Year of Service: 30th
Lehigh University ’71
Birth Date: July 12, 1948
Hometown: Drexel Hill, PA
Education: BS, Marketing
MA, Personnel and Counseling
David Icenhower, a two-time NCAA Division III Coach-of-the-Year honoree, is in his 29th season at the helm of the division’s most successful program. Icenhower has produced five NCAA Division III team championships winners at TCNJ, beginning with the 1979 team which achieved the first NCAA crown in the College’s history. “Ice” has also piloted the Lions to national titles in 1981, 1983, 1984, and 1987. Under Icenhower, the Lions have finished in the top five nationally during 18 of his 28 seasons, including a third-place finish in 1999 as TCNJ served as the host site for the NCAA Division III Championship. The 2000–01 Lions took fifth place at the NCAA’s after establishing a school record for most wins in a season after a 20-4 dual match campaign.
The Lions are coming off another impressive season that saw the squad capture the 2004 Metropolitan Conference Championships after taking third place finish at the Bud Whitehill Division III National Duals, and fourth place at the prestigious NWCA National Duals. The year was capped off by an eighth place showing at the 2004 NCAA Division III Championships after producing five All-Americans and two NWCA Scholar-Athletes. Along the way, last year, the Lions went 21-3 on the season and Icenhower collected his 400th career victory.
A 1971 graduate of Lehigh University and a product of the Division I school’s outstanding wrestling program, Icenhower is a member of the NCAA Wrestling Sports Committee and has chaired its Division III subcommittee. In 1986, he served as tournament director for the NCAA Division III Championships, which was hosted by TCNJ. His coaching record in dual meets to date at TCNJ is 417-71-3 (an .852 winning percentage).
The Lions have achieved six undefeated seasons under Icenhower. The 1978–79 team went 15-0 en route to the College’s first Division III title in any sport. The 1980–81 and 1983–84 teams, which posted 17-0 and 14-0 records respectively, also won NCAA crowns. The 1993–94 squad went 16-0, but finished third at the NCAAs after earlier in the year capturing the prestigious Division III Dual Championship. During one three-year stretch between 1979–81, his teams produced a 46-1 record. The 1994–95 Lions went 19-0 in dual meets, while also successfully defending their 1994 Division III Dual Challenge Championship. The Lions won three straight Division III Dual Championships spanning from 1994 to 1996. Eight years ago, the Lions’ dual meet win streak came to end—but not before they had reeled off 54 straight wins (dating back to February 1993)—as did their home dual meet win streak that stood at 27 matches (dating back to December 1990). The Lions’ only loss on the 1995–96 season was a heartbreaking 21-19 decision at the hands of the Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland.
The 2004–05 Lions bring an overall win streak of nine dual matches into the new season, while also riding a home dual match win streak of 10 matches dating back to February 2, 2002, when the Lions dropped a 23-21 decision to SUNY-Oswego. Icenhower has tallied 417 dual match wins on his career in just win this season, a feat he achieved in just 491 outings.
Named the Division III Coach-of-the-Year in 1979 and 1987, Icenhower has produced 68 wrestlers who have combined for 117 All-American honors, including 20 Division III individual champions and one Division I titlist. Under Icenhower, the Lions have also won 22 of the last 26 Metropolitan Conference championships, including 14 in a row from 1984 until 1998. He has been cited as the Met’s Coach-of-the-Year 13 times, including two in a row in 2002 and 2003.
Perhaps his crowning achievement, however, came in 1982 when he became the first Division III pilot to ever be a head coach in the prestigious East-West All-Star Meet. The honor repeated itself in 1997 when Icenhower was once again tapped to serve as a coach for the All-Star Meet, becoming the first Division III coach to serve twice on the staff of the East-West All-Star Meet. At the 1999 NCAA Championships, Icenhower was inducted into the NWCA Division III Hall of Fame and joined an elite club of just four coaches in all divisions that have coached over 100 NCAA All-Americans.
Icenhower’s teams have won 10 New Jersey Athletic Conference championships outright and tied for another, posting a 56-5 league mark during that 14-year period (1980–93). In 1988, TCNJ also won the first annual NJAC postseason tournament, which was also hosted by the College.
Icenhower coaches the country’s most successful Division III wrestling program. The Lions have produced 124 All-Americans in NCAA Tournament action, while finishing in the top 20 in each of the 31 years of the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Lions’ 1,739.5 points in tournament action is also tops among the nation’s Division III grappling programs in the history of the tournament.
The Icenhower Years
Dual Meet NJAC Division III
Year Record Record Dual Finish NCAA Finish
1976-77 11-5 0-0 15th
1977-78 8-7 0-0 13th
1978-79 15-0 0-0 1st
1979-80 15-4 3-0* 2nd
1980-81 17-0 3-0* 1st
1981-82 14-4 3-0* 2nd
1982-83 16-2 3-0* 2nd
1983-84 14-0 5-0* 1st
1984-85 11-5-1 4-1# 1st
1985-86 9-5 5-0* 5th
1986-87 13-2 5-0* 1st
1987-88 14-2 5-0% 4th
1988-89 12-5-1 4-1 6th 11th
1989-90 18-1 5-0* 1st 14th
1990-91 16-3 3-2 1st 2nd
1991-92 17-2 5-0* 2nd 3rd
1992-93 16-3 3-1 6th 5th
1993-94 16-0 2-0 1st 3rd
1994-95 19-0 3-0 1st 2nd
1995-96 15-1 2-0 1st 3rd
1996-97 16-1 0-0 3rd 3rd
1997-98 13-0 0-0 1st 15th
1998-99 12-3-1 0-0 2nd 3rd
1999-00 14-2 0-0 — 16th
2000-01 20-4 0-0 4th 5th
2001-02 14-6 0-0 4th 11th
2002-03 20-1 0-0 1st 7th
2003-04 21-3 0-0 3rd 8th
Totals 417-71-3 63-5 — —
(.852 win percentage)
*NJAC Champion.
# Tied for NJAC Title.
%Won NJAC Post-Season Tournament for League Title.
