MADISON, N.J. – During the kickoff to the Middle Atlantic Conference’s 100^th Anniversary celebration at Fairleigh Dickinson University College at Florham on Tuesday, May 1, the conference announced its inaugural class of Hall of Fame members, a list of 36 influential and awe-inspiring athletes, coaches and administrators who have competed in the conference in its first 100 years. Among that list were two longtime coaches at Lycoming College – the legendary Frank Girardi and Budd Whitehill.
 
“I think the fact that Lycoming College has two members in the inaugural MAC Hall of Fame is certainly appropriate,” Lycoming head football coach and Director of Athletics Mike Clark said. “Those two guys are certainly legends in each of their respective coaching fields.”
 
Both men will be honored for their accomplishments and induction into the conference’s hall of fame at the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame banquet on Friday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. More information about the banquet will be released with the announcement of the 27^th annual College Hall of Fame class in June.
 
Girardi, who was recently given a lifetime achievement award from the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Football Foundation, coached the Lycoming football team for 36 years (1972-2007) and concluded his career as one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history. He compiled an overall record of 257-97-4 (.723), ranking him 15th in all divisions in victories. Girardi is one of only 29 coaches to record 200 or more victories at one school. He guided the program to two national championship appearances in 1990 and 1997. He led the Warriors to 13 Middle Atlantic Conference titles, including seven during the 1990s, and 11 NCAA playoff berths. He was named the MAC Coach of the Year on 12 occasions and recorded 29 consecutive winning seasons from 1975-2003.
 
“Any time you are inducted into a hall of fame, it is an honor,” Girardi said. “To be included in this first year of the MAC Hall of Fame with a very broad and deep class is truly an honor for me.”
 
After growing up in the shadows of the College, Girardi came to the school in 1969 as an assistant coach under Whitehill. A star running back at Williamsport Area High School and a letterwinner at West Chester University under the legendary Glenn Killinger, Girardi served as head coach of Jersey Shore Area High School before joining the Lycoming staff. It took Girardi three years to finish with a winning record, but when the team finished 6-2 in 1975, it started a streak of 29 consecutive winning seasons under the coach.
 
“Coach G has been a tremendous influence on Lycoming College and the Middle Atlantic Conference,” Clark said. “He came into a conference that (MAC Hall of Fame selection) Coach (Bill) Manlove had taken a hold of throughout the ’70s and early ’80s and changed the tide to make the conference ultra-competitive.”
 
Girardi has been inducted into four other halls of fame, including the Lycoming Athletics Hall of Fame, West Branch Valley Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania State Sports Hall of Fame, and West Chester University’s W. Glenn Killinger Football Hall of Fame. In 1999 he became the Robert W. Maxwell Football Club’s first recipient of the Tri-State Coach of the Year Award. The award is presented to an outstanding college or high school coach from Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware. Following the 2007 season, ESPN Radio 1050/104.1 honored Girardi with a lifetime achievement award and announced that the award will carry the title of “The Frank Girardi Lifetime Achievement Award.”
 
When Whitehill came to Lycoming College to start the wrestling program in 1956, he was just two years removed from the end of a career as a minor league pitcher, having moved around from Quebec to Kentucky. He was also just two years removed from a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference wrestling title at Lock Haven State Teachers’ College. For the next 37 years, until his death, Whitehill embodied the image that the athletic department came to embrace. He was tough-as-nails, but someone who cared about creating a family-like environment. He began at the College as an assistant football and head wrestling and baseball coach. He stopped coaching baseball in 1963 to focus on wrestling and football before becoming the head football coach in 1966. He spent five years in the dual role before encouraging the hiring of his assistant, Girardi, to take over the football team.
 
“Budd had the unusual distinction being the head football and wrestling coach, which you just don’t see these days,” Girardi said. “The great success he had in wrestling is as good as anyone has had at the Division III level. To go in to the Hall of Fame with a guy like Budd is a very special honor.”
 
Meanwhile, he truly left his mark on the mat. The numbers themselves are astounding. Among numerous other honors, Whitehill coached 11 teams that finished amongst the NCAA’s top 20 and four amongst the top 10. He mentored the school’s first MAC champions in 1962 and added nine more titles after that. His 1962 team also finished third at the NAIA National Tournament, behind only Lock Haven and Bloomsburg. He coached 38 All-Americans, 66 conference champions and four national champions. His overall career record was 376-172-6 (.683) and he is a member of the Lycoming (1993), Lock Haven Wrestling (1991) and National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III (1991) halls of fame.
 
While battling cancer in 1993, Whitehill handpicked his successor, Roger Crebs ’87. Together, the pair have created one of the top coaching duos in the history of small-college wrestling. When Crebs won his 300^th career dual meet in 2010, he combined with Whitehill to form the first Division III duo to win 300 matches at the same school and joined Minnesota’s Wally Johnson and J Robinson as the only pairs in collegiate wrestling to manage the feat. Crebs followed his predecessor into the NWCA Hall of Fame in 2012.
 
“He was the founding father of wrestling at Lycoming and he is still being recognized for it 20 years after he passed,” Crebs said. “I think that’s awesome. Budd brought me into Lycoming and pointed me in the right direction. He had a huge impact in my life. I continue to instill those values that he taught me. He had a hard-working blue-collar image and those are the type of kids that made Lycoming wrestling the valuable commodity it is.”
 
Inaugural MAC Hall of Fame Class
Name, School, Sport/Position, Year(s)
Richard (Dick) Riffle, Albright, Football/Baseball/Basketball/Track & Field, 1938
Ted Cottrell, Delaware Valley, Football/Track & Field, 1969
Yvonne Kauffman, Elizabethtown, Basketball/Field Hockey/Tennis Coach, 1966-Present
Robert Shields, FDU, Athletic Director, 1976-1989
Mary Beth Bowler, King's, Basketball, 1983
Lou Sorrentino, Lebanon Valley, Basketball/Baseball/Football SA, Basketball/Football/Baseball/Golf Coach, Athletic Director,
Budd Whitehill, Lycoming, Wrestling/Football/Baseball Coach, 1956-93
David Brandt, Messiah, Soccer Coach, 1996-2008
Bill Manlove, Widener, Football Coach/Athletic Director, 1969-1991
John Reese, Wilkes, Wrestling Coach, Athletic Director, 1953-1995
Grant Krow, Albright, Track & Field, 1963
Robert Odell, Bucknell, Football Coach, 1958-1964
David Freysinger, Dickinson, Basketball, 1982
Denise Shotwell Hubley, Dickinson, Field Hockey/Track & Field, 1989
Simone Edwards, FDU, Basketball, 1993
William Marshall, Frankling & Marshall, Squash Coach, Athletic Director, 1974-1991, 1971-1998
Arif Husain, Gettysburg, Track & Field, 1993
Robert Kenworthy, Gettysburg, SID, 1959-1999
Dick Voith, Haverford, Basketball, 1977
Bill Milne, Johns Hopkins, Swimming,
William (Bill) Stromberg, Johns Hopkins, Football, 1982
Larry Bock, Juniata, Volleyball Coach,
Al Cantello, La Salle, Track & Field, 1955
Tom Gola, La Salle, Basketball, 1955
Frank Girardi, Lycoming, Football Coach/Athletic Director, 1972-2007
Carol Fritz, McDaniel, Basketball/Volleyball/Softball Coach, Associate Athletic Director, 1967-2007
Rebecca Martin, McDaniel, Basketball/Volleyball/Track & Field/Softball SA, Basketball Coach, 1980, 1981-Present
Rocco Calvo, Moravian, Football/Basketball/Baseball Coach, Athletic Director, 1955-1992
Harold "Gil" Gillespie, Moravian, Baseball Coach, Basketball Coach, Athletic Director, 1937-1974, 1939-1957, 1937-1975
Bobby Smith, Rider, Soccer, 1972
Bob Bessoir, Scranton, Basketball Coach, 1951-1955
Cory Mabry, Susquehanna, Football/Track & Field, 1991
Guy Rodgers, Temple, Basketball, 1958
Edward Athey, Washington, Football/Basketball/Baseball SA, Coach, Athletic Director, 1947, 1948-1997
Billy Johnson, Widener, Football, 1975
Joseph Wiendl, Wilkes, Football/Wrestling/Baseball, 1969