Wilkes mourns the passing of legendary coach John Reese

WILKES-BARRE — Dr. Greg Cant, president of Wilkes University Tuesday, in announcing the passing of legendary wrestling coach/athletic director John Reese, extended the university’s thoughts and prayers to members of the Reese family, and will share details about services when they become available.

A death notice appears on page 5A of today’s edition.

Reese served as director of athletics at Wilkes from 1958 to 1992 and as head wrestling coach for 42 years. From 1953 through 1995, Reese guided the Colonels to 39 consecutive winning seasons.

Reese, who was 94, will be remembered as one of the winningest coaches in NCAA wrestling history, with 515 wins — he was only the second wrestling coach in the NCAA to top 500 wins.

Under his leadership, the wrestling program gained national attention with 40 winning seasons, 14 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) titles, the 1974 Division III National Championship and a nationally ranked Division I program.

During his tenure, Reese coached 10 individual national champions, 61 MAC champions, and 46 All-Americans.

A native of Kingston, Coach Reese and his late wife, Patsy, were parents to three children — Jeff, Megan and Lynn. Reese’s devotion to Patsy is widely known and expressed at Wilkes through his family’s establishment of the Patricia “Patsy” Reese Annual Nursing Scholarship in her memory.

In 2015, Coach Reese’s lifelong commitment to Wilkes was celebrated when he was presented with the President’s Medal, the University’s most prestigious honor, by Wilkes President Patrick F. Leahy at the annual Founders Gala.

“His motto, ‘victory goes to those who are willing to pay the price,’ has inspired decades of Wilkes student-athletes and will, no doubt, be remembered by Colonels for years to come,” Cant said.