Hall of Fame
Frank Paul DiMarco was a two-sport varsity athlete as a member of the men’s lacrosse and soccer teams. He was a two-year captain of the men’s lacrosse team and helped lead the Cadets to an 8-1 record as a senior, while earning All-New England honors. The 1975 team was also awarded the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s Marster’s Trophy for the most improved team in New England.
DiMarco was also a four-year member of the soccer team and served as a captain of the freshmen team. He went on to be a three-year starter at fullback under Coach Chan Stowell.
During DiMarco’s senior year, he founded and captained the first post-WWII Norwich University intercollegiate competing wrestling team that helped lay the foundation for the start of the varsity program the following year. DiMarco’s efforts, along with his teammates were praised by the Northern New England wrestling organization that included Maine Maritime and the University of Maine. Norwich was invited to compete in the organization the following year.
After graduation, DiMarco continued his athletic career in lacrosse and judo. He played for the Huntington Long Island Lacrosse Club in the United States Club Lacrosse Association, as well as the Houston Metropolitan Lacrosse Club. In 1998, he was a member of the U.S. World Team at the Lacrosse World Games in Baltimore, Md. in the Grandmasters Competition.
DiMarco is also accomplished in judo, holding a third degree black belt. He is a former Texas State, U.S. East Coast and Am-Can International Champion.
An accomplished endurance runner and mountaineer, DiMarco completed 10, 50-mile trail runs and eight 100-mile runs from 1992-2001. He has also trekked to Mount Everest and Annapurna Base Camps in Nepal, and climbed the Chilean Andes, the Copper Canyon in Mexico, and in Hawaii.
DiMarco earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Norwich in 1975. He went on to earn two Master’s Degrees from Long Island University, in Marine and Environmental Science, and in Public Administration (Environmental Planning).
He was a research scientist at the University of Texas Medical Branch with over 30 publications, and taught at Marist College and Texas A&M University. He’s also had a distinguished local athletic coaching career for people of various ages in baseball, judo, wrestling, hockey, soccer and lacrosse.
DiMarco presently lives in Galveston, Texas and spends most summers off the grid in northern Vermont, in Westfield. He has two sons, Ben and Luke, who both played collegiate ice hockey. Ben also went on to play professional ice hockey in Iceland, Sweden and Australia and is the former head coach for Iceland’s Women’s National Ice Hockey team.
