Gone, Lost & Forgotten: Their Best = MIT

It's always heart-wrenching & depressing when we lose a collegiate wrestling team, but it's all the more when that team has such a long illustrious history. I've found records as far back as the 1930's for MIT wrestling.  Perhaps it lasted longer than that, but we're discussing a mat program with eighty years, that came to an end after the 2008-2009 season.   

To illustrate the importance of wrestling on campus, not only was a club team formed immediately at the announcement of the discontinuation of the varsity program, they won the 2010 NCWA team title. 



 

Robert Axford
115 lbs 

Axford became the first NEIWA (New England Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) champion for the Engineers in 1930. 

Dave Schramm

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Schramm won NEIWA titles in 1966 & 1967.  He later became head coach at California Tech for a while before becoming an Astrophysics professor at the University of Chicago.  Famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking considered Schramm to be one of his best friends.  We sadly lost Schramm in a plane crash in 1997. 

Fred Andree
HWT

When the announcement was made that Baraboo High School (Wisconsin) was going to getting a wrestling program, Fred Andree was the first to sign up.  He came to MIT with a record of 68-10.  While competing for the Engineers, Andree won a NEIWA title in 1968 & took runner-up honors in 1969.  In 1968 he placed fourth at the NCAA Division I tournament. 

Jack Mosinger
118 lbs 

The school newspaper had quite a bit of wrestling coverage during the mid 1970's & that may have been because Jack Mosinger was in charge of it.  He took runner-up honors at the NEIWA tournament in 1973, before winning a title in 1975. 

He later became CEO of Mark Lemp Footwear 

Erland Van Lidth de Jeude
HWT 

A native of the Netherlands, Erland Van Lidth de Jeude is the most colorful wrestling that MIT ever produced.  A two time NCAA Division III All American, he placed sixth in 1975 before making the finals in 1976. 

Post college Van Lidth de Jeude had a successful career as both a singer & as an actor.  He was a member of the famous Amato Opera & he acted alongside such legends as Arnold Schwarzenegger & Richard Pryor in The Running Man & Stir Crazy. 

Ken Shull
134 lbs 

Going 82-9 during his career, Shull won three conference championships & took seventh place All American honors at the NCAA Division III championships in 1983. 


 

Glenn Geesman

Geesman earned NCAA Division III All American honors in 2008.  He later became head coach at Sonoma High School in California. 

Joseph Silverman
197 lbs 

The Engineers final NCAA Division III All American, Silverman took seventh place honors in 2009.  The following year the native of Olympia, Washington became MIT's first NCWA finalist. 

Ryan Madson

A native of Hutchinson, Minnesota, Madson became MIT's first four time NCWA All American only four seasons post when the varsity program was cut.  He placed fourth in both 2010 & 2013, making the NCWA finals in 2011 & taking third in 2012. 

Madson later was an assistant at Augsburg.