STILLWATER, OKLA. - Bill Weick, a championship coach and two-time NCAA champion wrestler, who now resides in Chicago Ridge, Ill., has been elected as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. 

Weick will be among four wrestling greats who will be inducted as Distinguished Members at its annual Honors Weekend Banquet and Induction Ceremony June 2, 2007 in Stillwater, Okla.

Weick is regarded as one of the top wrestling coaches in the nation, with special achievements in international freestyle wrestling and on the high school level.  

For many years, Weick was a member of the coaching staff for U.S. teams competing at international events. Weick was respected by other coaches and top athletes for his coaching skills, and his ability to help elite wrestlers to compete at their highest levels.

He was on the U.S. Olympic team coaching staff in freestyle in 1972, 1980, 1984 and 1988, and worked with the Greco-Roman team in 1976. Weick was head coach of the 1975 Pan American Games team that won the team title, and also coached U.S. teams at the 1975 World Cup, as well as three Junior World Championships (1969, 1977, 1979) and the 1981 World University Games.  Among the nations where Weick traveled to coach U.S. teams were Cuba, Mongolia, Panama, Romania, Canada, Russia and France.

His high school coaching career is legendary, with a reported career record of 749-112-2. He started as a coach with Maquoketa High in Iowa, then served most of his career coaching in Illinois at Tilden Tech, Mount Carmel and Brother Rice High Schools. 

The teams at Mount Carmel, where he coached from 1986-2003, achieved national acclaim. Under Weick, Mount Carmel won the state dual meet title three straight years (1992-94) and was second two times (1998, 2002). He had 21 individual state champions during his tenure, the most of any Illinois school during his time there. 

One of the athletes he coached at Mount Carmel was Joe Williams, who went on to win three NCAA titles, two World medals and competed on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team. In 1999, two of his Mount Carmel wrestlers competed against each other in the NCAA Div. I finals, when T.J. Williams of Iowa beat Tony Davis of Northern Iowa.

From 1961-65, Weick trained for international wrestling with the San Francisco Olympic Club. He also coached at San Francisco State, and served a year as the team's head coach.

Weick was a member of the first U.S. World Greco-Roman team in 1961. He was a runner-up at the AAU National Championships three times and was a seven-time placewinner competing in both freestyle and Greco-Roman.

Weick won two NCAA titles competing for the Univ. of Northern Iowa in 1952 and 1955. During 1953-1954, he served in the U.S. Army. Weick wrestled in high school for Tilden Tech in Illinois, where he was a 1949 state champion and 1948 state runner-up.

Among the Halls of Fame that he has been inducted are the Helms Hall of Fame, the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Hall of Fame, the Univ. of Northern Iowa Hall of Fame, the Glen Brand Iowa Hall of Fame, the Mount Carmel Hall of Fame and the Tilden Tech Hall of Fame. He was the Illinois Coach of the Year in 1984. 

He has received the National Coach of the Year award from the National Federation of High School Associations. Weick was named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Parks Department in 1995. He was the Grand Marshall of the 1986 Illinois State High School Wrestling Tournament.

Profiles of the new Distinguished Members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum will be posted this week from Thursday through Sunday on TheMat.com.