Bill Koll
Bill Koll
Team: UNI, Penn State

      *BILL KOLL (1965-78) one of the best wrestlers ever, Bill coached six NCAA Top 10 Penn State teams and earned PSU’s top winning pct. of 83.7%, with a 127-22-7 record. He coached two NCAA champions and 14 wrestlers to 20 All-American medals. Two of them, Rich Lorenzo, and John Fritz, succeeded Bill as even more successful coaches. Koll’s top NCAA finish was fourth in 1971, and he had five unbeaten dual teams, with a PSU record 41-match home unbeaten streak from 1969-76. He’s tied with Lorenzo for 2nd-longest coaching tenure, behind Hall of Fame coach Charlie Spiedel.

      As a Northern Iowa freshman, Koll forfeited his second semester to serve three years with combat engineers in WW II, earning the Bronze Star. He returned to dominate a UNI era which placed Top Four nationally eight straight years, five in the Top Two. Koll retired as an unbeaten 3-time NCAA champion, was the first ever to win two OW awards and he placed 5th at the 1948 Olympics. Prior to PSU, Bill coached at Chicago, Cornell College then Northern Iowa. At UNI, he helped inaugurate the College Division nationals and was tournament director the first two years in ’63,'64.