UPenn just announced a $20 million gift from alumnus Dave Potruck as part of a $34 million fundraising effort to support Penn's wrestling program.
UPENN
UPENN
Some good news for college wrestling
- Thread starter AnnArborDave
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He's making Josh Harris look like a piker with his $1 million donation a few years back
Always best to check the Social Media thread. This news had been posted there, and discussed, in that thread this morning.
www.on3.com
Why Social Media is enriching our lives, while it eats away at the fabric of our society. - Page 51
An Oldie, but a Goodie. Sorry, Dunke, if you wanted to start this one y'self. Just wanted to see if embeds worked.
I have always thought of Penn as half a school. 
A friend of mine who is a doctor in Philly was on the Penn wrestling team in the early 70's and is good friends with Pottruck. He has given the program tons of support over the years. Interestingly, Pottruck's original ambition was to be a doctor, but he didn't get accepted to a medical school. (Unlike our own NCAA champion, Jim Martin) So Pottruck ended up at Wharton instead. I wonder if he ever has any regrets.
I’ve voiced my wish for Lehigh to become the #2 program, but Penn would work too. I’d be okay if PSU, Lehigh, Penn and Pitt were the top 4.Can’t wait for Penn to pass Iowa.
That will get HR going ……..
Clarion, LHU, Bucknell, or Boro over Pitt. Am I forgetting any other PA schools?
To translate this gift into Iowa terms:Can’t wait for Penn to pass Iowa.
That will get HR going ……..
$20M is equivalent to evicting how many single moms?
But is it enough for a tunnel? And another question, is it cheaper to have windows or not to have windows?
Any chance we could fully fund Clarion and get coach Bubb to come out of retirement? Then it would be:
PSU
Clarion
Penn
Lehigh
Pitt
OkieSt coached by a Lion
UNI
ISU
OSU
UM
ASU
Then Iowa
Or
20 one year recruits good for a handful of AA finishes, or 4 Bo Bassetts.
Trivia Question: Can you name what Coach Bubb and Quentin Wright have in common?
There for a minute, I thought this turned into a discussion about what happens at Chinese churches on Sunday afternoons.
What about Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, Bucknell, Edinboro, and F&M?
Also ahead of Iowa: West Virginia (Flynn), Navy (Kolat), North Carolina (Cenzo), and South Dakota State (Berge) all having Lions on their coaching staffs, and Oklahoma (Hall) with a Lion operations director. Offhand, possibly more.
And a whole bunch with non-Hawk PA natives on staff: VT (Robie), Stanford (Hidlay), Nebraska (Snyder), Purdue (Schopp), Rutger (Labriola), Maryland (Laird + Matthews) offhand, probably more.
I really miss the days when Clarion, Lock Haven, and Edinboro, were relevant. But in today's college wrestling landscape it's really stacked against them. With the transfer portal and NIL these schools have become at best a stepping stone to bigger more prestigious schools.
I still have hope for Lehigh, a storied program history with so much tradition and in fertile recruiting grounds. Where are their boosters and rich alum? I'm excited for Penn, but I can't understand why the Lehigh boosters/Alum are not stepping up like the Penn donor. Maybe not to that magnitude, but can't they cobble together some great incentives to lure more top prospects?
I still have hope for Lehigh, a storied program history with so much tradition and in fertile recruiting grounds. Where are their boosters and rich alum? I'm excited for Penn, but I can't understand why the Lehigh boosters/Alum are not stepping up like the Penn donor. Maybe not to that magnitude, but can't they cobble together some great incentives to lure more top prospects?
Speaking more of Lock Haven, the wrestling program received a 3.5 million gift from a wrestling alum earlier this year.
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!!! (Coach Bubb taught me and a group of other 8-10 year olds how to properly execute a double-leg TD at the Tyrone YMCA). Good memories.
Every year we see the Dapper Dan Classic (or whatever it's called now) where a select team of HS wrestlers from PA go against the rest of the US. PA doesn't always win, but most of the time it's competitive. I wish it were possible to do the same in college. A select team of college wrestlers from PA colleges would take on an all star team from the rest of the US. I would bet pretty heavily on the PA team most of the time, especially when Penn State wrestlers are included.
That would be nice. I’m still waiting for that tournament in which Carter Starocci defeats every single other NCAA qualifier in his weight class, one after the other.
I’m guessing that it runs afoul of PIAA regs.
And when considering the reasonable level of the PIAA, the PIAA routinely punishes student-athletes whose families move into other school districts and the student-athlete moves with his/her family.
That would be an interesting exercise this year:
125 - Lilledahl vs Robinson/Spratley
133 - Crookham/Blaze/Ono vs Byrd/Figs/Ayala
141 - Blaze/Ono/Composto vs Mendez
149 - Van Ness vs Henson
157 - Kasak/Duke vs Taylor/Blaze/Shapiro/Arrington
165 - Mesenbrink vs Caliendo
174 - Haines vs some jabroni
184 - Welsh vs McEnelly/Ferrari
197 - Barr vs Elam
HWT - Mirasola/Taylor/Pitzer vs Bastida/Ferrari
PA: 125, 133, 157, 165, 174
USA: 141, HWT
Toss-up: 149, 184, 197
Also it might not help Team PA so much.
Unlikely that Team USA's best wrestlers are all seniors either.