Francis Rode never expected to become a college athlete. As the holder of one sports letter-track and field-from Rahway High School, his ambitions did not go beyond intramural softball. He didn't know that within him was a fencer just waiting to come out.
Coach Rocco Feravolo saw promise when the first-year student joined his friends at the fencing tryouts, and Rode made the team. Fencing turned out to have unexpected benefits: the fencers were encouraged to dance for exercise, so girls were attracted to them. By the end of his first season, Rode was the number five saber fencer on a team which went 6-4, won the NCE Tournament, and placed fourth at the North Atlantic Tournament. The unavailability of two other team members put him in the local tournament, where he achieved a bronze medal.
The next year the team record was 7-2, with second place in both tournaments. In his junior year, 1962-63, team captain Rode led Drew to a season record of 9-1, with first place in both the NCE and the North Atlantic tournaments. In his senior year, when he was co-captain, the team went 11-1, placing first at the North Atlantic Tournament, where Rode won the silver medal in saber, and third in the NCE. His own skills improved steadily. His personal record advanced from 9-10 in his first year to 26-17 as a sophomore, 29-16 as a junior, and 42-9 as a senior, for an individual career record of 106-52.
Fencing was not Rode's only sport at Drew. He won two varsity soccer letters as a Ranger, in 1961, when Drew's team went 5-5, and in 1962, when the team record was 5-4.
Neither athletics nor employment-he financed 100 percent of his Drew education through scholarships, jobs, and loans-kept Rode from excelling academically. The economics major graduated magna cum laude and was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1963-64. He was an Economics Department academic assistant and a dorm counselor, and was involved in many student activities, including the Athletics Council, the Acorn, Green Key, theatre productions, and the orientation program, and was treasurer of his class.
