After leaving the place he’d help establish as a national wrestling power, Gray Simons spent five seasons at Indiana State as the Sycamores’ head coach prior to taking over his first “big school” - the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. While sports-crazy, Tennessee was still new to the wrestling game. Gray Simons and a talented recruiter named Steve Gaydosh wouldn’t just change Tennessee’s fortunes - they would turn Tennessee into a waking giant in college wrestling.
As programs started to fall around them, Tennessee held strong, as did its athletes, overcoming some severe adversity on their way to stardom. Gray Simons and company were building something special on Rocky Top.
Episode 4: Building Up Rock Top
Listen & Follow Etched in Stone
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Deezer | Radio Public | RSS
About Gray Simons
During his four years of collegiate competition at Lock Haven University, Gray Simons entered seven national tournaments. He won all seven, and six times was voted outstanding wrestler of the event.
Four years he reigned supreme at 115 pounds in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and all four years was chosen the NAIA's finest, an unparalleled achievement. Three times he won the University Division title in the NCAA and as a junior and senior was voted the outstanding competitor.
The only two defeats of his 93 collegiate matches came early in his freshman season. He then proceeded to win 84 in a row.
In the two years after his graduation, while stationed at the U.S. Military Academy, he continued to annex national championships in military, YMCA and AAU competition. He won the gold medal in the 1963 World Military Games.
Gray Simons twice represented his country in the Olympic Games, in 1960 and 1964.
On the mat, he was known as a superb technician, with quickness, skill and perfect execution of an infinite variety of moves. His abilities helped spread nationwide the "Granby Series" of moves developed by his Hall of Fame high school coach in Norfolk, Virginia, Billy Martin.
After the close of his competitive career, he served with distinction as a collegiate coach at Lock Haven, Indiana State, Tennessee and Old Dominion University, and never has suffered a losing season. Among his proteges were two NCAA champions and several All-Americans.
In both roles, as a wrestler and coach, this quiet man has set an outstanding example for young athletes everywhere.
As a wrestler of unchallenged achievement and a sportsman of the highest caliber, Elliot Gray Simons is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.