By Hunter Gellman
Dan Gable, Cliff Keen and Dale Thomas are some of the biggest names in wrestling history, and Ursinus coach Bill Racich will be on that legendary short list sooner rather than later. Racich is on the verge of his 500th career win, a milestone achievement that will ink him in the history books forever. According to intermatwrestling.com there are only six coaches in the history of NCAA wrestling to win 500 dual meets, and Racich will be only the fourth Division III boss to break that barrier. He will be competing for this victory in his 36th season at Ursinus.
Racich started his fabled career in 1971 at West Chester University. During that time, West Chester was a Division I program, and Racich was a four-year letter winner who captained the squad his senior season. He reached the Middle Atlantic Conference championships on four separate occasions and captured a championship at 118 pounds in 1974. Racich also qualified for the NCAA Division I Championships twice. The Golden Rams netted the Middle Atlantic Conference championship all four seasons Racich was there.
In 1975, he captured the East Coast Conference title at 126 pounds. He was a captain on a squad that defeated powerhouse teams such as Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, and Purdue. Three years later, Racich found himself placing fourth in the USA National Open Freestyle Championships at the 136.5 pound weight class, helping the New York Athletic Club win the United States Wrestling Federation Championships.
He also was a founding member of the West Chester Rugby Club. After college he played rugby for Turks Head RFC before transitioning to a national team, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh Rugby Club (PWRFC), for which Racich won multiple East Penn Rugby Union championships. He also competed on the 1989 Men's USA Rugby team, which finished second. The following year the team won the USA Rugby 7's national title. He has served 12 terms as president of the PWRFC, and has taken part in two European tours.
Coming into the 1980-1981 season, Racich took over as Ursinus head coach; since then he has not looked back, winning more matches since his arrival than in the previous 52 years of the program's history. To climb three more rungs to fourth on the NCAA's all-time list, Racich would need to win 516 matches, which he has the opportunity to do this season. The winningest coach in Division III history is Jare Klein, who posted 569 victories at Olivet College.
With Racich at the helm, the Bears have won ten Centennial Conference championships. From 2003-2007, the Bears broke a conference record by becoming the first team to win five conference titles consecutively. Racich has coached almost 50 Centennial Conference champions and over 200 Centennial and Middle Atlantic Conference placers. Four wrestlers have won the Chris Clifford Award and six others were named outstanding wrestler for the conference championship tournament. He also coached 15 All-Americans and two GTE-CoSida Academic All-Americans. In the last three years, Racich has coached two wrestlers invited to the NWCA Division I All Star Classic; they were the only two Division III wrestlers to be invited. Racich has also coached 55 Scholar All-Americans over the years.
Over Racich's career, the Bears have never had a losing season. He has been honored on 13 different occasions with Coach of the Year laurels by the Pennsylvania Ches-Mont League, as well as the Middle Atlantic and Centennial Conferences.
Ursinus College is also the host of three highly regarded tournaments each season in the Fall Brawl, North-South Duals, and the Will Abele Invitational. Each December, Racich helps direct the Citrus Invitational in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. These tournaments bring some of the best competition from all over the country. Programs such as Wartburg, Augsburg, University of Wisconsin Lacrosse, Cornell College and others are regular participants.
Not only has Racich made a name for himself domestically, he is also known on the international circuit. In 2013 he became the head coach of the Division III Cultural Exchange team that visited France, Bulgaria, and Turkey to showcase their skills. This team won the George Kalchev International Freestyle tournament in Varna, Bulgaria. Ursinus was also the host to the USA-Russia World Dual meet in 1997, in which Racich received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Congressman Jim Fox for this outstanding and invaluable service to the community.
He is also a USA Wrestling Bronze Certificate coach, and in 1998 led the College Exchange team to compete in the Greco-Roman and Freestyle tournament in the Dominican Republic. In 2003, Ursinus was the training site for the Freestyle World Championships. Here, the men's and women's freestyle teams of Georgia, Japan, and France trained. Serval Ursinus wrestlers have traveled overseas to train with the Division III cultural exchange team over the years.
Racich has been inducted into the Conshohocken Sports Hall of Fame (1986), West Chester Wrestling Hall of Fame, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh Rugby Hall of Fame (1999), Plymouth-Whitemarsh Distinguished Graduates Hall of Fame, Ursinus College Hall of Fame for Athletes (2001), Southeast Pennsylvania Wrestling Hall of Fame (2003), Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2003) and the Division III National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2003). Most recently he was elected the NWCA Division III Secretary and is a mentor in the National Wrestling Coach Association Leadership Academy, which according to him is one of the greatest honors he has received.
"It is really amazing…for the younger coaches to sit down with the older [coaches] who have had the ups and downs, the ins and outs to share our [older coaches] stories so they can avoid the pitfalls we made," Racich said.
Outside of coaching, Racich is the District Chair of the Health and Physical Education department for the Spring-Ford Area School District. He also spends his days as the Middle School Athletic Coordinator and coaches cross country and track in the school district.
Racich may not be physically present for this landmark victory, which makes this an unusual situation. Earlier this year he was injured and has been away from the team for a good portion of the season. Assistant coach Josh Mangle has stepped in as interim head coach in Racich's absence. The NCAA has ruled that even if Racich is not present for the victory, it will still be counted on his polished resume.
Even though he is one of the most decorated coaches in wrestling history, he remains humble through it all.
"You don't get anywhere in life without any help," Racich said. "I had a lot of great assistant coaches, I have had a lot support from the campus community and a lot of committed student-athletes."
Racich proclaims that he never counted any of his wins, rather that he is always looking forward to the next one. He attests that he is very proud of his athletes. In the last three years, Racich has coached two wrestlers – 2013 All-American Chris Donaldson and 2015 All-American Derek Arnold – to the NWCA Division I tournament. According to Racich, both wrestlers represented themselves, their families and Ursinus brilliantly.
Arnold (Centreville, Va./Westfield) and fellow junior Matan Peleg (Vadnais Heights, Minn./Mounds View) both agree that 500 wins is a great accomplishment and this is a big deal for the program now and for years to come. It makes Ursinus a great environment all around, and to have someone with his expertise running the program is something to be proud of.
When asked if Racich has seen it all he proclaimed, "Oh no, no way…every day is a new challenge, every day is new stuff."
Racich will go for his 500th win Sunday, December 13th at a quad meet against Penn College, SUNY Sullivan, and Mount St. Vincent.