When Charles Lechner walked onto Drew's basketball court in 1976, few people thought the six-foot, six-inch forward posed a challenge. Unheralded and unrecruited out of Little York, NJ, he was willowy thin, quiet almost to a fault, and all arms and legs. As everyone learned, underestimating Lechner was a mistake.
For four years Lechner awed his teammates and coaches with his work ethic, polished a smooth shooting stroke, and added strength and skill inside. His determination produced a career to remember: he is still the only player in Drew basketball history to score at least 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds.
He led the Rangers to their first championship of the Rose City Classic in January 1980 and to their first appearance ever in the Eastern College Athletic Association's (ECAC) Metro Area Tournament in 1977-78. Lechner starred on the 1979-80 squad that engineered Drew's first victory in the ECAC tournament, where the Rangers were runners-up, their highest post-season finish until 1996-97.
Lechner dominated Drew's conference opponents, earning three selections to the All-Independent Athletic Conference Team. As a junior and senior he paced Drew in scoring, finishing with 1,259 career points, then second on the Drew list. His 509 points in 1979-80 was a single season record then; at the time of his induction he still ranked eighth in total points and scoring average for a season and was14th in career points. But no one in 20 years had surpassed his 377 rebounds for the season or his 1,000 career rebounds.
Twice Drew's most valuable player, in 1980 Lechner was selected the I.A.C.'s most valuable player and named to the All-ECAC, All-New Jersey, and All-East teams. That spring the team co-captain was chosen Drew's Senior Male Athlete of the Year.
During Lechner's career Drew captured four consecutive I.A.C. championships, with the 1977-78 team posting Drew's first winning season (14-9) in more than two decades. The 1979-80 squad set a Drew record for most victories in a season (19).
