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Tom Benic ’67 helped usher in an era of championship wrestling at Washington & Jefferson College. One of 10 wrestlers in school history to capture three Presidents’ Athletic Conference individual championships, Benic helped lead the Presidents to two of their five conference team championships. At the time of his graduation, he was just the second President to claim three league championships, earning the title as a sophomore, junior and senior.
He only lost one conference match during his career, a 3-2 overtime loss in the 123-pound finals during his freshman year. Benic finished his career with 50 victories in 60 matches (50-9-1) which remains as the fourth-best career winning percentage (.848) in school history. In 1965, Benic capped a 9-1-1 record with the conference title that helped the Presidents win the team championship at Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, Mich. One year later, the Presidents had four individual champions en route to the conference tournament title at Thiel.
As a senior, Benic once again captured the 123-pound title, but the Presidents missed out on claiming a third league title by just one point. Benic was one of four PAC champions, including his younger brother Pat. Benic is one of just 25 wrestlers in W&J history to win at least 50 career matches and joined W&J Hall of Famer Pat McCormick as the only student-athletes from the 1960’s to win 50 matches. Benic was Sports Editor and then Editor of the Red & Black while at W&J and earned a master’s degree in Journalism at Northwestern University.
He served as a combat reporter/photographer for the U.S. Army in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, before pursuing a 12-year career in print journalism at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a 31-year career in public relations. He and his wife Barbara Sullivan live in Pittsburgh. They have two grown children, Matthew and Shannon.
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