St. Lawrence University Athletics

Herb Bleck starred in both baseball and football in the late 1970s, leading the Saints to the 1978 NCAA playoffs in football as quarterback and shining both on the mound and at the plate in baseball.

Sharing time at quarterback and handling the punting duties after transferring from the U.S. Military Academy, Bleck became the starter for the 1978 season and led the team to an 8-1 regular season and a NCAA tournament spot. He set a record with 143 pass completions in that season and earned All East and All America honors. He was tops in the East and sixth nationally in total offense with 1763 yards and 195.9 per game. He played on teams which went 25-6 in his three seasons and made two NCAA appearances.

While his teams came up just short of NCAA bids twice in his baseball career, he was one of the top pitchers and top hitters in the East.  He went 4-0 on the mound in 1977 with a 0.85 earned run average and 43 strikeouts in 42 innings and hit .333 with 18 runs driven in as the team went 14-7 and was 5-4 with three losses to Division I teams and had a 1.02 ERA in 1978. He hit .491 in the regular season and .443 overall and had seven game winning hits to go with 11 doubles, five triples and 28 runs driven in. He played centerfield when not pitching and led the team in outfield assists two seasons in a row.

He earned both all conference and All-East honors in his baseball career and was All America as a senior.

Following a brief professional career in the New York –Penn League, Herb spent 30 years as in brewery and human resources management positions with the Miller Brewing Company following his graduation from St. Lawrence.