter sport.
 
Wagner married Olive “Torgie” Torgeson, the Carthage Dean of Women, who lived in Denhart Hall, on June 26, 1935 in her hometown of Beresford, S.D.  In 1943, Wagner was granted leave by Carthage to promote the World War II war effort.  He and Olive moved to Rock Island, Ill., where he went work for Augustana College (Ill.) teaching physical training to U.S. Army Air Corps cadets.  By the time that program ended in June 1944, Wagner had trained over 1,000 cadets.
 
Instead of returning to Carthage, Wagner was hired by Rock Island High School as a physical education teacher and an assistant coach for football, basketball and track and field.  From 1945 to 1952, he served as the school’s head boys basketball coach and won back-to-back Illinois High School Association state titles in 1950 and 1951. 

Wagner’s wife, Olive, died in 1968 from breast cancer complications.  Wagner retired in 1970 and died in 1992.  He was honored with a “Hub Wagner Day” at s Carthage homer football game on Oct. 28, 1972.

Wagner and his younger brother, Eugene C. “Gene” Wagner, were charter inductees into the Carthage Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984, while his older brother, Ehrhardt, was inducted in 1986.