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 Ģ������ƵStories      February 24, 2025

By Bill Studenc

A scholarship fund honoring the memories of a longtime Ģ������Ƶ coach and his spouse, also a lifelong educator, will soon provide financial assistance to Catamount student-athletes on the football and men’s and women’s golf teams.

The Coach Johnny Wike and Mrs. Carolyn Wike Athletic Scholarship, originally established in 2016 by members of the Wike family, has reached the $25,000 mark to become a fully endowed fund, thanks to ongoing donations from friends, community members and former student-athletes.

The fund will begin providing scholarships in the coming academic year, with preference assigned to football or golf team members who are studying in teacher education programs. The scholarship commemorates the contributions of the late Johnny Wike, who died in 2016 after a 30-year career as an educator and coach at WCU, and his wife, the late Carolyn Wike, who died in 2020.

Their son Matthew Wike, a retired N.C. Highway Patrol lieutenant who graduated from Ģ������Ƶin 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, was among the family members who created the scholarship fund, along with his mother and his brother, John Eric Wike, a 1988 graduate of Ģ������Ƶwith a bachelor’s degree in social sciences education.

“My father had spent a lifetime teaching and coaching at Ģ������Ƶ over four decades starting in the 1960s until he retired in the 1990s,” Matt Wike said. “He had an impact on the lives of a lot of young people over that time as a coach and mentor. My vision was a scholarship that would allow his legacy to live on by providing financial assistance to student-athletes.”

Thus, a fund initially known as the Coach Johnny Wike Athletic Scholarship was born. But, upon the passing of the family matriarch, the family requested that the fund be amended to also honor Carolyn Wike.

‘My mother embraced the establishment of the scholarship from the onset and helped make some of the initial decisions regarding which students should ultimately benefit from the scholarship,” said Matt Wike. “She had a very distinguished career as a public school teacher and was a talented educator of young people as well. They both were career educators and longtime members of the Ģ������Ƶcommunity, so having the scholarship in both their names just seemed like the perfect way to honor both of their lifetimes of educating children and young adults.”

With Johnny Wike contributing a total of 21 years of his life serving as an assistant football coach at WCU, selecting student-athletes on the Catamount football team as potential recipients of scholarship was a no-brainer, but the family also wanted to pay homage to his leadership roles with the university’s golf programs.

“Having student-athletes from football benefit from the scholarship was an obvious choice given his legacy in the football program. But, I knew from conversations with my dad how hard it is to provide scholarships for nonrevenue sports like golf, so including the student-athletes from golf was important,” said Matt Wike, who is married to Rachel Wike, a 1992 graduate of Ģ������Ƶwith a bachelor’s degree in management and an employee of the College of Education and Allied Professions at WCU.

“It wasn’t widely known that my dad was tasked with starting the men’s golf program at WCU,” he said. “My dad was an avid golfer and had taught golf in the physical education department for many years at WCU. When the university added golf as a men’s sport, he helped get the program started. Later in his career, after retiring from coaching football, he had the opportunity to help resurrect the women’s golf program.”

Matt Wike credited Ģ������Ƶalumnus Gorham Bradley, who was a member of Coach Wike’s men’s golf team during his time as a student-athlete and director of the Catamount Club at the time of his passing, with helping the family structure the scholarship fund in a way that would best serve the athletic department.

Current head men’s golf coach Tim Eckberg call Johnny Wike “a legend in Catamount golf” and said he is pleased to see that legacy continue through this new endowed scholarship.

“Personally, Coach Wike is the reason I’m here today as the head men’s golf coach. He recruited me in 2002, and I’m a proud alumnus of this university and program,” Eckberg said. “I came back to Ģ������Ƶas another of his former players was associate athletics director at the time and brought me home to take back over the program we all love. His fingerprints are everywhere at this university and Ģ������Ƶgolf. We are honored that his family is trusting us to continue that legacy with a scholarship to help support future Catamounts for years to come.”

The Wike family also specified that student-athletes on the football and golf teams who are pursuing careers in education should receive priority for receiving scholarship support in recognition of two educators who dedicated their lives to teaching and learning, Matt Wike said.

“My hope is that this scholarship will not only be a benefit to the recipients from a financial standpoint, but it will allow them a moment to learn about my parents and how their lives of teaching and coaching helped so many young people. The teaching profession is a challenging career, and teachers don't get the credit they deserve for the impact they have on young people in the classroom or on the playing fields,” he said.

“For a lot of people, the impact a teacher or coach had on them when they were in school was a catalyst that changed their lives for the better. My family established this scholarship to help Ģ������Ƶcontinue to grow great teachers and coaches who can go out and continue to change lives in the classroom and on the athletics fields,” he said.

In addition to contributions from members of the Wike family, the scholarship fund has been boosted by gifts from many others over the years. “The list of people who donated in honor of my parents is long, and endowing this scholarship would not have been possible without the support of so many people who knew and loved my parents,” Matt Wike said.

Johnny Wike first came to Ģ������Ƶin 1964 as an assistant football coach, remaining in that capacity until leaving to become head football coach at Carson-Newman College in 1974. He returned to Ģ������Ƶas an assistant football coach from 1984 to 1995. He also served as head men’s golf coach for 18 seasons (1971 through 1974 and 1991 through 2004) and as women's head golf coach for four seasons (1995 through 1998). A graduate of Wingate College and East Carolina University who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, he was inducted into the Ģ������ƵAthletics Hall of Fame in 2009, and he is a member of the Mount Holly High School and Wingate College halls of fame.

Carolyn Wike was a graduate of Winthrop Women’s College (now Winthrop University) in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She retired from the Jackson County School System, where she taught language arts at Cullowhee Valley School and served as a cheerleading sponsor and coach at the former Cullowhee High School.

The Coach Johnny Wike and Mrs. Carolyn Wike Athletic Scholarship has become fully endowed as Ģ������Ƶenters the public phase of its “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign, an effort to raise a minimum of $100 million in philanthropic support for the university’s academic, student engagement and athletics programs. For more information or to make a contribution to the campaign, visit , call 828-227-7124 or email advancement@wcu.edu.