Bill Hyman, Temple University, Class of 1985

Wrestling for Saddle Brook High School in 1981, Bill won the New Jersey high school state championship.  He went on to become, arguably, the most outstanding wrestler in the history of Temple University, twice winning the EIWA league championship and then winning the NCAA heavyweight championship as a senior in 1985.

In the EIWA tournaments, Bill finished fourth at heavyweight as a sophomore and won the tournament his junior and senior seasons, each time edging Syracuse’s Andy Schwab by one point in the finals. Temple placed fourth out of sixteen teams each year. Bill received the prestigious Fletcher Award his senior year.

At the NCAA tournament Bill, while seeded 11^th, placed 4^th as a junior. The following year Bill was seeded 2^nd, but ripped through all his opponents, including a 12-2 victory in the finals over Michigan’s Kirk Trost, to win the heavyweight title. He became Temple’s first two-time All-American.

Bill continued to wrestle for clubs for several years, including the Foxcatcher team that competed against an All-Star team from Bulgaria in 1986. He was a member of the USA wrestling team that competed in the 1985 Maccabean Games in Israel, earning a gold medal.

After college, Bill was a trader on Wall Street and later changed careers, going into the medical industry as a sales rep. For eight years he coached recreation wrestling in Ramsey, NJ; he now lives with his son and daughter in Upper Saddle River.