Bob Mitzel

A three-sport athlete at Wilson High School, earning the title of Wilson’s top athlete in 1952. As a three-year starting running back, he played on Wilson’s first championship team (1950) and set records for points (115), yards gained (1,492), and all-purpose yards (2,200). He was also a two-year starting guard for Wilson’s basketball team, which finished District III Class A runners-up to Chambersburg (1950–51). In track, Bob was undefeated in the sprints as a junior high student (1949), won the county 100-yard dash title as a sophomore (1950) with a school-record time of 10.2 seconds, and helped his squad win the county championship in 1951. He played three years of baseball for the Shillington Legion team, hitting .321, .316, and .349 and helping the team to a league runner-up finish (1952). Awarded an academic/athletic scholarship to Dickinson College, he lettered in four sports and became the only freshman at that time to letter in two major spring sports (track and baseball), leading the baseball team with a .411 average as a sophomore (1954). Bob also played semi-pro baseball in the East Lancaster County League for Denver and spent five years with the West Lawn Owls basketball team. He enjoyed a 40-year fastpitch softball career, including 17 years as a player/manager, winning a state championship with Reading House (1956) and three with Rising Sun (1962–64), hitting .350, .376, .348, and .303, respectively. He served as president of the Van Reed Rec., Wilson Boosters, and Reading Fast Pitch League, and is a director of the Wilson Century Club and a member of Wilson’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Deceased