The WPI wrestling program would not be the New England powerhouse that it is today without the efforts of trailblazers like Marshall Houskeeper ’81.
From 1978-1981, the heavyweight was at the top of a WPI wrestling team that consistently placed among the top five teams in New England’s. Houskeeper himself was one of the strongest individual competitors in the region, and in 1979, he wrote himself into WPI lore when he became the first New England Champion for Hall of Fame Head Coach Phil Grebinar.
“Marshall Houskeeper was a perfect "closer" in finishing many dual meet wins for WPI Wrestling”, commented Grebinar. “He always worked hard and set a perfect example for all team members as he was elected as one of the team captains in 1980-81. Special to me is that he was my first individual New England Champion (1979), beginning a great history of future wrestlers winning championships for WPI.”
Houskeeper placed among the top six in New England in each of his four years, one of just 16 WPI wrestlers to garner All-Region four times. His efforts helped lead the Engineers to a higher finish in three consecutive seasons, culminating in a 2nd place showing at the New England championships in 1981, when the team finished a program-best 18-2.
Pins were the heavyweight’s specialty as Houskeeper’s name is all over the WPI wrestling record book. His 11 falls during his sophomore season of 1978-79, till share the program’s all-time single season record as he produced those in just 17 dual meets (.647%).
If you had dinner plans after the match that you couldn’t miss, Houskeeper was your guy as he shares WPI’s career mark with six pins under a minute, including two of 16 seconds or quicker. He also had an impressive streak of four straight falls during his junior season of 1979-80, starting with Trinity and ending with Mass Maritime.
Overall he amassed 25 dual meet pins, ranking fourth all-time with a pin percentage of .472 in 53 dual meet bouts. With the large bounty of falls came impressive point totals as Houskeeper totaled 87 in 1978-79 and an eye-popping 247 in his career to rank sixth and tied for fifth respectively.
“Marshall was a dominant heavyweight wrestler in New England while wrestling for WPI; a time when WPI competed against Division I, II, and III teams, recalled Grebinar. “He was a big guy who had good agility and athletic ability.”
Houskeeper has had a distinguished career as a senior software engineer with extensive experience in designing and implementing real-time image processing and embedded systems. He has worked in both medical device development and video editing software development.
