Posted by Allen Brown
^^^I’ve been filling some WR.com Forum time in the “off “season by posting information about some of our Pennsylvania college wrestling legends. I posted Wade Schalles and Dick DiBattista over on the EWL Forum, and thought I’d waddle over to the Penn State Forum to post on BILL KOLL.
Bill Koll had a rep as being one of the meanest, toughest, best wrestlers of all time. Some old timers refered to him as “Mean Old Bill.”
Bill Koll’s from Ft. Dodge, Iowa, born in August of 1923. Bill was Iowa State high school champion in 1941 at 135 pounds. Thereafter, Bill entered little Iowa State Teachers College (now Northern Iowa), but his college mat career was interupted for three years, because of World War II.
Mr. Koll fought in the European theater with the Combat Engineers. Also, he participated in the D-Day amphibious landings and was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions in the Battle of the Bulge. Bill was discharged from the Army in December 1945 and went right back to ISTC to continue his education and wrestle.
Bill Koll was a team mate of GERRY LEEMAN at ISTC, was a three-time NCAA champion (1946-48) at 147 and 147.5 pounds. Koll won “most falls “award in the 1946 NCAA’s and defeated Welch of Oklahoma A&M (Okla State) 7-2 in the finals. Particularly interesting about this match was the fact that Welch got the initial takedown on Koll, and that was the only time that Bill Koll was taken down in a collge wrestling match.
Koll continued his undefeated collegiate mat career through the 1947 NCAA Tournament, and was named OW in that event. Bill kept right on a’winning the following season, pinning his way through the 1948 and repeating as OW!
Bill Koll was a tremendously aggressive wrestler, who worked very hard to perfect and explode through all of his moves. He rarely had a close match. Some say that the anti-slam rule was instituted, because Koll would pick up opponents and whomp them down hard to the mat.
BILL KOLL finished his college career undefeated and is considered to be one of the best-ever collegians.
Mr. Koll, unfamiliar with foreign officiating methods, finished fifth in the 1948 Olympics at 147.5 pounds.
Bill and his wife Barbara had four sons who all were good wrestlers. The youngest of them was – you guessed it – Rob Koll (the kid who like chocolate pudding better than vegetables) and went on to have his own stellar mat career and now fabulous coaching career. I plan to post on Rob’s mat career at a later date. (By the way, in the documentary “PA Wrestling Legends “there is footage of Rob Koll interviewing his father, shot inside the old PSU wrestling room in Rec Hall.)
After Bill Koll’s mat career was finished he went into coaching. Bill was head coach at Iowa STC for a number of years, racking up a dual-mmet record there of 74-42-6.
In 1964 Bill Koll was offered the job as Penn State Univ coach. Bill accepted, and the Kolls moved to Pennsylvania, where Bill was the successful head coach at Penn State from the fall of 1964 to 1978.
Those 14 seasons, Koll continued the tradition of Penn State wrestling excellence, guiding the Nittany Lions to two EIWA Tournament championships and three EWL Tournament crowns, and a dual-meet record of 124-22-7.
By the way, Bill Koll was succeeded as head coach at PSU by one of his NCAA All-Americans – RICH LORENZO. A New Jersey native, Rich Lorenzo coached the Nittnay Lions for 14 seasons, producing five NCAA champions and 47 EWL victors. Also, I think during Coach Lorenzo’s reign, that he guided PSU to 11 EWL Tournament crowns and had an overall dual-meet record of 188-64-9. Rich Lorenzo’s PSU teams finished third at the NCAA’s four times and Coach Lorenzo twice was selected as college coach of the year.
BILL KOLL, an Iowa and Pennsylvania wrestling legend.
-Allen Brown (WR.com)
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