Lehigh Wrestling Success of the 1970s and 1980s

The Lehigh wrestling team continued their tradition of success in the 1970s and 1980s. Former Lehigh All-American Thad Turner debuted as coach. Lehigh gained two of their best wrestlers of all time in 1972 and 1973, Mike Lieberman and Mike Frick, and in 1976 both became NCAA champions in front of a crowd filled with Lehigh fans at Princeton. Mark Lieberman (younger brother of Mike), Mike Brown, and Darryl Burley, who were all multiple time All Americans and were three of Lehigh’s four four-time EIWA champions, wrestled together on the same team in 1979: this team placed third at Nationals. Colin Kilrain (also a three time All-American) arrived the next year, and with such a stacked roster the 1980 team brought home six medals at Nationals.

First Photograph: Thad Turner coaching national champion Colin Kilrain
[Group portrait / Turner, Thad; Kilrain, Colin J. / Wrestling / 1982, F5388], Lehigh Photographs Collection, Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Second Photograph: National Champions Mark Lieberman and Darryl Burley
[Group portrait / Lieberman, Michael J. (Mike); Burley, Darryl / Wrestling; NCAA / 1979; 1982, F5470], Lehigh Photographs Collection, Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Third Photograph: National Champion Mike Frick
[Group portrait / Frick, Michael (Mike) / Wrestling / 1977, W/ Wrestling, F4725], Lehigh Photographs Collection, Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

The video below shows Darryl Burley wrestling in the NCAA final during his sophomore year.