Dean Apple puts his mustache on the line

Tom Apple

4:22 p.m., Sept. 30, 2005--A chance encounter with UD ROTC cadets has led Tom Apple, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to put his trademark mustache in jeopardy.

Apple was out for an early morning run Tuesday on the bike path in Newark, he said, when he came upon a group of ROTC cadets training for the Army 10-Miler in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Oct. 2, under the supervision of Dane Tkacs, chairperson of the Department of Military Science at UD.

Apple, who turned 50 last year and recently had knee surgery, told the cadets that if he didn’t outrun at least five of the 10 who are planning to compete in the race he would submit to a military-style haircut.

Tkacs, Apple said, suggested they up the ante. “How about your mustache?” he challenged Apple.

Apple, who has been running for 25 years and has run competitively for 15, accepted the challenge. When he was 44, in fact, Apple ran the Army 10-Miler in “64 minutes and change.”

Apple said he has had his mustache longer than he has been married. In 28 years of marriage, his wife has never seen him without a mustache, he said.

“This bet will help motivate me in the final stages of the run,” Apple said.

When asked what the cadets have to lose if he wins the bet, Apple said, “The only thing they have to lose is suffering the humiliation of losing to a 50-year-old guy.”

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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