Penn State Wrestling: Best Nittany Lions to never win an NCAA title

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STATE COLLEGE, PA – FEBRUARY 16: Nico Megaludis of the Penn State Nittany Lions during a 125 pound match against Eddie Klimara of the Oklahoma State Cowboys on February 16, 2014 at Rec Hall on the campus of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. Penn State won 23-12. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) /

No. 5

Jerry Villecco

Years: 1973-1976
Record: 71-13-1
Conf. Titles: 2
NCAA Finishes:
4th (1974)
6th (1975)
4th (1976)

Just like Clyde Frantz, Jerry Villecco’s career stats won’t blow you away on the surface. But we’re not here to take things at face value, it’s my job to try and compare wrestlers from different decades and from drastically different collegiate wrestling eras.

Villecco was able to wrestle his freshman year (1972-1973) and he put together an impressive initial campaign. The talented grappler went 13-3-1 and won the conference title at 167. Unfortunately these early results were not enough to propel Villecco to place in the 1973 NCAA Championships.

In his sophomore season, Villecco started to show signs of becoming one of the nation’s elite grapplers at 158. Going into the 1974 NCAA’s, Jerry held a record of 16-1 with his only loss coming at the hands of a talented Clarion wrestler early in the season. It’s also worth nothing Villecco started out the year at 167 and then dropped down to 158 midway through the season.

And in the 1974 NCAA’s, Villecco continued his winning ways by breezing through his first three matches. However, Oklahoma’s Rod Kilgore stood in his way in the semi-finals.

Kilgore crushed Villecco 7-2 and ultimately ended up taking the title at 158. And in the third place match, it appeared the wind had completely gone out of Villecco’s sails as he was pinned by Iowa’s Dan Holm to finish in fourth place.

Jerry went on to have a bit of a disappointing junior season by finishing 17-5 and came in sixth place in the 1975 NCAA Championships.

With the soul crushing losses his sophomore year and the lackluster junior season in his rearview mirror, Villecco turned all of his attention to finishing his Penn State Wrestling career on a high note.

Which is exactly what he did. Jerry plowed through the regular season competition by winning his second conference title and, similar to his sophomore year, took a perfect record (15-0) into the NCAA Championships (1976). This was going to be Villecco’s time to shine and to finally win an NCAA title. And the road to a title starts by winning the first match.

Villecco was set to face Wisconsin’s Pat Christenson, an unseeded wrestler, in the opening round. Fun fact, at the time no one realized the same people who seeded this past NCAA Wrestling Championships (2022) apparently also seeded the 1976 NCAA’s. Because Villecco was up against a buzz saw in the first round.

Christenson shocked the world and breezed past Villecco 5-2. All of the blood sweat and tears of his senior season seemingly went down the toilet in one fell swoop. From eyeing up an NCAA title to losing in the first round. Many wrestlers would pack it in and lose early in the consolation bracket. But Jerry Villecco isn’t like many wrestlers.

Remember when I said it is potentially more grueling for a wrestler to lose early and then make it to the third place match? Well this is what Jerry did by winning his next four matches and punching his ticket to the third place round.

Unfortunately Villecco wasn’t able to get past Kentucky’s Joe Carr and he once again finished in fourth at the NCAA’s. But he showed some true grit in grinding it out in the wrestle backs and he made the Penn State faithful proud with yet another top finish in the nation.

Oh, and remember the unseeded grappler who took out Villecco in the first round? Yeah, he ended up winning the whole thing at 167.

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