Leonard Conrad "Ruck" Ruckelshaus was born on April 11, 1901, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from Indiana University with an A.B. in Economics in 1922. While at IU, he was a member of the fraternity Sigma Nu, Beta Eta Chapter, as well as a member of the Company F, 2d Regiment Chapter of the Scabbard and Blade society in the R.O.T.C. He was promoted from 1st lieutenant to cadet captain of Co. F. in 1923. Ruckelshaus was on the IU varsity baseball squad as a third baseman, as well as the IU varsity football squad. In 1924, Ruckelshaus was recruited to play on the semipro football team, the Dayton Koors. He later moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he worked as a salesman for the Cash Register Service Company. Ruckelshaus was married to Flora Benner. He died in St. Louis, Missouri on November 16, 1985, at the age of 84.

In 1922, Waseda University of Tokyo invited the IU baseball team to Japan for a ten-game series. Expenses were guaranteed with the invitation, and the IU gave permission for the trip. Coach George Levis then had one month to choose twelve players out of sixty candidates to make the trip. Ultimately, the twelve consisted of: Captain James Walker, Ward Gilbert, Harry Gause, Emmons Clay, Robert Kidd, Rankin Denny, Joseph Sloate, Dorsey Kight, Leland Macer, Walter Wichterman, Leonard Ruckelshaus, and Harold Lynch. IU students Ernest Pyle, Joe Benham, Harold Kaiser, and Warren Cooper also accompanied the team on the trip. They left Bloomington on March 28, 1922, and then sailed from Seattle to Japan on April 1, 1922, on the steamship Keystone State. IU alumni Paul Isobe and Takekuma Okada showed the team around Tokyo during their stay. They played ten games in total: Waseda six times, winning one game and tying one; Keio, losing all three games; and a win against the semiprofessional team Osaka Stars. The travelling party returned to Bloomington on May 27, 1922. All were named "I Men" upon their return.