Hall of Fame
Clyde Cressler is one of just seven Raider wrestlers in school history to become a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Champion – claiming the 1962 title at 115 pounds. He is one of three SU wrestlers to ever win that weight class at the PSAC Championships.
In three years as a wrestler from 1961-63, Cressler posted a 24-4-1 record. He was an integral part of the formative Shippensburg wrestling teams that had success early on in the program’s history. In an incredibly competitive Pennsylvania Conference (PC) that featured some of the best programs in the country at the time, SU took third place at the 1961 PC Championships and had a 9-2 dual meet record. Shippensburg was also third in the PC in 1962 – the year Cressler won his conference crown.
Cressler has been a longstanding, staunch supporter of the sport. He was a high school star and state qualifier at Newport High School, and was inducted into the District III Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in February 2002.
Cressler has been a generous supporter of the sport throughout his life. He has sponsored international wrestlers including Sean O’Day and current Edinboro athletic director and Olympic medalist Bruce Baumgartner. In 1985, Cressler co-founded The French Creek Valley Freestyle Club. He has provided apparel for the Newport Wrestling Team for their Holiday Tournament and to Team Diesel Wrestling which sends wrestlers to the Disney Duals. He also financially assisted Newport High School in securing a scoreboard and new wrestling room in 2008.
In 2008, Cressler started the Clyde L. Cressler Family Wrestling Scholarship at Edinboro University and the Clyde L. Cressler Wrestling Scholarship at Shippensburg University. He was the recipient of the Bob Craig Youth Services Award in 2012.
After graduating from Shippensburg State, Cressler was a sixth-grade teacher before attending the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, where he earned a degree in 1969. Two years later, Cressler bought his first pharmacy in Meadville. He now owns 18 Medicine Shoppe Pharmacies in Pennsylvania and two in New York.
While still a student at Shippensburg, Cressler married Carol Moore, class of 1966. Clyde and Carol have been married for 53 years and have a son and daughter-in-law, Todd and Shelly Cressler, Class of 1993, who are raising two of their grandchildren, Ella and Nathaniel. Their daughter and son-in-law, Crista and Eric Stewart, live in Tennessee and are raising four of their grandchildren, Makenzie, Irelynd, Haley, and Gage. The discipline of wrestling has also enabled Clyde to handle the challenges of Parkinson’s Disease for the past 20 years.
