Hall of Fame Member Bios 2007

View: Alphabetical List - Members by Induction Class - Biographies

1959-60 WRESTLING TEAM
The 1959-60 wrestling team was the first undefeated (16-0) mat squad in Colls High history, although Coach Sam Coursen’s minions duplicated that feat just two years later. The Colls racked up 546 team points to just 150 for the opposition. The season was highlighted by close victories over established Colonial Conference powerhouses Paulsboro (26-20) and Woodbury (23-22), plus a 38-6 rout of arch-rival Haddonfield.
The regular lineup that year included Jim Robertson at 98 pounds, Gary Townsend at 106, John Leek at 115, Bill Schwartz at 123, Tim Rogers at 130, Mike Mosman at 136, Paul Calhoun at 141, Dale Divis at 148, Van Maussner at 157, Dave Steiler at 168, Dave Kennedy at 178 and Paul Carmody at heavyweight. These team members produced 14 district championships, nine regional titles and five place winners. All went on to earn college degrees and became successful teachers, college professors, business entrepreneurs, government officials and community leaders.
During their careers, previously-inducted Hall of Famers John Leek and Jim Robertson became Collingswood’s first two state champions. Steiler was a state runnerup, while Van Maussner, Leek and Robertson were third-place winners and Mosman placed fourth.
The 1959-60 team established the winning wrestling tradition at Colls High under Coursen and continuing today under the leadership of Ron Hamrick.

FIRST UNDEFEATED TEAM: The regular lineup for the 1959-60 undefeated wrestling team included:
kneeling l. to r., Mike Mosman, Tim Rogers, Bill Schwartz, John Leek, Gary Townsend and Jim Robertson; standing, Coach Sam Coursen, Paul Calhoun, Dale Divis, Van Maussner, Dave Steiler and Dave Kennedy. Heavyweight Paul Carmody is in yearbook photo lower right.

TOM PALMER
Although well over 200 pounds, Tom Palmer did not receive permission from his parents to play football
until he was a senior. In his one year with the Panthers, however, Palmer showed he was a player.
He earned a position as a tackle on the championship unit of 1945. Then he received post-season laurels as an All-Group 4 selection. Following high school he enjoyed a fine collegiate career at Wake Forest University.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took Palmer in the 1950 draft and he earned a starting position in the NFL. He later taught and coached in Tennessee.

LARRY SCHUMAN
Larry Schuman played a key role on the championship
Collingswood gridiron teams of 1948 and 1949 as a durable linebacker and fullback.
On the unbeaten unit of 1948, the last Skeets Irvine- coached squad, Schuman had the thrill of scoring the lone touchdown of the game against Bridgeton.
At the time, the Colls and Bridgeton were the only undefeated teams in South Jersey.
Schuman also held down the regular point guard slot on the Ben Mark-coached basketball squads.
He lived in Florida most of his adult life and was an avid bowler with a perfect 300 game to his credit. He died in 2003.

DALE BONSALL
Dale Bonsall ’57 played three years of varsity football at Collingswood but received more acclaim as one of the Panthers’ first outstanding wrestlers. He had a record of 31-9-1, placed third in South Jersey and co-captained the 1956-57 squad.
He went on to post a 38-12-1 record at West Chester State and then began a long and highly-successful coaching career. He was 8-4 as head coach at Western Maryland College in 1961-62, when he also secured a master’s degree His Haverford (Pa.) High teams posted five undefeated seasons and compiled an overall 43-3 record from 1962-68.
Bonsall then returned to his alma mater, West Chester, for 21 years as an assistant and one year as head coach. Along the way, he coached several All-American wrestlers and served as a Pennsylvania wrestling official. Following his college coaching years, he served as Team Foxcatcher junior development coach and piloted his teams to two national cadet club championships.
More recently, he was Team Renegade developmental coach and coached four cadet and three junior national freestyle champions.
He has been inducted into both the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame, as well as the Southeast Pennsylvania Regional Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame.

LOIS SCHUBERT RANKINS
Lois Schubert Rankins ’63 was one of Collingswood’s top athletes of the 1960s. She was a three-year star in basketball
and was captain and high scorer of the 1962-63 squad, which was 12-2 and lost only to Audubon twice. Those defeats prevented the girls from matching the boys’ hoopsters accomplishment in winning the Colonial Conference championship in the Colls’ first year in the league.
Lois was also a softball standout, but the sport was dropped after her sophomore
season. She switched to tennis and was a competent singles player in her junior and senior years. The tennis team lost only two matches in her senior year. She went on to play basketball at East Stroudsburg State College and teach at Monongahela Junior High in Deptford, where she coached basketball and softball.

WILLIAM ‘BIFF’ ROSEBORO
“Biff” Roseboro, Class of 1968, was a lifelong resident of Collingswood until his untimely death from cancer at the age of 47. A testimony to his community involvement was the long line of people, including many youngsters he coached, who waited hours to pay tribute to him at his viewing at Foster’s Funeral Home. His family and friends say Bill would be especially honored to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for his community service.
“Biff” credited coach Neil Thompson for turning him into an outstanding baseball player at Colls High. He was chosen to the All-Group 3 and All-Colonial Conference first teams and was also honorable mention All-South Jersey. He made an impact on the baseball team at Camden County College before enlisting in the Marines to serve in Vietnam.
After marrying and becoming the father of four children, “Biff” devoted countless hours to the Collingswood Recreation leagues coaching and sitting on executive boards for soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball. He also spearheaded a T-Ball program to introduce younger children to baseball.
After his death, tournaments in elementary school basketball and high school baseball were established in his memory. Also, for the past nine years, there has been a $1,000 scholarship given in his memory to a Collingswood High School student.

JOHN HANLING
John Hanling went from being cut from the baseball team to becoming one of Collingswood High’s greatest cross-country and track distance runners ever. He and co-captain Keyes Townsend, an inductee last year, led Collingswood’s first cross-country team ever to the Group 4 championship in the fall of 1957 (Sam Coursen’s first championship as a head coach in any sport).
In the springs of 1957 and his senior year of 1958, Hanling was the best miler in South Jersey. In his senior year alone, he won the following individual titles: South Jersey Group 4 Championship Mile, Brooks Memorial Mile Championship, South Jersey Coaches Invitational Championship Mile and Atlantic City Relays Mile Run Championship.
Since his high school days, Hanling reports “I’ve had the good fortune of running for years – in many 10 Ks, half-marathons and marathons and have made many friends along the way!”

BILL CARMODY
Bill Carmody ‘67 was an All-State track and cross-country star who set several Collingswood High records in both sports. After setting the Colls Junior High record in the quarter-mile as a freshman, he became a varsity track standout for three years. He wound up breaking the school records in the mile (4:24) and two-mile (9:51) and missing the half-mile record by just a tenth of a second. Carmody also picked up points in the high jump, long jump and by anchoring the mile relay team.
After being a contributing member of the football team for two years, Bill ran cross-country only in his senior year. All he accomplished was breaking the Colls all-time course record in his very first race. He broke that record several times that season, as well as set course records at other schools. He was awarded All-State, All-South Jersey, All-Group 3 and All-Colonial Conference honors in both cross-country and track in his senior year, when he was unbeaten in track until the state meet.
Carmody went on to set more records in cross-country and track at West Chester State College
before knee injuries ended his career. Today he is district director for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His area of responsibility includes most of Texas and the entire state of Louisiana.

BOB ZEBERLEIN
Bob Zeberlein of the class of 1956 was one of the first in a long-line of outstanding wrestlers developed at Collingswood High. He was a member of the pioneer teams coached by Dave Edinger and Al Drulis.
After playing football his sophomore year, he was recruited to wrestle in his junior and senior years. While still really learning the sport, he had a scintillating senior season, winning the district and regional championships over foes with much more experience and placing third in the state championship meet. It was an incredible accomplishment for a school that had just started a wrestling program. Zeb also captained the team that year.
Zeberlein earned a degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and was later briefly a wrestling referee and assistant coach at Bishop Eustace Prep.

BOB NARLESKI
One of Collingswood High’s “first families” of sports, the late Bob Narleski joins older brothers Ray and Ted and son Bill as a Hall of Famer. This son of major league ballplayer Bill Narleski was himself a strong-hitting and laser-armed third baseman who helped lead Colls High to the Group 4 baseball title in his senior year of 1959. He later played baseball at Rutgers and was a standout sandlot baseball and softball player.
More than that, however, Bob is being honored by the Hall of Fame for his meritorious service to the Collingswood community and in particular to youth baseball. Prior to his untimely death as still a young man, he was vice-president, secretary, coach and umpire for the Collingswood Little League and president, vice-president, secretary and coach for the Collingswood
Babe Ruth League. He was also a Babe Ruth district director, secretary and vice-president of the Camden County Hot Stovers, and secretary of the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame.
Narleski also somehow found time to serve as president of the Collingswood Old Grads, chairman of the Collingswood Red Cross Blood Drive and a member of the borough Board of Education, Planning and Zoning Boards and Knights of Columbus. A claims manager for PSE&G, he was secretary/treasurer of the N.J. Utilities Claims Committee and chairman of the N.J. Employers Legislative Committee for Camden County.

NANCY WARREN O’NEILL
Nancy Warren O’Neill has been a familiar figure around Collingswood High athletics and the Borough Recreation Department
since her own high school days from 1982-85. She earned a total of ten letters in field hockey, basketball and lacrosse and was a standout in all three sports during a great era of championships for the Collingswood High girls.
Nancy was captain or co-captain of all three sports. She earned All-South Jersey honors in lacrosse and All-Group 2 and All-Colonial Conference recognition in basketball and hockey, both of the latter squads winning championships. She also starred in all three sports at Trenton State (College of New Jersey), earning All-American recognition in basketball and hockey and being chosen NCAA “Defensive Player of the Decade” in lacrosse.
Nancy is now the very successful coach of the Colls High varsity girls’ basketball team, which every year is in the thick of the battle for the Colonial Conference championship. She has also coached younger girls in soccer and field hockey. In recent years she has also headed up the Collingswood Recreation Program, co-sponsored by the Borough Commissioners and Board of Education, which provides year-round recreation opportunities for children and adults.

PATTIE SUE EWAN HALE
Pattie Sue Ewan Hale of the class of 1979 was a three-sport standout at Colls High, earning seven letters
in field hockey, basketball and lacrosse, Her best sport was hockey, in which she was an All-South Jersey,
All-Group 2 and All-Colonial Conference selection in her senior year.
She also earned the Silver Senior Award for the class of ’79, but her most memorable event that year was winning the lacrosse
state championship on the same day of her high school prom. Pattie Sue credits her coach, the late Bea Markwick, for their team successes. She says, “If it wasn’t for her, we all would never have achieved half of what we did! She is a force that still affects me as an adult today.”
Pattie Sue went to earn a B.S. in education from Penn State and a master’s
degree from Middle Tennessee State University.

TIM MAHNEY
Tim Mahney was an outstanding running back and defensive
end on three outstanding Colls football teams in 1978-80, which had a combined record of 24-5 and won two Colonial Conference titles (one shared with Haddon Township). He scored 13 touchdowns in his junior year, three against Haddonfield and three against Sterling, and received All-Colonial Conference and All-South Jersey Group 3 honors.
He repeated those honors in his senior season, the first under Coach Frank DeBerardinis, in which the Colls went 8-1 and missed an undefeated season by two seconds. A last-play field goal by Paulsboro broke up a scoreless tie. Mahney scored the only touchdown of the game in the opener against Haddon Heights, tallied two against Sterling and raced for an 80-yard TD against Camden Catholic, among personal highlights of that year.
Tim also earned four varsity letters in track and one in wrestling. He later played football for Memphis State.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
NEIL O. THOMPSON, M.D.
Dr. Neil Thompson, voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in the Class of 1962 yearbook, is this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, for his selfless service as a missionary surgeon in Thailand and for his continuing efforts to recruit other U.S. professionals to work in the under-served areas of East Asia. Neil was an outstanding student at Collingswood High, as well as a contributing member of the 1961-62 undefeated wrestling team and letterman in cross-country and track. He earned his B.A. degree from Franklin & Marshall College, his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College and completed a four-year residency in general surgery at a Baltimore Hospital. During his senior year in medical school, he had a life-changing experience
to visit the Manorom Christian Hospital in central Thailand. Some eight years later, after completing his surgical residency, he joined the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) and returned to Manorom Hospital
in 1979 to serve 20 years there as a general surgeon and another three years as hospital director.
In 2001, Neil was challenged to return to the U.S. to become national director (president and CEO) of OMF-US. In his role, he heads up the effort to recruit Christian professionals to work in East Asia. He now lives in Littleton, Colorado, headquarters of OMF, with his wife, Wannee, and their two sons, Nathan, 16, and Kevin, 14.

Previous Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees
2002 – Bob Scarborough ’42 2003 – Doris E. Hand ’35
2004 – William K. Dickey ’39 2005 – Capt. Robert J. Bloxsom ’38
2006 – Dr. Ralph A. Skowron ‘47