Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 - (Page 32)

Largest-ever Grace Hall crowd—4,650 for Navy (2 floors) LU vs. Iowa State earns record dual meet coverage in SI, Newsweek 1965 1967 Lehigh’s only 3-time NCAA champion, Mike Caruso (123) Caruso gives Leeman 9 indiv. NCAA titles in 1st 15 seasons First time with 3 in NCAA finals (Caruso, Peritore, Stuart) & 2 champions Former Leeman wrestler, Thad Turner, succeeds him as head coach 1971 1973 Mark Lieberman 1st LU champ in Jr. Nationals, Jr. World Trials, Univ. Nationals Tom Sculley becomes first NCAA winner for Turner 1974 1975 New EIWA team records: 7 titles in 10 weights and 172.5 points Mike Frick ’78 becomes the only wrestler in history to beat six NCAA champs—and does it in five weight classes, from 118 to 150 wrestling had to become more than just a link to his brothers. It had to become his life. Brad had finished second in the Pennsylvania state tournament during his junior year and probably would have won it as a senior. “Definitely,” Bobby says. At that time, anybody who saw Bobby wrestle might have had a hard time picturing him as a champion. But even though he was still in grade school, he understood the value of working and progressing. He talks with young wrestlers and their parents now about the evils of instant gratification. For him, going into that room every day made him a part of something, even as everything around him seemed to be crumbling. “I was with guys who had common goals,” Weaver says. “Even if I wasn’t the best, I was part of something. If I put in the time, something would come out of it.” Weaver wrestled eight years at St. Anthony’s Youth Center before winning his first gradeschool championship. Eight years. “Some people wouldn’t last that long,” he says. Damn right they wouldn’t. It wasn’t about the winning. It was about getting better and working hard. “There were other things feeding my need to be in there than winning a tournament,” Weaver says. The competition and camarade- sylvania prep circuit, he was spending his summers wrestling freestyle and earned an invitation to the 1976 Olympic trials, where he created a sensation by winning nine matches at 105.5 pounds, eight of them by pin. “People wondered, ‘Who is this guy?’” Weaver says. Bill Rosado eventually defeated Weaver and wrestled in the Montreal Games, but Weaver had made an impression on the national wrestling community. More importantly, he established himself as a force in freestyle wrestling, which eventually led to worldwide success. When Weaver left Easton, he wanted to attend Lehigh, but his academic prowess wasn’t on the same level as his mat expertise. In order to rectify that, he spent a post-graduate year at Blair Academy in New Jersey. There, he bulked up his classroom resume and earned a national prep title. “As I went through high school, I was not very academically sound,” Weaver says of his decision to attend Blair. “The route that I chose made me academically sound and allowed me to get into Lehigh.” Weaver encountered a particularly difficult situation at Lehigh. Though he had wrestled at 105 pounds in high school, the lowest collegiate weight class was 118. No matter how 1976 1978 Lieberman earns USWF award as nation’s top freestyler (while still a junior) Lieberman, Weaver win U.S. National Freestyle Open (senior level) Weaver places 2nd in World (highest LU finish ever at Worlds) “He had an unbelievable amount of drive and desire. To do what he did, as small as he was, was impressive.” rie were nice. Weaver enjoyed the hard work. But winning started to become important, too. When he was a sophomore at Easton High School, he was frustrated wrestling behind Henry Callie, who had been his nemesis since freshman year and had kept him out of the starting lineup by knocking him off in challenge matches during practice. “I told my mom [Jackie] I was tired of being his backup,” Weaver says. “The next time we wrestled, I beat him. Then, I did it again to take his spot and push him to a higher weight.” Once in the lineup, Weaver was unstoppable, winning three state titles from 1975-77. He posted an 87-3 record during his career at Easton, with 56 pins at 98 and 105 pounds. While Weaver was tearing up the Pennmuch he ate, Weaver couldn’t come close to that level. While his buddies were dying for a leaf of lettuce, he chowed. He and Lori had married at Lehigh and shared an apartment. He wrestled while she worked and took care of him. “I was cooking him steak and potatoes, and other guys were sucking on ice cubes,” Lori says. “He didn’t weigh 118 pounds with all his clothes on.” In fact, he usually topped out at 113. Trouble was, he was facing opponents who had cut down from 130-135, and whenever he took part in a two-day tournament, he would be giving away as many as 20 pounds on the second day. (Most tourneys allow wrestlers to weigh in for the next day after their first match; they then eat and drink before wrestling again to bulk up.) His solution was 1979 1980 Weaver joins Lieberman (’79) as World Cup champion Stabler Arena opens; averages 3,540 for duals; draws EIWA final 5,800 (tops since ’67) Darryl Burley (134, 142) becomes 1 of just 11 NCAA 4-time finalists Lehigh record 10th straight NCAA Top 10 team; top streak in East from 1928-92 1983 1984 Gold medalist Bobby Weaver become’s Lehigh’s only Olympic medalist

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Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Cover Story: The Dalai Lama at Lehigh Heart of a Champion Around the World in 80 Years Fighting for Children wth Autism Keepers of the Flame From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News The Last Word

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008

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