South Mountaineer Volume 20, Issue 15

              Vol. 20 — No. 15
JANUARY 10, 1978
BETHLEHEM, PA.
[
3-Time NCAA Wrestling Champion
Honored At LU Testimonial Dinner
Mike Caruso (left) and Gerry Leeman
More Honors For Grid Squad;
Area Dinner Slated Jan, 27
Lehigh's national title-winning
football team has been selected
Div. II team-of-the-year by the
Washington, D. C, Touchdown
Club and will be honored at that
organization's annual banquet
Jan. 28 in the nation's capital.
Coach John Whitehead will
represent the squad at the affair
which is scheduled for the
Sheraton Park Hotel.
The Washington, D.C., Touchdown Club, which advertises its
annual football awards dinner as
the "biggest one of its kind" in
America, expects 1,800 guests at
the Jan. 28 awards banquet.
The dinner in Washington, Jan.
28, will be a black tie affair with a
photo session at 5 p.m. for
coaches of the selected teams and
individual professional and
collegiate stars chosen to receive
honors. Some 30 awards are to be
made.
There'll be a reception at 6
p.m., dinner at 8 p.m. and the
awards program at 9 p.m. These
events climax a "Washington
Touchdown Club Weekend" in the
capital.
Tickets Going On Sale
Tickets for a Lehigh Valley area testimonial banquet, honoring the
Lehigh football squad, will goon sale Thursday (Jan. 12).
This dinner, sponsored by the Bethlehem area chamber of commerce
in conjunction with Lehigh, the Lehigh Alumni Assn., the Home Club,
the Allentown Club, the National Football Foundation Lehigh Valley
Chapter, and the Southside Boosters, is scheduled for Jan. 27 in the
Saucon Fieldhouse at Lehigh.
Tickets will cost $10 and they'll be on sale at the Bethlehem and
Allentown chamber of commerce offices, and in the Community
Relations Office, Johnson Hall, Building No. 36, Lehigh University.
Tables of eight may be reserved. Alumni and friends are invited to
sponsor dinners for student athletes at $10 per contribution.
Mail orders for tickets should be sent to the Community Relations
Office, Johnson Hall, Building No. 36, Lehigh University, Bethlehem,
Pa., 18015. Checks should be made payable to Lehigh University and all
mail requests MUST BE ACCOMPANIED by a self-addressed,
stamped envelope.
Lehigh's football team has
been selected national Div. II
team-of-the-year by the National
Football Foundation and Hall of
Fame.
Coach John Whitehead accepted the John F. Kennedy
Trophy, signifying that honor, at
a NFF council luncheon Monday
in Atlanta, Ga.
Among guests scheduled to
attend were V. J. (Pat) Pazzetti,
III, of Atlanta, and Kim
McQuilken, Lehigh All-American
quarterback of 1973 who has just
completed his fourth season with
the Atlanta Falcons.
Coach John Whitehead, and his
national championship Lehigh
football squad, will be honored
Jan. 26 in New York City by the
N.Y. Football Writers Assn. and
the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
Whitehead, who directed the
(Continued on Page 2)
Mike Caruso, Hall of Fame
Choice, Posted 57-1 Record
Lehigh and its Alumni Assn.
paid tribute to Mike Caruso last
Saturday at a Wrestling Hall of
Fame testimonial dinner in Rath-
bone Hall.
The banquet preceded a dual
meet against Wisconsin and
marked the induction of Caruso
into the Citizens Savings-Helms
Foundation Hall of Fame. Some
250 attended the reception and
dinner.
Caruso, CLU, a native of
Newark, N.J., and a resident of
Bethlehem, is president of M. J.
Caruso and Associates, a
Bethlehem insurance firm. He
was graduated from Lehigh in
1967 with a bachelor of arts
degree with a major in international relations.
One of the super-stars of
Lehigh wrestling, he is the only
Engineer grappler ever to win
three NCAA championships and
the only matman ever to win
three EIWA and three NCAA
titles. He performed those feats
in 1965, 1966 and 1967 at 123
pounds. Freshmen were
ineligible to complete on varsity
teams during his undergraduate
years. He came to Lehigh after
compiling an 81-0 record at St.
Benedict's Prep in Newark, and
was Engineer co-captain in 1967.
He was voted Most Outstanding Wrestler and also won
the Fletcher Award in the 1967
Easterns. He had a 57-1 varsity
career mark, including tournaments where he never lost, and
he won his last 50 bouts in a row.
In the first NCAA East-West all-
star meet, in 1967, he scored a
victory which helped the East
win the meet. In 1967 he was
voted Most Outstanding
Collegiate Athlete in New Jersey.
In the spring of 1967, at the
annual flagpole awards, he
registered an unprecedented feat
by winning four major trophies.
He took the ECAC medal for
scholarship and athletic prowess,
the Bosey Reiter cup as the outstanding member of the senior
class and the Lehigh Home Club
and George Feuerbach awards as
the most otoutstanding wrestler
on the varsity squad.
He moved into the life insurance field following brief
stints as head wrestling coach at
the University of Virginia and
assistant coach at Lehigh, and
continued to win awards, with
Massachusetts Mutual. He's a
frequent speaker at insurance
conferences and conventions, and
a four-time member of the
Massachusetts Mutual Million
Dollar Round Table. He received
his CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) degree in 1976.
Caruso, who serves on the
Lehigh Home Club Board of
Directors and has been an active
participant in Lehigh's fund-
raising campaigns, is a member
of Lehigh's Asa Packer Society.
He's married to the former
Sandra O'Donnell of Bethlehem.
At the head table were Samuel
W. Croll, Jr., president of the
Lehigh Alumni Assn., Dr.
Deming Lewis, Lehigh president,
director of athletics William B.
Leckonby, current Engineer
coach Thad Turner, former
coach and assistant to the
director  Gerry  Leeman  who
(Continued on Page 2)
Hard-Luck Cagers Await
Start of 'Second Season1
Lehigh's basketball team is
pointing for its "second season,"
the start of East Coast Conference competition late this
month.
Coach Brian Hill's forces,
struggling against an overwhelming tide of sickness, injuries and other factors causing
the absence of key men, dropped
eight of their first nine starts.
Two of those losses were in
overtime, 66-57 in the first round
of the Golden Dome Tournament
near Pittsburgh, against host
Robert Morris College, and 74-69
in double overtime at Colgate.
St. Francis, of Loretto, Pa.,
was the consolation round rival at
the Golden Dome and the Red
Flash topped the Engineers, 87-
71.
Letterman Ray Green, absent
during the first semester,
returned in time to play in the
tournament only to have letter-
man Frank Hillman, an outstanding sophomore guard, drop
out of school for the spring
semester.
Ken Clifford and Brian Cam-
person have been playing their
way back into shape following
pre-season illnesses. Jeff Van-
demark and Mike Finley were
sidelined with ankle injuries.
Letterman guard Bill Griffin
has been one of the few bright
spots of early-season com-
(Continued on Page 2)