West Virginia's Dr. Bill Welker: A career in wrestling from almost every angle

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Whoa.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It is the Short Time Wrestling Podcast. Back with you again.
I am your host, Hall of Fame wrestling writer, broadcaster
and announcer Jason Bryant. Today on the show, going to
be talking with doctor Bill Welker. He has been a referee,
a coach, a journalist, and if you don't know doctor Welker,
West Virginia has been his stomping grounds, Wheeling for the
last half century. He grew up in western Pennsylvania. He'll

(00:37):
tell you all about that on the show. He's been
a coach, a referee, rules interpreter, author, He's done a
lot of news coverage on the sport, you know, going
back for when even before I got started. So I remember,
I'll tell stories here in the show about when I
first discovered doctor Welker with wvmatt dot com, one of
the early websites covering high school wrestling in the state

(00:58):
of West Virginia, bordering my native state of Virginia, of course, Wheeling,
West Virginia and my hometown of Pocosa, Virginia, not close
a couple hundred miles apart, and it's I think it's
eight or nine hours to get up there. It's a
bit of a haul Wheeling, also the home of the
Wheeling Nailers, the East Coast Hockey League. Yeah, ECHL, Well

(01:20):
a lot of fights Ironleague, No just slapshot references as
we prepare for the four Nations. As we record this today,
it is February twenty if we are heading in to
the college postseason, and you know what that means. That
means I am head down in providing the baddest mamma
jama of preview guides ever, the NCAA Division One Championships
Preview Guide. YEP, I just simply call it the Guided.

(01:42):
Pre sale is now open. Go to Wrestling Previewguide dot com.
Use the promo code for this is just for podcast listeners.
Use the discount code. Podcast you go, you add it
to your cart, and when you click check out the
discount code, well, then the box will show up right there.
That's when you need to sit there and podcasts. It'll
save you ten bucks. What's this good for other than

(02:04):
just educating yourself on everything? You know those monster drafts
you guys have like that week in Nationals, Well, it
comes out Tuesday. That's when I guarantee it it'll be out.
It's a digital product. You will have all the bonus victories,
You'll have all sorts of stats, facts, figures and such,
and you will just you'll have it. It'll be ready
to go. That's everything you need for your draft right

(02:26):
then and there. That's all you need. You will win
your draft with this thing. Well, I can't guarantee that,
because you still have to be smart enough to pick
the right picks when you have to do it. So
those big drafters out there, of course, keep it legal, folks.
That's all I can really say that. I cannot endorse
the wagering where it is not legal, but I don't

(02:46):
really know the laws in Pennsylvania. I don't live there
anymore and live there for three years. But Wrestling preview
guide dot com use the discount code podcast to save
ten bucks. If you are a previous purchaser of this,
check your email between now in March eth there is
an additional discount code float out there, and actually it's
not an additional one, it's just a better one. So
if you've bought it before you get the first is

(03:08):
if this is the first time you've listened and heard
about this, well you can use podcasts and save ten bucks. Really,
if you buy this once you're gonna want it. This
will be your yearbook. And one thing I have to
say is I audit this data. You know, the weeks
leading up, a lot of historical stuff comes up, and
I'll go through and I'll start something and be like,
well what about this, what about this? What about this?
And I'll find tweaks of the data that. Again, I

(03:30):
started with Jay Hammond's database. He gave it to me
about twenty years ago, and then from then I've added on.
I've added on, I've added on, I've added on every
hometown of every all American I have at my disposal.
So there's all those lists of what state it settles,
all the bar bets that you want to throw at
your friends. By the way, that's another way you can

(03:50):
make a little side hustle. It's being of bar bets.
There is a distinct theme. We've got the constitution City
of Philadelphia, and we also have that cracked out show
always on. So that is your Easter, your little Easter.
I don't want to say Easter egg. There's Easter eggs
throughout this thing, but yeah, you're going to get a
lot of that. That is, if you've gotten it before
you're going to love this year. If you've never gotten

(04:11):
this before, Yeah, I guarantee you this will be the
best thing you read about the NCAA Wrestling Championships. The
NCAAA program is nowhere near as robust as this thing.
I bought that one last year. It was twenty you know,
I bought it. I looked at it's like, okay, it's
twenty five bucks. It's half ads. And then you have
you don't have every single wrestler's record, score and results.
I have all of that, all three hundred and thirty

(04:33):
historical data that's never been published anywhere, solving bar bets,
historical references, stats, fax figures, team data. If you are
covering this thing from AFAR, you need quick references. It's
got a pronunciation guide in there. ESPN uses this thing,
The head table uses this thing. Me and Brian Hazzard
announced in the tournament used this thing. Yeah, Wrestling preview

(04:54):
Guide dot com and use the promo Code podcast. That's
all I've got as far as the sales pitch go,
I've got oh announcing schedule. I've got the Division three
regionals here in Minneapolis at Augsburg. Then I've got the
AI Nationals. Then I've got the Division three Nationals, then
I've got the D one Nationals. Then I'm going on
vacation for about ten days, then I come back and
then I'm going to where am I going? Brought to

(05:14):
Slava for Europeans, coming back for another couple of days
after that turnaround, going to Monterey for pan Ams. I've
got a busy, busy, busy couple weeks, a couple months
coming up. But that's what we got for you. So
as always, i'd like to thank you for spending your
time with me, because you've always got time for a
short time. Let's meet doctor Bill Welker, shall we whoa? Hey,

(05:35):
welcome back to the Short Time Wrestling Podcast. Jason Bryant
here with you. Keep it on the book theme today
but also talking history, talking with one of the great
minds of the sport of wrestling for the last half century,
Doctor Bill Welker from West Virginia is coming on the show.
And you know, I don't have to spend all this
time on the intro. I'm just gonna bring doctor Bill
on right now. Doctor Bill Welker, we were talking pre

(05:56):
show that we've been interacting for probably twenty five years
at this point, since since I started Matt Talk online,
and you had a column started back in the seventies
called Matt Talk. So one, welcome to the program. It's
been a long time coming. And two Matt Talk. Where
did where did you come up with your version of
Matt Talk?

Speaker 1 (06:17):
I start, well, I will be talking about wrestling. So
I just came up with Matt Talk basically, you know,
just it was just a real kind of a simple
thing to go with. It started in the Willing newspaper
and then it ended up they used to Steubenville newspaper.
Even Parkersburg, West Virginia for a couple of years was

(06:40):
using the column. Uh So it got around quite a bit,
and a lot of the stories that I wrote in
the column I also had published in Wrestling USA magazine
for Lanny Bryant.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
No relation, No relation. Yeah, I get I got that
one a lot when I was starting to come through.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
But that's what I think, that's what I figured. That started.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Whenever I see Cody and Landing, I bet mister Bryant,
and they look at me, mister Bryant. So yeah, great
family wrestling up there in Montana. Sot's start with you.
You wrestled in Pennsylvania. Wrestled high school in Pennsylvania. Was
a shimoking, right, that's how you say it.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yes, yes, yes, shimoking pa. I actually started wrestling in
third grade in nineteen fifty five. Can you believe it?
Seventy years seventy years and it's it's just amazing how
the years fly by. But I wanted to talk about
when we wrestled. My brother and I were both very

(07:42):
fortunate to be state champions. We really feeled that way.
There were actually four weekends you wrestled. First, you wrestled sectionals,
Then you wrestled districts. Then you had the regionals, and
then States. Now, yet this was all one division at
that time. There were approximately a little bit over five

(08:04):
hundred schools that had wrestling. Whatever level you lost at,
you were done. You were done. There was no third
or fourth place. It was just first or second. So
let's say you were second in regionals, you're done. You
don't go to States. Only the regional champions went to States.

(08:27):
It was like being second in a gunfight.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
You know, you have to there is a winner in
a gunfight. Right, It's far, I mean without some medical help,
but I get what you're saying there. So so back
in the day, it was basically everything was a knockout format.
Like you know, they say I was a knockout, You're done.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah, that was it. So then states were at Penn
States Reck Hall, and just the champion from each four
regions went to States. So those first matches were two
to one, three to two overtime. I mean, it was
the best of the best going right away, and that

(09:08):
was one of the things I wanted to mensage today.
Of course, today now we have the different divisions from
your region or whatever, maybe, but four or six kids
can go distincts. And you might have noticed this too, Brian,
those first matches lots of pins, no, because there's so

(09:30):
many kids getting, you know, getting to go to States.
And of course we know the reason why. Uh, you know,
money talks, and part of it is, you know, to
to make money, and of course it does give more
wrestlers exposure. But as I feel today, I liked the

(09:51):
idea of being a true state champion. If I knew
there was another state champion at my weight class, I
would have went over to him and said, hey, let's
go downstairs and see who's the best. That's so. I
kind of like the way we did it back then.
Maybe more wrestlers could have went to state's fine, but
at least you had one true state champion. And I

(10:15):
take kind of you know, my brother, we take kind
of pride, matos, old diamonds and the other thing. I
don't know if you will agree or not. We were
all home grown. There wasn't any recruiting back then. We
were all homegrown. Our coach, who was one of the
initial coaches to be inducted into Pennsylvania Hall of Fame,

(10:37):
produced eight state champions and eight state runner ups. Now
today that doesn't seem like much. Back then, it was unbelievable.
We're very small town, was cast a small coal mining town,
you know, and to produce that that many state champions
was quite a remarkable feat. And I was very fortunate.

(10:58):
I had a head coach an assistant coach. They're both
in the Pennsylvania Wrestling Hall of Fames and in the
Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. We
were very fortunately have good coaches, very very fortunate. But
uh yes, and like I said, it was homegrown. And

(11:18):
the other thing too, I don't know how explains it.
But when we went to college, we were more student athletes.
There was no red shirting or gray shirting or what
have you. You were there to wrestle to the best chi can,
but you're also there mainly to get the education. Things

(11:40):
have changed quite a bit sin there. I'd say it's.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Longer, they've changed just a little bit.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
I mean when when one when when one university has
practiced wrestlers who could probably be probably be all Americans,
you know what I'm talking talking about. I mean Penn Station. Unbelievable.
Oh no, but uh that's kind of personally, I'm a

(12:11):
firm believer with the good old days, with the good
old dates.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well, there's a couple of states that still do this.
I know it. Indiana has a one class system and
they have a knockout type of format where they call
it the state finals. They don't call the you know
when they all come together in the one all the
sub states, and that's still a very uh, very tough
like first round losers by you're done.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
And of course we know about California.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
New Jersey. I personally like New Jersey system the best
because they determine their team titles with with the the
dual meet the school sizes and then their individual tournament
is one class. I like that. Kentucky's one class. A
couple of the smaller New England states are one class.
So the one class is still around. It's just, uh,
we're not quite like your neighboring state. In my home

(12:55):
state of Virginia, which went to six publics and the
private schools are mostly separate a couple of years ago,
meaning I think we crowned ninety six, if my masks right,
ninety six state champions a year in Virginia, whereas, uh,
you know, West Virginia's got the fourteen weights and I
guess the three A and then the one A two
A is how they've got that separated and the duels

(13:17):
are three classes right in West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
It's a uh sangle and double A go together.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Okay, So yeah, okay, got you so uh and bringing
that together. Let's talk about you know, going from your
old days to settling in West Virginia. You've been in
Wheeling for decades now, and you know Wheeling Park is
a was one of those name programs in West Virginia.
Of course, those who know West Virginia wrestling. They'll know
the names that come through, like the Mitch Smiths, the Easters,

(13:49):
the Brax and am most more recently. But you've got
the Parkersburgs, You've got the Parkersburg South.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Then you've got you know, got Ripley, You've got Nitro,
You've got you know out in Beckley Springs. So you've
got goodets of wrestling in West Virginia. What was wrestling
in West Virginia like when you got there and what
was it like growing something in Wheeling?

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Well, it was just starting to grow in the Wheeling area.
As a matter of fact, my coaching of comrade his
name is Eric Carter and I started the small private
whistling program back in Wheeling back in nineteen seventy seven

(14:30):
and it's still going strong, and it's kind of a
nice theater program, not just for Wheeling Park but also
for Wheeling Central Catholic High School. And we have a
private school, Linsley that has wrestling as well. So it
was kind of built up and we were big on fundamentals.

(14:53):
Are we worked a lot on arm bars, worser half Nelson's,
but the big thing we worked on was cradles, and
there's a no it's saying, what's the best defense to
a cradle? Don't get in it? And if I'm not mistaken,

(15:15):
and David Taylor outstanding, great, great, great wrestler, you know,
but if I'm not mistaken, his freshman year in the finals,
I believe he was pinned by a cradle.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, yes, And.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
You know, like I said, don't get in it. But
if they grew from there, we had three state championship
teams when I coached there. I coached till nineteen eighty
and I got involved with the officiating. But uh, the
big pockets are A. Point Pleasant is the tough double

(15:52):
A team right now to be in Triple A. It's
University High School that's in Morgantown, and Parkersburg High Schools
is right up there as well. So it's going to
be a battle between I believe University and Parkersburg this
year for the Triple A state championship. Double A, Uh,

(16:15):
I have to go with Point Pleasant. They just have
total team strength and Single A is a small uh
uh coal mining town Cameron, West Virginia. And I think
they I think they they will probably run away with
the Single A state championship.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Then they wrestle Single A and Double A together, but
they termed the champion with the team scorer, so they're
in the same tournament, but it's the highest placing Single
A team is determined to champ.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Okay, okay, So there's a possibility you you could be
the outstanding wrestler in single A the only place third
their away class because you're wrestling double A together with
with hasn't happened yet, but it could. It could happen.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Well, you're probably gonna you know, usually even the small
schools will have a hammer come through. That's that's right,
They're gonna definitely be in the finals. Now. The one
thing go ahead.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
I was gonna say, you're absolutely right. My step grandsons
named Isaac Martin. He won the two point fifteen pound
weight class at really Semple last year was Class A
and so he also was the Class A outstand outstanding

(17:37):
wrestlers as a sophomore.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
I got to say this too about West Virginia and uh,
you know, Kyle Brackey used to work at Flow Sports.
He's he works at at WVU. Now he's always been
beating the drum for his home state and whatnot. Now
I go back and you know, where you've been writing
for for years. Your stuff you can find even your
archives and stuff is that wv matt dot com. And
I'll say this about West Virginia and the folks that

(18:02):
have been putting on wvmatt dot com. You would talk
about one of the first websites that covered high school
wrestling at the state level. I mean it was when
I was around. It was around when I'm talking when
I was around the first time. So there's a lot
of archives there, there's a lot of history there, and
and that's just been a great resource for for old
wrestlers and but also for like new wrestler. There's a
lot of resources there that that website provides the state

(18:25):
of West Virginia. So that's one thing I've always been
impressed with with the state and those people behind that
that independent resource.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yes, I was started by a doctor Miller started that
back in the early nineties, and he's really worked hard
on it. And Denny Cannon now has taken taken pay
him over. She does a tremendous job as well, and
they really worked hard at it. Actually, doctor Miller asked
me back in the mid nineties, he said, Bill, and

(18:54):
we put some of your Matt talk columns you know
on the website, said sure, you know, put put them
all on. That's great, you know that type of thing. Really,
I mean he was looking for all different resources and
what have you. Yeah, it is a great, great website.
They do a great job. I have, I have. I
have nothing to do with their website. It's doctor Miller

(19:16):
and Jenny al Well.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
This also goes back to you know, your your time writing.
You talked about the newspapers earlier in Wrestling US in magazine,
which unfortunately has has you know, basically gone the way
of the Dodo at this point. But again the Brian's
had done a great job, uh, the the move from
the print media. Mike Finn just retired this week at
Win magazine after alst a half century working in sports journalism,

(19:41):
and we look at the evolution wrestling has basically been.
It went from being a magazine sport. It went being
from running to the mailbox to look at the scores
and amateur wrestling news. I have fifty years of them
behind me right now. I will still refer to them
if I need to look up some stats or whatnot.
As matter of fact, I get that question quite a bit,
almost daily. But now we've got we've we've we've been

(20:01):
an Internet sport for coming up on thirty years internet
when it was really launched, I remember checking into the
library to be able to look at internat back in
like in nineteen ninety six. W W Matt's been around
for a while. I launched Matt Talk in nineteen ninety seven,
the first version the Matt dot com and Joe LaRue
before USA Wrestling had it. The real evolution of being
able to put the written word on the Internet. How

(20:24):
has that helped you, you know, kind of expand your
writing and also, you know right now we wouldn't be
talking if we hadn't found each other on the Internet
almost thirty years ago. So this has given writers and
in wrestling writers an opportunity to really hone their craft
but also expand and kind of be advocates and an
evangelist for the sport of wrestling.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, it really has expanded and give you more a
wider audience, a lot, you know, a lot a gigganic
audience that they didn't have locally or whenever even the
magazine might be uh for example of Wrestling USA Magazine
and Amateur Restling News I'm not sure you know how

(21:07):
many subscribers they have, but it's probably just a few thousands. Well,
you're on the internet, you're talking hundreds of thousands. I
mean you're talking everybody everywhere you know is really uh,
you know, being able to read it. It's funny you
mentioned that. I have a friend of mine who's now
going to be the sports information director at West Liberty University. Uh.

(21:32):
The gentleman. He went to the gentleman who was the
former of a sports information directory. He said, you you know,
you were writer. You wrote it, and i'm you know,
a broadcaster because he was a sports senator local TV
station and you know, uh, sports information director said, don't worry,

(21:57):
nobody reads anymore anyway. It kind of feels it kind
of feels that way. Everybody just wants to listen here.
Things are too lazy to read at times. No, it's
it's really been with the Internet. It's just unbelievable. And
think of this, Jason, I usually, you know, I do.

(22:20):
We use it for writing just about everything. You can
think of what what what did we do when we
didn't have this? If we lost our computer today?

Speaker 2 (22:31):
To be panicky and I am still a very analog individual.
If you're not watching this and you're listening to the audio,
I've got a stack of I keep legal pads. I
write everything down. That's how I retain a lot of stuff.
I've always found, Like when I was in college, we
brought start bringing the laptop, so I couldn't I couldn't
retain my notes if I didn't write them down. So

(22:51):
I am still a very pen and paper I still
want to have the written brackets now. I catalog a
lot of stuff on spreadsheets and whatnot. But just being
able to write my to do list down and cross
it off, there's that satisfaction being able to write your
notes and jot down your ideas. My college, I did
a little notes column that'll be released later this week,
and I wrote down. I was like, okay, here are
the numbers. Here are the numbers. Here the numbers. These

(23:13):
are the things that I follow. So I'm still very
analog man. Hopefully that help pen and paper. I don't
think I'll ever go away for those that really really
really need to rely on it.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Like when you were in college, when you studied, I
was the type that had to write it down. I
would write down and you know, write something down repelatively studying,
For an example, what happened, then I'd go over what
I what I wrote down. That's the kind of learner,
the style learner I was. Sounds like you might have
been the same way. As far as studying.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
I am also going to say, me and my college
roommate found our study habits involved white noise, and sometimes
that white noise was a bar, and sometimes that white
noise involved note cards that we had written down. So
again it's it's it was again it was written down.
So h In talking about writing and writing things down,
let's go back to a lot of the things you're

(24:04):
also known for is your books. Now there's the novels
that you've got written, and it's it's also kind of
fitting that this year is the fortieth anniversary of the
release of the movie Vision Quest. But Vision Quest was
a novel written by Terry Davis, who is being inducted
into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame this year. So
we have a wrestling novelist being inducted, and we have

(24:25):
a wrestling novelist on the show. So let's just start
with the difficulties I guess in trying to write a
wrestling novel. It's it's at sport. It's a niche sport.
You've got you've got to get a hook on it.
I mean a lot of these novels are young adult
type of novels for young readers. So the genesis of
an idea and then finally making sure that all right,

(24:46):
we can do this.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well. First of all, let me when I retired, well
actually before I return, and this is really amazing. First,
I always wanted to write a technique book on wrestling
and some of the things I learned from coaches. You know,
I was a West Virginia teacher, so we didn't we
don't didn't make a lot of money, and so that

(25:09):
dream I thought would never come to back in two
thousand and three, I get this email out of nowhere
from Human Kinetics Publishing asked if I would edit the
editor and chapter author of a wrestling drill book that
was in two thousand and three. The first edition came

(25:31):
out in two thousand and five. Yeah. I don't know if
you and you see.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
The Yeah, okay, so if you if you don't see
this on the screen, if you're listening, you you will
if you've ever seen the Wrestling Drill book. I don't
know how to describe it other than to tell you
you've seen this book. It is it's the yellow and red.
It's something about it. You've seen it on the internet,
I used to. You could see it on amate. Like
you searched wrestling book on Amazon, you will know that

(25:58):
cover because every library in the country, if they had
one wrestling book, they had this one.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Well, you know, and then the first edition is so well.
We did the second edition and like I said, it
just came out of nowhere. And I was just so
excited because it didn't cost me any money. They were
taking all the chances. And what I did learn, Jason,
because I'm not a businessman, how important marketing is. Marketing

(26:29):
is you got to spend money to make money, you know.
And and I'll get back that a little while. Anyway,
at this point, close to thirty seven thousand copies have
been sold nationwide and in England and in Canada, all
over the place. But it's just like I said, that's

(26:51):
how I kind of got started into the writing. That
gave me the money to do some self publishing, and
that's how I got into the novels that was for me.
I started with what would be a good ending. I
wanted a good ending first before I even started writing,

(27:12):
and I wanted each ending to be a little bit like, well,
I didn't expect this. I didn't expect this to happen. Uh.
My first novel was called A Wrestler's Curse, and that
I'll have a lot of meaning throughout the book. But

(27:33):
the ending is unbelievable. He he's a very good wrestler,
high school wrestler, but he ends up in an automobile
accident and he has to start all over again. He's
a walk on. He decides to be a walk on
at Penn State, and a lot of the names look
look sort of familiar, which I don't have Sanderson, but

(27:54):
I have a name it sounds like Sanderson, that type
of thing, and he he works his way back into wrestling,
and it's sort of a struggle. The comparison I use
is if you remember Ben Hogan when he had that
terrible crash with the bus where he protected his wife.

(28:14):
They never thought he'd walk again, and then he went
on to win two I think US Open championships later on,
and that's what kind of motivates him. But then he
has another personal problem that occurs later and he'll be
surprised what he decides to do with that as well.
But the ending is a surprise ending. My second novel

(28:37):
is called The Novel Wrestler, and the reason it's called
the Novel Wrestler is he's also a really, really, really
great writer. He's a spont but and he he's a
very good wrestler. His brother and father were state champions.
But his problem is he doesn't have that mental toughness.
You have to be a great wrestler. You have to

(28:59):
have a little bit of the main spirit when you
get on that, and he doesn't have that until something
happens to him and it changes his vie on life,
and his ending is very unusual, it's unexpected.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
And in your third book.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yes, this is it's called One Wrestler's Courage, and it's
about the wrestler who is from it's from an Eastern
PA but they live in the project areas and what
happens in his life. His mother is actually actually murdered
by his step brother who was on meth, who ended

(29:43):
up actually shooting his mother and killing her. Then one
of his other step brothers wants him to join their gang,
and so drugs at the school. He won't do it
because he's involved with the wrestling. Well, the gang members
are beating him up in an alley and his best
friend on a team season comes to run to get

(30:05):
to help him and is shot three times in the
chest and is killed. So the main character has to
testify in court and he gets them all put away
for good. Unfortunately, the gang is not happy about it,
so he has to he goes under a witness protection

(30:25):
plan uh and from there he starts a new life
and a new uh wrestling career in a new town. Actually,
he comes to Wheeling, West Virginia and wrestles at Wheeling Central.
And by the way, the wrestler in the cover is

(30:47):
actually my step grandson Martin, who's stay champion screen.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
A little bit more centered up, a little bit more,
so we get there we go, all right, got it?
Got it up a little bit more, a little bit
more to rite magic with your head right here. Yeah,
there we go? All right, okay, gotcha? Okay, So yeah,
you've got a dark premise on that one, and uh,
I you don't. Here's the thing life, real life is
not exactly uh sunshine and rainbows either, So right, well,

(31:18):
themes here.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, from survival on the streets to success on the
mats and his ending an unusual ending as well ending
and is actually something that actually did occur at one statement,
I'm not going to say anything more about that. Love that.
And finally my last look, well the Eyes of a

(31:45):
Wrestler and it's about a girl wrestler before I forget,
so I don't get in trouble. The uh on the
cover that is my granddaughter, Molly Brinker. Okay, I have
her as uh undercover there. I won't make sure I
will get in trouble with any family members.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
So make sure you can't mention one not the other.
You got to make sure you.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Got her story is her parents went to Temple and
they're from Pittsburgh and they're both well to do. They're
very well to do. And what happens is they stop
at a red light and two carjackers who are brothers,
uh you know, try to get their car. They panic

(32:32):
and they killed the mother and father in front of
the main character, John Zy when she's sit in the
back seat. And they are the sons of mafia boss
in Philadelphia. So at the trial they have the best
lawyers and what have you, and they make her look

(32:55):
like a fool and the sons you get away with it.
So her only relatives are from Schmoking, PA. So she
goes to live in Shimoking and her uncle is a wrestler.
He's a state champion wrestler, and he gets her involved
in wrestling. But then they find out that she's a sharpshooter.

(33:20):
She's a natural sharpshooter. Again, another savant, and she's very
good at that too. She's excellent, She's unbelievable, So she's
very good. As she progresses, she's state champion of wrestling.
She wins all big done the rifle competition. So she

(33:41):
has to make a choice between she decides to go
to WVU and I don't know, Jason, if.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
You know that they have a rifle program which.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Is unbelievable, National champion. They've won nationals like seventeen seventeen
different times, just unbelievable. So she has a chance for
folks knowlship for wrestling or rifle. Okay, rifle, I don't
have to diet. I'll go with rifle. But she's still

(34:10):
but she still, you know, she says, you know what
I want to enjoy my Christmas holidays for a change,
instead of watching my weight.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
She every wrestler wants that. Every wrestler wants a chance
to like not have to. They want Thanksgiving dinner, they
want Christmas to save the heavyweights who actually.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Get to eat. But absolutely so. But she does help
out there, and there's something's happened where she ends up
actually wrestling for him as well. In the meantime, the
original detective on the case of her mother and father
always kept them up to date. In the meantime, these

(34:49):
two brothers end up becoming mafia bosses. Uh, And she's
still not real happy. But she always told she couldn't
do anything when it's a with her parents. But before
I mentioned that, there's one chapter called The Patriot, and

(35:10):
she's actually recruited by a Navy Seals team because they're
sniper in an accident and there's nobody else around. She's
that good at what she does. She's actually recruited for
an assignment omission. But I'll let that go. That's that's
one of the things that are in it because she
is sold good when it comes to a sharp shooting,

(35:33):
she can distance. It doesn't matter in the end. In
the end, he has OCD and she can'td it over
what these two brothers did to her parents. In the end,
she has an opportunity to settle the score. Does she

(35:54):
settle the score or not? You'd have to find out
by buying the book.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne definitely settled the score in Batman
for the same thing. Let me get back to what
I was firs to Batman.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
You saw by the way, right right, uh, uh said,
let me get back to marketing. I have no marketing.
So my books are on Amazon, they're on Barnes and
uh you know, Barnes and Noble. No, we have Barnes
and Noble, and you can actually uh you actually about

(36:29):
Bill Welker books and get that on the internet as well.
My point is without marketing, you know, it's really really tough.
So a book. I am fortunate I have a producer
screenwriter who has all the books and is going to
be working on that see it somewhere down the road,

(36:52):
somebody might be interested in making one of them int.
But like I said, there's a very few books, uh
novels out there just about wrestling in terms of high
school college.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I've got I've come across a few, of course
you mentioned. You know, people know the movie Vision Quest
more than they know the book other ones that I've got.
I'm just looking over at my and I and I
had Ron Lang on the show the most recent episode.
He just wrote a book called Matt Return, which is
flex the stories from around the States. And I was
talking about the number of books I've got. I've got
I've probably got maybe fifty to one hundred wrestling books,

(37:27):
but again a lot of them are our history. You know,
We've got things about the Olympic movement with like saving
Olympic Wrestling. Tim Foley k various books. And we've got
Rob Cheryl. I have tales from the Matt. Rob Cheryl
has a history of Illinois wrestling that is like this thick.
It's like it's it's I mean, bibles are looking at
this thing, going. Man, that's a big book. Uh. You know,

(37:47):
I've got things like wrestling stir Bridge, which is scar A.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Lot of coaches. Coaches aren't a lot of coaches. I
don't want to say that they're not readers, but a
lot of wrestling coaches are more physical than they are.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
I'm I am a notoriously slow reader. When you also
have a memoir that you wrote about and that's how
I learned a lot about you. It's not just your
your Hall of Fame bio, which, by the way, you're
in what five Hall of Fames?

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Now?

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yes, yeah, so this guy is kind of a big deal.
He has he has many leatherbound books. Uh, the the
amount of Again, I'm a notoriously slow reader. So when
I got the Spare of Spirit, what I loved about
it it was you didn't You didn't make it. It wasn't
for lack of a better say, it wasn't a novel.
It was it was It was a good breakdown of

(38:34):
what was important to you and the stories in your
wrestling life. So I got to know who doctor Bill
Walker was by reading this book, and it was It's
a great to me. It was a great Lake book.
It's a book. All right, we're done fishing. I'm gonna
sit in a recliner by the window and sit down
and take take an hour to read. And you just
blow through it. I'm not saying it took an hour
to read. I'm saying in sections you can go through

(38:55):
and it's not a it's not a long read, and
it's a great read because it's one of those things
where I know who, I've heard of this person, I
know this person, and I'm going to sit there and
you just you just want story. I want to know
and then wow what I mean? And that's and the
things you're adding to your wrestling life after you get
the memoir done, it's like, do I do a part too?

Speaker 1 (39:16):
You know? I was a little the honest about my
college career if you remember correctly.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Well, here you could fit on a post it note
and involved no starting matches, so yeah, I was Yeah.
Well anyway, so.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
The problem we had back then is we we were
not told how to diet, and we did every unsavory
thing you could possibly do to diet. I mean, it
was just terrible. And to be honest with you, I
didn't lose my desire for wrestling. I got I got
tired of the dieting. It was just too much. Then

(39:54):
I was also corrupted by the city at Pittsburgh, small
time home boy going to to the big, big city.
It corrupted me. I have to say, you know.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
The West Virginia is more your style.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Well my behavior became better when
I came down here.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Now you brought up an interesting point about the dieting
and such. And I was recently on a show with
Mike Mallenkonico and talking about marketing and talking about, uh,
why why isn't wrestling you know, what we can do
to make wrestling more fun, more popular and whatnot, and
I pointed out a lot of it. The the ire
with wrestling was kind of the sins of the father

(40:38):
was kind of what it was. The old like you
talked about that you didn't have the education know how
to cut away the old styles and systems just became
the way and the way was you have to be tough,
you have to you know, it is it is a sport.
It's a sport of suffering. It is I mean, their
return on investment in terms of the time you put

(40:59):
in versus your six us right, really isn't skewed to
your favor. It's like you don't come out for wrestling
and very few are instantly good. You have to constantly
work at it. He has to work at it and
a lot of Then you factor in the weight cuts.
Then you factor in the old style of weight cuts.
You know those. Thankfully we've got systems now that prevent
a lot of that. There's still probably one kid for

(41:19):
every team that has the worst weightcut on the team
because he's making the sacrifice because he's probably better at it.
But high school kids still don't really do it well.
And we're also seeing some of our better wrestlers now,
the elite wrestlers that are coming through. I mean, obviously
Bo Bassett and Jacks Forrest made headlines recently with their commitments.
Those kids aren't cutting their butt off, They're wrestling their weight,
they're growing, they're wrestling where they're comfortable. It's more about

(41:42):
learning techniques. So let's go back in time to your day,
like what do you think the kids do now and
the coaches do now that are making the sport better.
But we still need to find a way to shake
the the misconceptions of what wrestling was fifty yearsyears ago
to what it is now, which is a healthier sport.

(42:03):
It's a sport that really shows the benefits of physical fitness.
And how do we how do we bring kids in
these days? Do you think even though you're an old
school guy, but the sport has changed, So how do
we how do we make sure it's fun again?

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Well, you know, partly three. Like you said, the big
thing is the diety. And I was involved. Back in
two thousand and six, we wrote up a weight management
program for West Virginia. They're doing it in all the states.
And you know, the key is, okay, you can only
you know, if you're gonna lose, just lose a little.

(42:40):
Enjoy the sport. Enjoy the sport. Uh Let's say you're
one o six, let's say your way one ten. You
could probably lose that weight just by practicing. You know,
that's not you know, that's what they're doing today, losing
three or four or five pounds, which is nothing. But

(43:04):
wrestling is a tough sport, okay. And it's a tough sell.
It's a tough sell because when I was growing up,
we actually went and visited our friends. Okay, we went
out of the house. When I was growing up, it
was hard to get on the basketball court because all

(43:28):
everybody was trying.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
To weren't you weren't just texting your friends and playing exactly.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
That's the problem. That's the problem we have. Today. It's
a lot easier, and you know, there's there's so many distractions.
It's it's a lot easier to say let's do I
want to go on a wrestling mattin sweat or you know,
pretend I'm wrestling on a computer like you think about
uh today, like I noticed, like in our local basketball

(43:56):
courts outside or baseball fields, there's not a the game.
There's no pickup games. Uh, there's nobody on the courts,
you know, like they used to when my kids were
going up, you had to fight to get on the court.
It's a tough sell with wrestling. So when you get
a kid who's going to wrestle, you got a kid

(44:17):
who's probably gonna give you everything he or she has.
And by the way, girls wrestling has been a big
factor in a resurgence of wrestling altogether. And they are
dog gone good. I have one friend son, it was
a two time state champion West Virginia, went to an

(44:39):
open tournament wrestled a girl. This is years ago, two
years ago. You kicked the bolgoney out of them. Is
that outstanding? These girls are unbelievable, I mean, and it's
the best thing that's happened to wrestling in years. But

(45:00):
as far as coming out for wrestling, we just have
to build the positives of wrestling. The self disciplined part
of the great conditioning, part of the skill part of it,
and emphasize you know, all of that and just how
much it can do for them for the rest of

(45:23):
their lives. That's that's the key.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
There to that point. Now again, I want to go
back to kind of my point about the sins of
the father. I know that there are people you know,
and I'm not singling out your age demographic, but there
are people from your generation that were there that there
are people my age's coaches for for a long time
because and we're seeing that there was the pushback on
girls wrestling. You know, we didn't accept girls wrestling really.

(45:49):
I mean, FELA didn't have a world championship till the
late eighties. It didn't become a saint. I mean, we
came an NCAA championship sport this year, but we've had
college women's championships for twenty years and didn't the first
high school wasn't until the late nineties. Again, but girls
have been wrestling since the seventies and you know it,
but it wasn't widely accepted. Why was there in your opinion,

(46:10):
from what you'd seen Western PA, in West Virginia and
why why do you think there was pushback on letting
the girls wrestle so many years ago?

Speaker 1 (46:21):
The old school, old school, old culture had the boys.
Remember the used to hear the remember the same girls
played basketball. I used to We used to say that,
you know, uh but uh, you know, yeah, girl boy
only boys only boys wrestle. But I think part of
it started happening was that, at least in our area,

(46:46):
our small Fry program, when it first came out, the
girl wanted to wrestle. You could come out, you could
come out as a small fry wrestler, and people the
boys and that grew and grew. That may be part
of how, you know, coaches are starting to look at saying,
wait a minute, she's not too bad. This ge knows

(47:10):
how to wrestle.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
I remember one of the first girls that I ever
came across with success I started breaking in you know,
late nineties. It was ericuld Die and she was in
the West Virginia State finals, I believe, and I remember her.
She was one of those first like in that Mary
Kelly era. I'm like, she didn't wrestle very much freestyle,
I don't believe so, but she did a lot of the.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Kids a little bit. I think she I think she
even went overseas and wrestled in the tournament or two.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
And I remember the USGWA, what Kent Baylow had with
the US Girls Wrestling Association. That was like the huge
push you know again late nineties, and I remember Erica
Died was one of the first wrestling girl wrestlers. I
remember especially because she was from West Virginia. I'm like, well,
I'm a border state, so and it was a non
traditional wrestling state that had a somebody selling in a

(48:00):
non traditional situation where you had to like it's like
Deanna Rix when she was coming out of Maine as
a state runner up. So there's there was those early
trailblazers against the boys. And I remember just that's one
name I will always associate with, you know, I had mentioned,
you know, Brax and Aamos, the Easterns. I remember, like,
I will equate her name with West Virginia wrestling for
as long as I live. So uh A shout out there.

(48:22):
But going back to that growth, what have you seen
from the growth of the girls at the high school
level now, because it's we've got a state championship there,
it's got a space on wv matt dot com. We're
starting to see placers in Fargo. You know, it's it's growing.
And what we've learned is, you know, one girl doesn't
want to wrestle a bunch of boys, but you get
four or five girls out there, they're gonna bring four
or five more, and all of a sudden, you've got

(48:43):
a room full.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Right the We're we're getting it started here in West
Virginia and it's it's going very well, and it's growing
each year. It's growing. More and more girls are are
are coming out and more more teams are We're starting
to get more teams, more high schools starting the rest

(49:07):
of god. Now we still have high schools where the
girls have to go out for the boys team. They
don't have a girl's program. That's slowly changing. That's slowly changing.
I'd say within the next ten years you're gonna see
just whatever high school in West Virginia. We're smaller state too,

(49:31):
we can do it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
I will say that the travel there is it's like
you know, Southwest Virginia for example. You know, to go
from Virginia Tech to Grundy is not a straight shot.
It's it's a you gotta you gotta go around some
mountains in such West Virginia trails gotta be a little
bit a little bit dicey in the winter time too,
with just uh, just the mountainous state of it. But
let's talk about West Virginia a little bit. I mean,
it's it's got It just seems like it's one of

(49:55):
those states that you figure like, oh, West, well, they've
got to be that. That's a tough state. You've just
they should naturally be attracted to wrestling. What is it
about that makes West Virginia wrestling great for you?

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Uh? I think again, you're talking of getting back. You're
talking about old steel workers, old miners, to tough minded
type of individuals who kind of instill that in their
sons and daughters, you know, you know, a sense of

(50:29):
toughness and a sense of believing in yourself and going
after what you want. Uh. It's a working class, working
class because they were miners and because they were in
the steel mills, they had to work hard, you know,
to make a living. And they taught their kids you've

(50:51):
got to work hard if you want to be good
in school. When let its work, it's not easy. Life's
not fair. You have to work harder. I think that's
the kind of mindset the West Virginia kids, especially those
who are still in areas where the minds are going

(51:14):
strong and what have you. That kind of mindset that
makes some pretty good wrestlers make some pretty good wrestlers.
Peyton Hall's doing a good job.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Yeah, he's having a pretty good season. He's been on
that podium a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yes. You know what's funny about that. I have Bill
welcome OVAC Wrestlers of the Year and since thirty eighth
year now, he was the same year as Braxton Amos.
Any other year Peyton would have been the Wrestler of
the Year. It was the same year that was a senior.

(51:55):
Peyden just totally dedicated himself to So I guess he's
this year he's going for his uh. Hopefully he will
be an All American again this year will be his
third All American. Uh. Hopefully. A great kid, super kid.
And I think Tim Flint's doing a great Flint's doing

(52:18):
a great job of his view as well. And he's
got a tough He's between Ohio State, pitt and Penn State.
You know, as far as recruiting. Uh, Tim does a great,
you know, a great job under those conditions. You know,
that's pretty tough competing against you know those like that

(52:38):
vi Ohio, uh Pennsylvania, you know with state state machine,
you know, m uhh state to be a one time
national champions, no big view. I mean, it's it's umble

(53:01):
just amazing.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
When we look at what's next for you, You've you've
you've spent a lifetime in this sport, you know, going
back to Western p A and and and then spending
all this time and in the Wheeling area, West Virginia,
and then writing writing novels, writing drill books, writing columns,
being just kind of somebody that you've you've gotten sports
writer the year awards. You've you've been a constant presence,
not just in West Virginia, but but nationally. You're a

(53:27):
recognized name. As you get to I mean, you're you're
you're pat I mean, wrestling coaches and wrestling people never
really retire. But as you're you're in your retirement years.
What is what is left for doctor Bill Welker to
accomplish in the sport? What is what is next for you?

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Uh? Just to promote it whenever whenever I can, UH
still involved with we have the ob A C is
a high value athletic conference. It's a big conference in
the United States. Are still heavily involved in that. Sorry,
I stopped this year, but I would pick up the

(54:06):
officials to do the finals. I'd always make sure that
that the official during the final has no association at
all with either either school and has had no problems.
You know. I do want to talk about two experiences
I had as a state interpreter. I had one experience

(54:31):
where this one boy, I think he had some type
of diabetes, so he had to eat a little bit
before he wait in for the Saturday morning at States.
He was three tenths of a pound oo okay, and
the coaches are saying, well, he had to do this,
and he had to do that, and the officials said,

(54:53):
you're going to have to talk to doctor. And what
made it even more difficult not only was the coach there,
but the mother was there too, and I had to
say no. I had to say no. If I would
have said yes, then next year somebody had the flu

(55:16):
and had it been some warm He's only two tenths
of the pound over, but you gave that kid a
break the year before, and we're old school, the eleventh commandment,
they shall not not make weight pound over. Okay. Oh,

(55:37):
and I even got a nasty letter from his caregiver,
you know. But you know what when I made the
same decision today.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Yes, I mean, those situations definitely got a stink. I mean,
because you feel for the kid. But again, you said,
a precedent that can be exploited. Nobody wants to do that, No.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
And that's that's what a bound through. Then we had
another one, one other cute one where the boy is
wrestling for third and fourth clover and the other kid,
but he doesn't like the opposing coach, so when he
wins the match, he flips the bird to the composing
coach and the official hits him with flagrant miscond. Okay,

(56:19):
So anyway, the boys coach comes over, The coach goes
to the official there and knew doesn't even talking to
doctor Walker. And coach came over and you know, pleaded
for his kid. I said, may allow that. What's next?
You know, if I were allowed, because everybody what happened

(56:40):
was when they raised his hand, that's when he flipped
the bird. Everybody saw. I mean the whole stadium, you know,
the whole facility.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Yeah, I'm definitely saying you're number one, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
And but here's it turns out pretty good. H coach
was actually his father, and he handled it very well.
I have to tell you that he handled it very well.
The next two years, his sophomore and junior, the boy
wins states his senior year, he's losing, and the official

(57:16):
that had his match as a freshman sitting there beside me,
he said, watch it. He's going to lose it again.
I looked at the official, I said, no, he's not.
After the match when he lost, he hugged his He
hugged disappointment because he learned his lesson as.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
A freshman teachable moments. Yes, well, you know I say
this to my My wife says life's about choices, and
you know sometimes you know a lot of people say that,
but one thing is, you know life, life is complicated.
Deal with it. Life's about choices, you know, and life's
about constant you know, those choices have consequences. So you
make the decision. Guess what. I don't think you're going

(58:01):
to get away with it too. And again this is
maybe also a little bit of that old school. But
it's like it may. I mean, it's logical you did
something that was unsportsman like you're going to get penalized
for it. The lives of severity are are are what
they are. Can you learn something from it? Great? So
you know again the fact that pain the rule book

(58:21):
is the problem. No, that's not the problem. You break
the rules, it's not the rules. It's not the rule's fault. Yeah,
this is our collective get off our lawn moment. By
the way, we're sharing to get off my lawn.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Moment right now. To get back to your original question
of as much as I can, I talk about wrestling
wherever I'm at right now. My wife and I are
both going through some health issues right now, and that's
kind of keep keep me as keep me as busy, uh,
in that respect. But right now with the OVAC or

(58:56):
the state, I still do a lot of the their
biographies of my different people they went in the program.
I'll write a the biography and or award winners and
what have you, and still do an article here and there.
I just got done completing an article on profanity and scholastics.

(59:18):
It's been publishing a number of the newspapers and what's Virginia.
I'll send you a copy of it.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
That would be an interesting read because I'd be quite
honest with you. My wife again, she's a grounding presence.
She will always know when I come back from a
wrestling tournament because my language is not what it is
around the house. It takes me a day to readjust
based on just my conversations away from Obviously I'm not
saying that stuff on the microphone. Wh I'm announce an event,

(59:45):
but I'm out at the pub or I'm at at dinner.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
You know.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
You know, we're not the cleanest of speakers. So I'm
curious about that. I am curious about that, So yes,
please do.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
I'll send you the audico going at it. I was
mainly concerned about wrestler profit well, you know, during the
course of a meet or what have you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Well, a couple of years ago, actually it's probably closer
to a decade ago now. The late Sandy Kgo, a
longtime official in Ohio NCAA official. Chris Brown from Miama
Mater was wrestling Mark Perry from Iowa at a match
at Saint Edward. It was at Saint Edge. Jim and
you know, the match was favorite Perry. He got the

(01:00:30):
major decision, but the match favorite Brown, excuse me. And
then Perry allegedly, I think this is what happened, according
to Sandy's he cussed the official or said something and
then Sandy disqualified him. And that's that goes to kind
of one of these teachable moments. It's like, and at
the other point, coach bartatod you didn't want the disqualification
to stick because they wanted the result. They wanted the major.

(01:00:51):
They wanted to see the result instead of the d Q.
So it's funny, no, no, no, no, keep it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
So it's kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Funny how that can work out. That could work in
the other direct some times.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Yes, yes, because nobody knows. Hey, here's what he did
to him. There's you know, but you don't know when.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
I would be curious on that because that's something I know,
a personal personal growth and personal maturity. I need to
I need to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Uh. Yes, I've been noticing it more and more, and
in some respects I blame some of the coaches because
I think they were allowing it a little bit too
too much.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
Uh, you always will be boys, not yet.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Because there's a place for it. There's a p because
if you give a little bit, just gets bigger and
bigger and bigger. And that's and that's that is my
concerns in that article. But I will I will get
that to you. You might want to mention another one
of your programs.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Yeah, I may even throw it in the Actually.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Actually, Jason, you can actually go into the internet and
just put profanity in scholastic sports.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Profanity in scholastic sports.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Yes, it's uh you can get you can actually read
it there on a couple of newspapers.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
All right, I will look for that. So anyway, long
before we go, Bill, what you got.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Uh, not too much except that uh the rest in
my life, you know. But I also I'm a firm
believer in uh the academic student, the student athlete, and
I'd like to see more of the student athlete that
we had in the passed. Of course it's in all sports.

(01:02:39):
And I'll give you off or past part. What have you? Uh,
Like I said, when we went with the scholarship, we
went there. Yeah, we did our job on the mat,
but we also we knew we wanted to graduate and
usually in four years now they're you know, like you
were loafing around for seven years. It's I'm a share

(01:03:02):
of your Jason together.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
I had three choices I had, but I had a
book to read for class, I had a beer to drink,
and I had a website to update. I picked two
of the three. You can only pick two. You can't
have all three. You gotta pick two. So I was
gonna drink the beer and update Matt talk. Oh wait, Yes,
I eventually figured out going to class is the important thing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Fortunately for me, I didn't have the computer, so I
could do the two read the book.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
Yeah, another another downfall of technology, my seven year tenure
at that school in Norfolk. Oh Man. Anyway, doctor Bill,
it's been a it's been a it's been a great conversation.
I know we've we've traded emails for years, but it's
it's good to sit there and and hear your your opinions,
and to see the evolution of wrestling through your eyes,
and the evolution of of books and just general, I

(01:03:51):
mean just everything that you know. You're you're you're a
man of all levels and and and places and things
in this sport. So your your time in the sport
is appreciated by me. I've read your stuff for years
and appreciate everything you've done for us, and there's a
lot more a lot more of that coming from you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Like I said, I still speak at different places and
what have you. I try to get the kids motivated.
I'm just excited about my grands my step grandson of
wrestling and doing so well the sport, like I said,

(01:04:30):
be part of our family since nineteen thirty eight when
my cousin Harold Welker won states first state championship in Pennsylvania.
So it's been a tradition of the whole family. And
I love my I love my native state of Pennsylvania,

(01:04:50):
I love my adopted state of West Virginia. I'm so
proud to be a Panther and the you Mountaineer.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Yeah, that must be fun during the backyard bat of
the backyard battle brawl? Is it the brawl or battle
backyard brawl brawl? Yeah. I just like when they play
Sweet Caroline at WVU games because that that clip is
always fun. Anyway, Having spent time at both campuses, I've
enjoyed both of them. But again, doctor Bill Welker have

(01:05:22):
been a pleasure and uh, You're always welcome back on
the show. Whatever you want to, come.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
On, Okay, and thank you for having me, and thank
you for the great job you do for the sport
of wrestling. We really do appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Thanks sir. You taking care a lot coming from you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Okay, take care, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
The Short Time Wrestling Podcast is proudly outfitted by Compound
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