WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – A two-time MAC Champion, Lycoming College's first NCAA champion and the second-generation owner of Knoebel's Amusement Park in Elysburg, Pa., Ron "Buddy" Knoebel '65 was selected for inclusion in the Middle Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame Class of 2020, the conference office in Annville, Pa., announced on Tuesday, May 19.
 
Knoebel joins former coach Budd Whitehill, who was part of the inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2012, and two other Lycoming grapplers – NCAA Division I All-American Bill Bachardy '67 and former all-time wins leader Royce Eyer '01 - in the MAC Hall of Fame.
 
"I am honored and proud to be inducted into the MAC Hall of Fame," Knoebel said. "Lycoming was a defining time and place for me. It was a good fit, I was in the right place and it was the best decision. I was blessed to have Coach Budd Whitehill for all four years. He was a big part of my success."
 
"He's the first NCAA Champion at Lycoming in any sport," Lycoming wrestling coach Roger Crebs '87 said. "He's made a great impact on the program and means a lot to the Lycoming family. The amount of involvement he has on campus as a whole is amazing."
 
A Southern Area (now Southern Columbia) graduate, Knoebel arrived at Lycoming College in 1961 as a starter, wrestling between two-time NAIA All-Americans Lee Wolfe (123 pounds) and Bill Kehrig (137 pounds). In his first season, the Warriors won the MAC Championship title. As a sophomore, he finished fourth at both the MAC Championship and NCAA College Division Championship to earn his first All-American honors at 130 pounds, which also helped him qualify for an appearance in the NCAA Division I Championship.
 
"I had the opportunity to wrestle varsity all four years," Knoebel said. "During my freshman year, Lycoming won the MAC Championships, but I missed the medal stand and I made the commitment to myself to make the medal stand every year after that."
 
During the 1963-64 season, Knoebel moved up to the 137-pound weight class and again led Lycoming to a third-place finish at the MAC Championships after winning the 137-pound title, earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler award by beating defending champion Albert Sweitzer from West Chester. It was then, Knoebel said he thought he could become a national champion. However, at the NCAA Small College Championships, he finished 1-2, dropping an overtime decision on the second day to fall short of All-American status.
 
Knoebel was on a mission in his senior season, though, going 9-0-1 in the regular season before winning his second MAC title and leading the team to a second-place finish. He capped off his collegiate career as the NCAA College Division Champion with a 6-0 win over Jim Rush of Western State College to become Lycoming's first NCAA champion.
 
"The momentum kept building from year to year, match to match and I can contribute a lot of things to my success," Knoebel said. "Coach Whitehill was someone you admired and wanted to excel for. He knew how to get everyone to work their best and he knew how to get the best out of everyone. I had to beat out seven guys at 130-pounds in the practice room just to be a starter my freshman year and one thing always led to the next."
 
He wrapped his career by making a second appearance at the NCAA Division I Championships, heading to Laramie, Wyo., where he pinned Northwestern's Jerry Torrance in the first round before dropping a decision to Oklahoma State's Gene Davis, who finished fourth that year.
 
Finishing his career with a 33-3-1 record, which included going unbeaten in his last 22 dual-meet matches to go along with two All-American honors and a national title made him the easy selection for the College's Tomahawk Award, now the Most Outstanding Male Athlete Award, in 1965. He was inducted in the inaugural Lycoming College Hall of Fame class in 1986 and was named to the MAC Century Team in wrestling in 2012.
 
Knoebel earned a sociology degree from Lycoming College with aspirations to become a wrestling coach. After graduation, he returned to Elysburg to teach and coach at Southern Columbia High School and spent one year at Central Dauphin East before being becoming a wrestling coach at Bucknell University. The Vietnam War draft derailed his Bucknell tenure and after a short stint in the military, Knoebel went to work full-time at his family's amusement park, now Knoebel's Amusement Resort in 1969, where he still works more than half-century later, having helped the park grow into America's largest free-admission amusement park.
 
"He's always been committed to what he believes in, with his wrestling abilities then and his business now," Crebs said. "That's ultimately what won him a national title and why he is now in the MAC Hall of Fame."
 
Knoebel and his wife Debbie reside in Elysburg, Pa. They have a daughter, Stacey, a son Trevor, and four grandkids. He has stayed involved in the community, serving as a trustee and elder with the Elysburg Presbyterian Church, a board member and past-president of the Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau, a member of the WVIA Board of Directors and Pennsylvania Travel Council and he is the vice-president of the Shamokin Salvation Army Advisory Board. He earned Southern Columbia High School's Inaugural Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016 for the respect and gratitude of those he has served.
 
Knoebel and fellow 2020 MAC Hall of Fame inductee Darrin Kenney '92 (football) are the 10^th and 11^th Warriors to enter the MAC Hall of Fame, joining Frank Girardi (football), Budd Whitehill (wrestling), Bill Bachardy '67 (wrestling), Rick Bealer '91 (football), Denise (Zimmerman) Null '85 (women's swimming), Ed Dougherty '92 (football), Royce Eyer '01 (wrestling), Thomas I. Vanaskie '75 (football) and Erica (Weaver) Wagner '98.