The 1973-74 Germantown Academy Varsity Wrestling Team, coached by HOF inductee Alex Frazier, had many outstanding achievements. The biggest of these was winning the first Inter-Ac Wrestling Championship in school history. The team beat the defending National Prep Champion, The Haverford School, for Haverford’s first loss in 102 Inter-Ac matches, dating back 23 seasons to the days of the Korean War. 

Coach Frazier believe his team might have the first opportunity to ever beat Haverford. He sent his assistant coaches to scout Haverford which was uncommon at the time. The team sensed its chance for a victory, practicing every morning and evening preparing for the big contest against Haverford.  The wrestlers even practiced on Saturdays, finishing one week, just in time for some of them to take their SAT tests later that morning!! The ‘73-’74 Wrestling Team went on to win that very historic match in front of a full capacity crowd of cheering Patriots in the ‘new gym’. GA clinched the win when Paul Rein won his match, giving GA an insurmountable lead of 23-9 over Haverford in the tenth match of the day.  When speaking with Coach Frazier, he told us Haverford beat his Penn Charter team in the final match of the day in his junior year. But, the victory over Haverford in 1974 was one of the highlights of his life. Teammates at our 45th reunion this past year, all feel the same way. 

The team also won the Chestnut Hill Academy Tournament, with seven champions and two second place finishes. Another tremendous accomplishment was that of beating all Philadelphia area private schools, including powerhouse teams from Haverford and The Hill School, to win PAPSIWT (the Philadelphia Area Private School Invitational Wrestling Tournament). In addition, the team placed fourth at the Lehigh National Prep Wrestling Championship, losing only to schools with graduate students on their teams. 

John Iredale was selected ‘Most Outstanding Wrestler’ at the CHA Tournament while David Callanan went on to win that prestigious title at the extremely competitive PAPSIWT.  David was also honored when he was chosen by WIBG Radio as the ‘Coca-Cola Athlete of the Week’ for the Philadelphia Area.  Chuck Riley won his weight class at Lehigh while John took third place and David placed fourth. The team’s regular season record was a praiseworthy 13-1, which included wins against three public schools, GA’s first such wins in its history. 

The Team (in order of weight class):

John Iredale '75

Charles ‘Chuck’ Riley '75

Peter Hyndman '77

David Callanan '74 (co-captain)

Charles ‘Chip’ Burch '74

Gerald ‘Gerry’ Johnson '74

William ‘Bill’ Leunis '74

Joseph ‘Joey’ Boyd '75

Robert ‘Bobby’ Straw '75

Paul Rein '74 (co-captain)

John Hirshberger '75

G. Brooke Hallman '75

Coaches: Alex Frazier, Clem Newbold, Paul Luff (1972 Captain) and Erich Beerer (1973 Captain)

Backup Wrestlers: Taylor Simonin ‘74, Scott Clipp ‘75 and Mike Costa