Isso funciona para mim (mas no CentOS 7.1). Eu senti falta de alguma coisa?
read -p "Send files from date (MM-DD-YYYY) : " fromdate
if [[ -z ${fromdate// } ]]
then
echo "Empty input"
fromdate=$(date +%m-%d-%Y)
fi
echo "Input: $fromdate"
find /path/to/directory -maxdepth 1 -name "*$fromdate*"