Former Libertyville H.S. Coach Bob Buzzard an Olympian

• The following is part of an ongoing series of articles in celebration of Libertyville High School's 100th anniversary.

Libertyville High School began its wrestling program in 1956. For the first 14 years, the best team finishes for the Wildcat wrestlers were conference runner-up finishes in 1960 and 1964. There were only two state qualifiers: Jim Kupchik in 1962 and Stu Fonda in 1963. Things changed in the fall of 1969 when LHS hired a new wrestling coach and Industrial Arts teacher, Bob Buzzard.

Coach Buzzard had a very successful wrestling background. He was a three-time state finalist and a two-time state champion for Waterloo East High School, graduating in 1960. His next stop was at Iowa State University, wrestling for the Cyclones. He was a two-time NCAA All-American, placing fourth in 1964 at 137 pounds, and third in 1965 for the NCAA Team Champions.

Bob continued wrestling after college, winning the 1967 National Freestyle title. While a grad assistant for the Eastern Michigan University Wrestling team, he came to the Chicago area looking for a high school teaching and coaching position so he could train and compete for the national power Mayor Daley Wrestling Club.

Libertyville Wrestling was coming off a seventh-place conference finish in 1968 and an eighth-place in 1969. The 1970 wrestlers realized rather quickly things were going to be different under Buzzard's rule. Several of the senior veterans quit. But Buzzard was developing some tough younger wrestlers, one junior in particular.

LHS improved to fifth in the conference in 1970. The 1971 team would finish third in the conference tournament. They went 7-0 in conference duals, including giving eventual champion North Chicago their first conference loss since they entered the conference in 1965.

Only one wrestler qualified for the state tournament during those two years. This wrestler was Dan Holm, who placed third in the state in 1970 - LHS's first wrestling all-stater - and winning the state title in 1971, finishing 37-0 on the year.

Coach Buzzard stayed one more year at LHS. The 1972 season was filled with injuries by the senior class. Although the team dropped back to fifth in the conference, nine of the 12 starters were sophomores (the Class of 1974), a class that went on to win LHS's first conference wrestling title in 1973, repeating in 1974 and taking ninth in the state.

In the spring of 1972, Buzzard announced he would be taking a job in Oregon. But before he left, he earned a spot on the United States Olympic Greco-Roman Team for the Munich Olympics.

After the Olympics, coach Buzzard headed off to Oregon and took over a Salem High School program that only had nine wrestlers. By 1979, Salem took second in the state and coach Buzzard was named Oregon's "Coach of the Year."

Before retiring from coaching in 2012, coach Buzzard had served as a head coach and assistant coach at several schools, including Cascade High School. There he coached his two sons Scott and Terry to Oregon State titles. He was inducted into the Oregon Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012.