Hall of Fame
Leonard W. Rauch ’91 – Class of 2001
A dominant force…
In four seasons wearing green and gold, he re-wrote the Le Moyne College Basketball Record Book.
The most prolific scorer and rebounder in Le Moyne history was an excellent ball-handler and defensive player as well; consistently among the team’s leaders in assists, steals and blocked shots…he commanded a combination of power and finesse rarely seen.
He was a dominant player.
A stellar career at Bishop Ludden High School brought scores of scholarship offers as coaches recognized the potential of a player with a powerful six-foot, six-inch frame who possessed strong skills in all the fundamentals – dribbling, passing, shooting and rebounding.
The statistics and accolades accumulated in four years at Le Moyne demonstrate that he lived up to that potential and more. A college career mark of 1,876 points would be astounding for a go-to shooter 1,151 rebounds an excellent mark for a specialist on the boards; 509 assists a solid achievement for a point guard. Yet all of these totals belong to this single athlete.
He is the only player to earn first team all-conference honors in the Mid-East Collegiate Conference during all four years of eligibility. He was Conference Player of the Year in 1991.
His ability to dominate resulted as much from a fiercely competitive nature as from skill. He was never reluctant to share opinions with referees, he demanded excellence in his teammates and he could not be intimidated. As a freshman playing in a crucial game on the road at Gannon University, he was fouled pulling down an offensive rebound as time expired. Though the opposing coach called a time out to increase the pressure, he drained two free throws to send the game into overtime and set up a Le Moyne victory.
It was the first of many clutch performances on the hardwood. Yet his athleticism and competitive nature are perhaps best illustrated by a contribution he made in spikes rather than sneakers: His three-run homer began Le Moyne’s record-setting 13-run NCAA tournament comeback against the University of Pennsylvania in the game that marked Dolphin Baseball as a legitimate Division I program.
An athlete with superb skills and the competitive spirit to employ those skills to dominate a game,
Leonard W Rauch ’91, belongs in the
Le Moyne College Athletic Hall of Fame
February 10, 2001
