Gone, Lost & Forgotten: Their Best = Colgate

As large and as tough as the EIWA is today it is hard to believe that at one time it was even larger and tougher.  At one time the Colgate Raiders had a wrestling program and today we're going to look at the best wrestlers in their history.

191 lbs
Pete Newell

Undisputed the greatest wrestler in Colgate history would have to be 1958 NCAA finalist Pete Newell, the Raiders sole All American.

191 lbs
Gene Detwiler

Also a 191 lbs'er Gene Detwiler came from North Hunterdon High School in New Jersey.  Although he never won a state title, he won three District championships & a Regional title.  While wrestling for the Raiders, Detwiler finished one match shy of NCAA qualification when he finished in third place at the EIWA tournament in 1967. He came back in 1968, this time taking runner-up honors and qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

Also a force to be reckoned with on the football field, Detwiler rushed for a total of 605 yards and scored seven touchdowns for the Raiders.

150 lbs
Steve Leslie 

Leslie made history in 1980 by becoming Colgate's first (and only) EIWA champion.  He finished the season with a 26-2 record and a career of 76-20.   Post college Leslie served our country as a member of the Marine Corps.  He lost his life in battle during the Persian Gulf war in 1988.  To this day there is a invitational high school tournament held in Pleasant Hill, Missouri in his honor.

Rich Koenig 

Koenig actually started life out as a basketball player at Sherbure-Earlville, where he started as a guard for two seasons. Switching to wrestling, he found immediate success his junior season earning a state title. He would finish as the runner-up the following season.  Competing for Colgate, he made the EIWA finals in 1971.  Post college he worked for AT&T for a while before turning his attention back towards coaching. His daughters both later competed for Duke, one in tennis and the other in swimming.