Lehigh Valley Open

[gimpeltf]

Gimp: you can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this

Tom Hutchinson accepted an appointment to West Point out of high school, but left and transferred to Lehigh. He placed 3rd in Illinois states as a senior, losing to Eric Bates who was NCAA top seed in 1971 (finished 5th.) He entered Lehigh's IM wrestling tournament in 1970 and won the Fight Nite title thus garnering the attention of coach Thad Turner who needed a 190 lber to follow Shields and Christie. His first bout was against future NCAA runner-up Bob Rust of Syracuse in Grace Hall. Rust won but not without quite a struggle. Then Hutch won 2 EIWA titles and was a semi-finalist at NCAAs in 1971, defaulting to Ben Peterson and placing 6th.

Quite a story. Perhaps the best in all of LU wrestling history.

Sure is- The only things I would add are that Hutch also won IMs 68/69.
And that's Eric "Psycho" Bates! He brought a teddy bear with him to matches. Similar to Sylvester "Tweety Bird" Carter and Ray Brinzer with his Gumby doll!

[Richb-3]

Does everyone know the Bates=Psycho connection? The main character of Hitchcock's movie.

[Richb-3]

Does everyone know the Bates=Psycho connection? The main character of Hitchcock's movie, Norman Bates.

[Eastonpa]

So what other guys came out of IM tourney to wrestle varsity?

Any recollections?

[Richb-3]

Hutch was not exactly unknown to Coaches. As someone said, he had gone thru summer training at AWP, which I gather is a lot like Enlisted man's basic training, but tougher. Then left the academy to enter Lehigh on time.

But he had been recruited to wrestle at Lehigh. He occasionally practiced with the team. There was someone else in his freshman section equally well known. I believe he was a place winner in Ohio, a teammate of Ron Reis or Frank Paquin. The latter never did compete for the varsity.

LehighSam was I think in their Freshman section. And Oracle obviously knew some details.

[JAD77]

Steck was a legend. Ran probably the best overall IM program in the country.
2 questions:
1) When did he retire?
2) Do they still run an IM wrestling tournament? I’m pretty sure the answer to this one is - no, not for quite some time.

[Justafan]

John retired in 1979 and died later that year. I knew him well working in the gym and was a part of the initial 3 man intramural executive committee. He was special.

The wrestling tournament still exists I believe but not to the level we knew it. But then again, wrestling was a religion at Lehigh back then.