Denny Diehl elected to EIWA Hall of Fame

[LU in the Hub]

RIP Denny, and our deepest condolences to the Diehl family.

There won’t be another Denny Diehl.

[legger]

**** Terrible news. Denny was a True Gentleman and a Giant in the wrestling world and especially Lehigh. RIP Friend, there is no way to replace what you brought to Lehigh Wrestling.

[Sundayamqb]

RIP Denny, and our deepest condolences to the Diehl family.

There won’t be another Denny Diehl.

Denny was a ball of a fire, one of a kind. It all sounds so cliched, but Denny was incredibly special.

Like many, I will miss him, too.

RIP.

Maybe it's too soon to bring this up, but what can we/Lehigh do to memorialize him on campus (if he is not already)? He is as deserving as anyone.

[jdalu75]

Maybe it's too soon to bring this up, but what can we/Lehigh do to memorialize him on campus (if he is not already)? He is as deserving as anyone.

The Dennis R. Diehl '70 Renovation and Update to 45-year-old Stabler Center?

[LUEngineer]

No sense updating it for wrestling as the coaches don’t want to wrestle there & the fan base is dwindling with Denny’s loss just the beginning.

Lehigh stopped telling students that Lehigh Wrestling was our prime sport competing at the highest level of NCAA competition outside the Patriot League for all other sports. never engaged them in our legacy of National Champions & AA’s.

When John Steckback left that ended the engagement of students with our prime sport at Lehigh. They became clueless & part of the liberal agenda that every sport must be equal. Students don’t support any sport now.

Denny is the beginning of the end game for the special place Lehigh Wrestling held for those of us from our era.

The only saving grace would be for ex-Wrestlers to dramatically re-engage & become the support base for the current wrestlers on an ongoing basis.

May Denny RIP despite his major frustration (along with many of us) with the plight of the decline in our fan base purposely orchestrated by Lehigh.

[Oracle]

Agree 100%

[ngineer]

RIP Denny, and our deepest condolences to the Diehl family.

There won’t be another Denny Diehl.

Denny was a ball of a fire, one of a kind. It all sounds so cliched, but Denny was incredibly special.

Like many, I will miss him, too.

RIP.

Maybe it's too soon to bring this up, but what can we/Lehigh do to memorialize him on campus (if he is not already)? He is as deserving as anyone.

I am told that efforts are already underway for a memorial service to be conducted on campus in the near future.

[Lehighsam]

With the passing of Denny, M& M will miss our good friend. Denny was opinionated and could be snarky, but his devotion to Lehigh wrestling was unequalled. We hope that Denny can convince the Creator not to let him RIP. May his spirit return to influence us to resurrect wrestling at Lehigh.

[HFO]

Very sad to hear. My best wishes to his son Geoff. His Hall of Fame is well deserved. In life you come across few people who are passionate in a particular interest than Denny, they take passion to a level that few of us can achieve. It consumes him. So it is ironic that Denny a former track athlete in high school came across Lehigh Wrestling in its peak years of Caruso, Stuart, Peritore, Shields of his era and then threw himself into Lehigh Wrestling during Thad Turner years and beyond.

I can only recall meeting Denny once and it was at a break between Penn-Drexel matches at a bar down the street from Penn Law School. Had to be at least 20 years ago. I was there with a friend from Penn. He and a small group sat next to me. I do not think I had Lehigh gear on, but he sat down next to us. He was joyous. Looking forward to the Drexel match to happen later in the early evening. He was both annoying and amusing at the same time. He was non-stop talking about the matches and the team. I had been aware of him through the years, but may be my only time I had actually talked to him face to face about wrestling. God the man's face lit up when it was a fellow Lehigh grad and the topic was wrestling.

Denny would be on the Mt. Rushmore of Lehigh Wrestling. He by far was the most dedicated and passionate fan of a sport I have ever come across. He devoted a large portion of his day to wrestling each and every day for his entire adult life.

I only wish that the EIWA had come a year earlier. I am sure it will be quite the event and Geoff can be proud both as an alum and as a son.

So now StovePipe and Denny are back together. One can only hope there is wrestling in the great beyond.

Life is precious. Enjoy it to the maximum. I hope he got the news on Crookhan and Stanich on how good they are going to be.

[Asa Packer]

Very sad to hear. My best wishes to his son Geoff. His Hall of Fame is well deserved. In life you come across few people who are passionate in a particular interest than Denny, they take passion to a level that few of us can achieve. It consumes him. So it is ironic that Denny a former track athlete in high school came across Lehigh Wrestling in its peak years of Caruso, Stuart, Peritore, Shields of his era and then threw himself into Lehigh Wrestling during Thad Turner years and beyond.

I can only recall meeting Denny once and it was at a break between Penn-Drexel matches at a bar down the street from Penn Law School. Had to be at least 20 years ago. I was there with a friend from Penn. He and a small group sat next to me. I do not think I had Lehigh gear on, but he sat down next to us. He was joyous. Looking forward to the Drexel match to happen later in the early evening. He was both annoying and amusing at the same time. He was non-stop talking about the matches and the team. I had been aware of him through the years, but may be my only time I had actually talked to him face to face about wrestling. God the man's face lit up when it was a fellow Lehigh grad and the topic was wrestling.

Denny would be on the Mt. Rushmore of Lehigh Wrestling. He by far was the most dedicated and passionate fan of a sport I have ever come across. He devoted a large portion of his day to wrestling each and every day for his entire adult life.

I only wish that the EIWA had come a year earlier. I am sure it will be quite the event and Geoff can be proud both as an alum and as a son.

So now StovePipe and Denny are back together. One can only hope there is wrestling in the great beyond.

Life is precious. Enjoy it to the maximum. I hope he got the news on Crookhan and Stanich on how good they are going to be.

Wow, as usual, HFO is well stated. I also knew Denny only casually. First met him at EIWAs at Lehigh. No idea what year. After a brief intro on my part, Denny filled me with info on that year's team, and some history. RIP DRD.