W. Austin Bishop wrestled in the first bout on Franklin & Marshall's first wrestling team in 1923. He lost only one match in four years of college competition at 118 pounds, under "Uncle" Charlie Mayser's tutelage. He introduced wrestling at Franklin & Marshall Academy, and coached its 1926 and 1927 teams. He also served as wrestling coach at Wyoming Seminary from 1928 to 1936, and through active promotion of the sport, is identified as the "father" of wrestling in northeastern Pennsylvania. He established the Northeastern Pennsylvania Amateur Wrestling Championships in 1933, which was subsequently redesignated as the Wilkes Tournament, the "Rose Bowl of College Wrestling." Even benefiting the sport technologically, Bishop produced an innovative wrestling helmet design that has since become a standard equipment item responsible for the dramatic reduction of "cauliflower ear."
From 1928 to 1936, he served as an official in numerous major wrestling championship events including: PIAA, Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, Southern Conference, Big Ten Conference, NCAA, National AAU and Olympic trials. He officiated in the 1932 Olympics Games in Los Angeles, was selected as head referee for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and served as head referee for professional sport under appointment of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission from 1930 to 1942. Through all this, he also served as the head wrestling coach at the University of Pennsylvania from 1936 to 1942, when he reported for active Army duty. On various occasions from 1930 to 1942, he served on NCAA and AAU Rules Committees, held offices of the National Wrestling Coaches' Association and contributed many articles on wrestling to various journals. He also authored "Free Style Wrestling," the most widely read distributed technical treatise in the United States, published by American Sports Publishing Company.
Educationally, Bishop received a Ph. D degree from New York University based upon a research project in physiology, conducted at the Wistar Institute at the University of Pennsylvania in 1942. This project, of course, used wrestlers as test subjects. During his military career from 1942 to 1946, he advanced through the Army ranks to colonel with decorations that included the Legion of Merit. He also served as Chief of Army Athletics and Recreational Division, in which capacity he implemented the new concept of "All Army" athletics and established Army-wide coaching clinics at the U.S. Military Academy and coordinated Army participation in the 1948 Olympic Games. From 1946-1949, Bishop served as the Director of Athletics and wrestling coach at Franklin & Marshall College. In 1947, the team won second place in the Eastern Intercollegiates in their first year of conference membership.
Bishop was elected to membership in the Helms Wrestling Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (Delaware Valley) and the Wyoming Seminary Sports Hall of Fame. After saying goodbye to wrestling, he was employed by Pennsoft Chemical Corporation in Philadelphia. He then became the owner and president of Bishop Nursing Homes in Media, Pennsylvania and President of ENZA Enterprises in Media. He is now retired and living in Florida.
