UWEC Athletics Hall of Fame
Lee Weigel ranks as one of the greatest running backs to ever don a Blugold football jersey. He played in 36 games for head coach Link Walker from 1982 through 1985 during which time the Blugolds produced a 27-13-1 overall record and a 21-10-1 conference record with a league championship in 1983. The Marshfield native toted the ball what was then a school record 944 times. While carrying the ball that many times, he lost only six fumbles. He is the only Blugold running back to achieve three 1,000-yard seasons and one of only a handful of running backs to hit the 200-yard mark in a game on three different occasions. When he left the university, he held the school records for career TDs and points, career rushing yards with 4,105, career rushing attempts and single game rushing yards with 279. Twenty-one times he rushed for over 100 yards in a game and four times carried 40 or more times in a game. A three-year All-WSUC pick and two-year NAIA First Team All-American, Weigel was the conference rushing leader in 1983 and 1985 as well as the conference kickoff return leader in 1985. Not possessing the speed of other great Blugold running backs like Roger Vann and Darrell Souhrada, Weigel ran through and over people. His longest run from scrimmage was 56 yards in his first start as a freshman when he gained 204 yards against UW-Oshkosh. He totaled 1,263 yards during the Blugolds’ championship season of 1983 when the team finished 8-2 overall. He earned team MVP honors in 1985. Weigel was selected as the Leader-Telegram’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1985.
He signed as a free agent with the Dallas Cowboys in 1986 although he did not make their final roster. He played for the Green Bay Packers along with Blugold teammate Kevin Fitzgerald as part of the replacement team during the NFL strike season of 1987. Weigel was also a member of the Blugold track team in 1983, 1986 and 1989. He placed in the javelin (sixth, outdoor, 1986), the 35-pound weight throw (fourth, indoor, 1989) and the hammer throw (second, outdoor, 1989). He graduated from UWEC in 1989 and has continued to give back to athletics in a variety of coaching positions although his full-time employment has been in construction. He served as Blugold running backs coach for Jim Lind from 1987-89 during the careers of Cary Osborn and Chris Herzog who set numerous school offensive records. He also worked with the Blugold throwers in track, most notable among them being All-Americans Dan Schmidt and Cheryl Janowitz Dieckman. He joined the football staff of Blugold Hall of Famer Len Luedtke at Marshfield Senior High in 1995 and at the time of his induction, the Tigers had won three state championships and been runner-up twice. He also has been the hurdles and jumps coach at Marshfield since 1995 and had state qualifiers every year he coached the hurdles for head coach Jon Minor.
