New Pine-Richland hall of famer Bill Colpo shined on mat, gridiron in late ’60s

By: Jerin Steele
Saturday, August 12, 2023 | 11:01 AM

Bill Colpo was on a golf course in Idaho when he got a call that he’d be part of the 2023 Pine-Richland Athletic Hall of Fame class.

It took a minute for it to sink in.

“At first, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Colpo said. “The first reaction is, ‘Holy cow.’ To get the call on the golf course was sort of classic. The guys I was playing with were giving me a hard time. They were like, ‘What did they call you for?’”

A former three-sport athlete and 1969 graduate of Richland High School, Colpo will be one of the inductees at the Pine-Richland Athletic Hall of Fame banquet Oct. 7 in the Pine-Richland high school cafeteria.

Colpo is going in with Michael Buterbaugh, Matthew Crummy, Kevin McCabe, Kristen Murslack and the 1960 football team. All the inductees will be honored with a pregame ceremony prior to the Central Catholic/Pine-Richland football game Oct. 6.

Colpo participated in wrestling, football and track and field.

While he had success in all three disciplines, he said wrestling was his best sport.

Colpo didn’t have any wrestling experience growing up, but once he saw the sport in action, it got his attention.

“The team started as a club,” Colpo said. “When I was in eighth grade, they came over to the junior high and did an exhibition. That got me interested, and my freshman year I tried out and ended up making the team.”

He quickly found success, winning a Junior Olympic and a section championship his freshman year. In his senior year, he was unbeaten through the regular season and made it to the WPIAL quarterfinals at Pitt before losing.

Not only did Colpo achieve personal success, but he also enjoyed success within the team as well.

“They are a group of guys that I am still friends with,” Colpo said. “We all had a shared discipline to achieve our goals, whatever our goals were. My senior year we went 12-2 as a wrestling team and we were wrestling against some of the bigger schools. It wasn’t like football where you played against your classification.”

Colpo was on the 1968 football team that was the precursor to consecutive WPIAL championships for Richland in 1969-70.

His senior season was cut short due to a knee injury he sustained against Knoch the third game of the season, but prior to leaving the game, he scored the only touchdown and the Rams went on to beat the Knights, 6-2. He said the touchdown was one of two favorite moments of his high school career along with his wrestling success his senior year.

Oddly enough, injuries helped shape his career post high school. He ended up going to X-ray school at Shadyside Hospital and went on to work there for 18 years. The last six he was the Director of Imaging.

“I had been injured as a kid and spent time at the Richland Medical Center, so I was exposed to being X-rayed,” Colpo said. “I had an interest in it and had an uncle that worked for an X-ray manufacturer in Pittsburgh. I was in the first class of X-ray students at the school at Shadyside Hospital. I ended up having a 50-year career in medical imaging.”

Colpo ended up moving to Idaho to help his brother, Clint, who owned a western log furniture business, while continuing his work in the medical field.

He went to Dallas for work for eight years before returning to Idaho. He resides in Idaho and is retired.

Colpo will be coming to Pine-Richland for the hall of fame ceremony. He has seven grandchildren, three in the Pine-Richland school district and four in the Avonworth school district. All seven play various sports and some are wrestlers.

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland