May 30, 2024 • 60 mins
Retired United States Army Infantry Colonel Steve Banach began wrestling in the eighth grade and competed alongside his younger twin brothers Ed and Lou Banach for Port Jervis High School in Port Jervis, New York.
He continued his career at Clemson University, where he was elected captain of the wrestling team as a freshman and was an Atlantic Coast Conference finalist. Banach then decided to transfer to the University of Iowa, where his twin brothers were wrestling for Dan Gable. Steve ended his wrestling career at the 1984 Final Olympic Trials as a member of the US Army Wrestling Team.
He served with distinction in the United States Army from 1983 to 2010.
This period of service included deployments to six combat zones.
Steve demonstrated impeccable leadership during his service in the U.S. Army.
He is a Distinguished Member of the 75th Ranger Regiment and served in that special operations organization for nine years, culminating with command of the 3rd Ranger Battalion from 2001-2003.
He led U.S. Army Rangers during a historic night combat parachute assault into Afghanistan on October 19, 2001, as the “spearhead” for the Global War on Terror for the United States of America.
He subsequently led U.S. Army Rangers in a second combat parachute assault into Al Anbar Province in western Iraq in 2003.
Banach served as the 11th Director of the prestigious School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) and led the development of the U.S. Army’s Design Methodology doctrine.
As a Stryker Brigade Commander, he led the development of the Company Intelligence Support Team tactics, techniques, and procedures, for the U.S. Army.
He served as the lead Design Officer for the Department of the Army Cyber Information Warfare Design Planning Team. He also served as the Director of the Army Management Staff College and was responsible for the design and implementation of the US Army’s Civilian Education System.
He earned the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Bronze Star Medal for Service, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with two awards, and the Master Parachutist Badge with two Bronze Combat Jump Stars.
Banach also holds a certificate in Leadership in Crisis: Preparation and Performance, from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.
After leaving the U.S. Army, Banach served as the CEO of the Operational Art & Strategic Initiatives Studies Group (OASIS-G) and is now the Vice-President for Strategic Planning at SOFTwarfare, LLC.
Bio via the National Wrestling Hall of Fame
He continued his career at Clemson University, where he was elected captain of the wrestling team as a freshman and was an Atlantic Coast Conference finalist. Banach then decided to transfer to the University of Iowa, where his twin brothers were wrestling for Dan Gable. Steve ended his wrestling career at the 1984 Final Olympic Trials as a member of the US Army Wrestling Team.
He served with distinction in the United States Army from 1983 to 2010.
This period of service included deployments to six combat zones.
Steve demonstrated impeccable leadership during his service in the U.S. Army.
He is a Distinguished Member of the 75th Ranger Regiment and served in that special operations organization for nine years, culminating with command of the 3rd Ranger Battalion from 2001-2003.
He led U.S. Army Rangers during a historic night combat parachute assault into Afghanistan on October 19, 2001, as the “spearhead” for the Global War on Terror for the United States of America.
He subsequently led U.S. Army Rangers in a second combat parachute assault into Al Anbar Province in western Iraq in 2003.
Banach served as the 11th Director of the prestigious School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) and led the development of the U.S. Army’s Design Methodology doctrine.
As a Stryker Brigade Commander, he led the development of the Company Intelligence Support Team tactics, techniques, and procedures, for the U.S. Army.
He served as the lead Design Officer for the Department of the Army Cyber Information Warfare Design Planning Team. He also served as the Director of the Army Management Staff College and was responsible for the design and implementation of the US Army’s Civilian Education System.
He earned the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Bronze Star Medal for Service, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with two awards, and the Master Parachutist Badge with two Bronze Combat Jump Stars.
Banach also holds a certificate in Leadership in Crisis: Preparation and Performance, from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.
After leaving the U.S. Army, Banach served as the CEO of the Operational Art & Strategic Initiatives Studies Group (OASIS-G) and is now the Vice-President for Strategic Planning at SOFTwarfare, LLC.
Bio via the National Wrestling Hall of Fame
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
From the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. This ISD is Legends. I'm Jason
Bryant. Prepare for a journey throughwrestling's past president future. As we'll hear
are the great stories of wrestling andsuccess from the true legends of the sport.
Here on Hall of Fame Legends.We retired to United States Army Infantry.
(00:37):
Colonel Steve Bannock began wrestling in theeighth grade and competed alongside his younger
twin brothers Ada and Lubannock and PortJervis, New York. He continued his
career at Clemson University and was electedcaptain of the wrestling team as a freshman
and was an acc finalist. Bannockthen decided to transfer to the University of
Iowa, where his twin brothers werewrestling for Dan Gable. Steve ended his
(00:59):
wrestling career in nineteen eighty four atthe Final Olympic Trials as a member of
the US Army wrestling team. Hethen served with distinction in the United States
Army from nineteen eighty three to twentyten. This period of service included deployment
to six combat zones. Steve demonstratedimpeccable leadership during his service in the United
States Army. He is a distinguishedmember of the seventy fifth Ranger Regiment and
(01:23):
served in that special operations organization fornine years, culminating with command in the
third Ranger Battalion from two thousand andone to two thousand and three. He
led US Army Rangers during a historicnight combat parachute assault in Afghanistan in October
nineteen, two thousand and one,as the spearhead for the Global War on
Terror for the United States of America. He subsequently led US Army Rangers in
(01:44):
a second combat parachute assault in theAl Anbar Province in Western Iraq in two
thousand and three. Bannack served asthe eleventh director of the prestigious School of
Advanced Military Studies and led the developmentof the U. S Army's design methodology
doctrine. Rank or Brigade Commander.He led the development of the Company Intelligence
Support Team, tactics, techniques andprocedures for the US Army. He's earned
(02:07):
the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze StarMedal with Valor Device, Bronze Star Medal
for service, the Combat Infantryman's Badgewith two awards and the Master Parachutist Badge
with two Bronze Combat Jumpstars. RetiredUnited States Army Infantry Colonel Steve Bannock twenty
twenty four Outstanding American for the NationalWrestling Hall of Fame National Wrestling Hall of
(02:34):
Fame Honors Weekend are Outstanding American forthe class of two thousand and twenty four
is retired Colonel Steve Bannock. Hespent time wrestling out of Port Jervis,
New York, Clemsing, University ofIowa, among other places. We're going
to talk about his distinguished career,his somewhat famous brothers that have done pretty
well for themselves as well, andfirst things first, Colonel Bannock, congratulations
(02:59):
on the honor, and what wasyour first inclination or your first response when
you got the call from from theHall of Fame. Well, uh,
Jason, thanks for having me onuh today. Uh, you know,
the answer to the question, itwas, uh, you know, I
don't know if I was shocked.I was definitely surprised. Uh you know,
(03:21):
you never you know, at leastyou know, I had no aspiration.
I never really saw myself being inducted. Uh, you know, into
the Hall of Fame. And youknow, obviously Ed and lew were you
know, and then uh, youknow, through the course of the months
that have transpired since I got notifiedby Lee Roy, and I think one
(03:44):
of the things that's really struck meis, uh number one, this is
a a really you know, apicture of the investment that so many people
have made in me and uh anddeveloped me along the way. And so
you know, I'm forever indebted tothem for for their their their time and
(04:05):
energy and their contribution to my life. And then the other thing that comes
along with that is, uh,you know, I have no way of
thanking everybody who had a who hada hand in doing this. We talk
about your your wrestling career. Uh, First off, we got to go
back to childhood, because both yourbrothers, your twin brothers, your younger
(04:27):
twin brothers, uh Low and Edhave talked about the upbringing being adopted.
You guys, uh three of youyou were you were older, and talk
about that life and and you knowhow that came into your world and and
how quickly wrestling came with it.And then you know how those those two
situations being a wrestler and being adopted, kind of grew with each other and
(04:47):
grew with you three especially. Yeah. So you know what what I want
to do is really just couch.This in terms of the two sets of
parents that we had. So warclaw in Genevieve Bannock. Uh, My
my dad was a was a Polishsoldier in nineteen thirty nine when the Germans
(05:11):
invaded Poland and uh he he gotshot in the in the in the right
uh trapezius and uh clean wound.The bullet went in, went in the
front and blew out the back.He had a pretty significant uh exit wound
where a lot of the flesh wasblown out. It was kind of sewn
up like a like a you know, with the end of a sausage.
(05:33):
Uh, you know, wrote rollof sausage. I remember as a little
kid, Uh you know, Icould stick my thumb in the in the
hole in the back of his uhhis you know, his trapezius. Uh.
But his his life he spent youknow, you know somewhere between you
know, five five and a halfyears in different prisoner of war camps.
(05:56):
After he was wounded, he wentdown on my mother's farm in in uh
south Way, Germany, in thein the Black Forest area. She fell
in love with him. He wasabout eight or nine years older and she
was uh and as a result fallin love with the enemy, she got
put in Nazi and doctor Nation camp. So my my father war Claw and
mother Genevieve Uh just endured hell onEarth. And at the end of the
(06:21):
war, my dad was released fromDacau. He survived all the all the
uh, all all the punishment there, and in my mom she survived as
well, and they linked up onmy mom's farm, both of them,
you know, severely uh, youknow, impeded by what what happened to
(06:41):
them and really destroyed their lives.But having said all that, uh,
you know, I really you know, for the extent you can, and
you know, this Hall of Fameselection is really about my mom and dad
Warklawn, Genevieve and and then myadoptive parents, Alan and Stephanie Tully.
I was adopted in sometime in thein the winter of or actually moved into
(07:13):
an adoption home in sometime in JanuaryFebruary of nineteen sixty four after our house
burned down in December of nineteen sixtythree. So we had fourteen children.
My father war Claw's greatest achievement isreally really strategic. He got us to
the United States, He got usout of war torn Europe, got us
(07:35):
to the United States. Any youknow, I knew, I knew,
I know he was thinking that ifhe could get us to the United States,
we'd have a chance. And thatcertainly was the case. But our
house burned down in cold, wetnight in December sixty three, fourteen children
to parents, and we were allhomeless, living in Lafayette Church basement of
(07:59):
a church in Lafia, New Jersey. And uh so, uh, you
know, every day, uh,somebody from the New Jersey adoption agency would
come in to the church, andyou know, one or two of our
siblings would go away, and soyou're just sitting there watching your family,
uh, you know, depart.And it really entered into a state of
(08:20):
liminality, a state of real disequeliverymedia. You really didn't understand what was
going on or why it was happening. But so I went to my first
adoption home ed Lou stayed together andthey got adopted by another family. Uh
And after a period of time,I mean, we're very thankful for the
people who adopted us and took careof us. But you know, in
(08:41):
the adoption world, uh, peopledon't hang on the children that they bring
in their homes for you know,their full maturation period. So after a
period of time, you know,the parents that I was staying with said
they couldn't support having me there anymore. So you know, the state asked
(09:03):
Alan and Stephanie Tooley if they wouldlike to adopt me, and they said
yes, And I went to theirhome in September of sixty four and Ed
lou coincidentally were being told the samething by their adoptive parents. And you
know, probably four to six weeksafter that, they came and joined me
and with Alan and Stephanie Tooley,our adoptive parents, in the fall of
(09:28):
nineteen sixty four. So fall nineteensixty four, to your point on when
did we get adopted. I'm thirteenmonths older than them, and so in
nineteen seventy six, my adoptive mom, Stephanie Tooley, asked my father Alan,
who had quite a sense of humor. He's like a al You know,
(09:50):
Steve's going to be a senior inhigh school and Edlue are going to
be juniors. Don't you think it'sabout time we adopt these kids. And
my dad, you know, witha little bit of a smile, said,
hey, stuff, don't jump thegun. There's still time left,
you know. And so uh youknow, at the end of the day,
uh, you know, Dad wasall for it, and and and
so was mom. But uh youknow again, I you know, dis
(10:13):
induction of the Hall of Fame doesn'thappen without my two sets of parents.
Uh, you know. Incidentally,and and Leroy told me this, uh
you know, just as a matterof fact, you know, Ed and
lu were in there. I'm goingto be in there here, you know,
next Saturday, and we'll be thefirst family with three members of our
family in the in the National WrestlingHall of Fame. And uh that that
(10:35):
doesn't just happen, you know.You know, the Lord God has had
a plan for us, and uhyou know, and our our savior,
Lord Jesus Christ, really he heldour hand all the way through this.
He put people in our lives thatuh uh you know, gave us a
tough love when we needed it.And some people, like I said earlier,
(10:58):
some people made contrabt taught our livesthat well we'll never know what they
did, but we know we youknow, we we were around a really
really good, good group of peoplein Port Jeffson, New York. Uh,
you know, we really helped us, you know, develop along the
way. Now you tell the story, how many of your your siblings from
(11:22):
you know, your your birth parents, do you have any contact with this
day? I mean there's a lotto keep up with. And you said,
you know in that time, youknow there's fosterhones you're bouncing around.
I mean, do you still haveany contact with any of them outside of
your younger brothers. Yeah, youknow we used to in the earlier years.
I mean I spent you know,over twenty seven years in the military
(11:43):
and traveling all around the world,so you know, you know, the
staying in contact with Ed and Louwas was a little bit of a challenge,
you know. And and you know, my my deployment cycle, you
know, spent nine years in theseventy fifth Ranger Regiment at Special Operations Community
Operational TEMPO, and you know itwas deployed to uh six combat zones during
(12:05):
my career, So it was areally really hard uh task uh to be
home for my my family. Uh, you know, you know, staying
in contact with you know, thirteenother siblings. Was it was a was
a real, real difficult task forme. And you know, case in
point I missed. There was aperiod where I missed four Thanksgivings in a
(12:28):
row and two back to back Christmases. And my children are asked, my
wife, isn't Dad supposed to behome for Christmas? And my one daughter,
Audrey, who's an amazing human being. Uh, you know, she's
you know, she's ten or elevenand uh one one one evening. Uh,
she's getting ready to go to bed, and and she goes, mom,
(12:50):
I don't remember what Dad looks like. And uh so uh, you
know, so my mother or mymy wife finds eight by eleven's of me,
pictures of me and puts them byeach one of the kid's beds.
So you know, it's a itwas a it was a atypical career in
terms of, you know, beingbeing connected with family. Uh it was
(13:13):
honestly, it was about service tothe country and everything else basically was was
played. It was it was alower priority than that, and and it's
just the pathway that we were on. My kids served just because of what
they had to endure. So tomy wife, My wife's the best leader
(13:35):
I've ever met. And I'm notjust saying that, durned brownie points.
She's a phenomenal human being. Andmy children did her did a really really
nice job and some of the toughestcircumstances that you can imagine. You know,
a lot of a lot of thetalk about the drive and the recruitment
for the the arm Services does centeraround wrestling. You know, the Marine
(13:58):
Corps, for example, is avery big partner in USA wrestling in the
NBC A and and those initiatives ifthey they like to pluck wrestlers into their
ranks. And uh, when whenit comes to the sport of wrestling,
how quickly did you take to it? And and how is it a natural
fit for you? For you well, you know, I tell you it
(14:18):
was. It was very much anatural fit, uh, edlu and I
you know, in our adoptive homewith Alan and Stephanie Tooley, we literally
broke every meaningful piece of furniture thatthey had in the house. And uh,
and we broke so much and anduh, you know, we we
(14:39):
we started having to take terms orwho's going to take the blame for who
broke what? And uh and thentake the take the punishment, so all
three of us wouldn't get punished.Uh but uh so, you know it
was it was just in in theDNA. You have. You have three
brothers that uh you know, theoldest is thirteen months older, and we
(15:01):
did everything together. Uh you know, I I was you know, the
you know, the father figure forEd and lou Uh you know, and
you know for a long time,and uh you know, and I you
know, I love them, youknow, more than more than anything else
in the world. And you know, I didn't want anything bad to ever
happen to them. And you know, so we thought we fought each other,
(15:24):
uh and you know, and prettymuch every day, and when we
were younger, uh, fist fightsand those kinds of things, and uh
you know, if anybody, youknow, picked on one of us,
all three of us would would goafter that person. And uh so it
was really you know, we hadeach other's back and and you know where
it got formalized and thankfully slow.So we had we had seven coaches that
(15:50):
that happened to be our teachers atPort Jervis Middle School and high school.
And uh and Eddie and Louis startedwrestling in seventh grade in the in the
model program and I started a yearlater in eighth grade. So we had
coach Phil Chase take us up underneneathhis wing. You know, Coach Chase
was a real fundamental guy when itcomes to when it came to wrestling,
(16:12):
really heavy focus on conditioning and andand uh and maybe less so on on
wrestling technique at the time. Butfortunately for us, I you know,
when I got to be a freshmanat Port Jervis High School, I tried
out for the you know, thejunior varsity team. And my math teacher,
Mark Faller, doctor Mark Fallor wasyou know, he graduated high school
(16:37):
at Port Jervis in three years.He went to Harvard and got a degree
in philosophy and physics, and youknow, after he graduated, sometime after
he graduated, he was asked tocome back to Port Jervis and teach math.
So Mark was a little bit biggerthan ed Lu and I. Initially
he was a lot bigger, butthe further we went, the closer size
we got. But you know,point on all that is, uh,
(17:00):
Mark, Mark was so instrumental,uh and maybe the most instrumental of all
the people in our early life interms of being a workout partner for us,
being a friend both in the wrestlingroom, and and uh and just
really having a real high standard interms of academic excellence. Uh. You
(17:22):
know, I remember, uh,you know, doing bad on a on
an algebra test or geometry test orwhatever. And uh and and you know,
Mark would hand me my homework orthe results of the test and he
said, hey, we're wrestling tonightjust because I did bad. So he
would you know, take it outon me. And you know, just
(17:42):
to realize, you know, toget the point that you know, I
got to I've got to do verywell in the classroom or it's not going
to go well for me. Andso but it's the iron sharpens iron thing,
ed lu and I you know,all basically you know, grew up
uh you know, similar size andweights and all all this. And and
(18:02):
then we had Mark in the roomand and and Mark Mark would just you
know, he'd go toe to toewith all of us, and and uh,
you know, over over time,you know, one thing led to
another and we ended up uh reallyenjoying the sport and became our our our
you know, our lead sport interms of our ability to go to college.
(18:23):
And so we awe a lot touh every one of our our our
teachers in and our coaches that weredual hated there because they, like I
said, you know, you knowat the outset here, they did such
a remarkable job making a contribution toour life when they didn't have to.
(18:44):
But they were good people. Theywere very very noble minded. They did
what was right. Uh and alot of that what was right was tough
love that would not uh you knowbe looked well you know on uh look
well on today, you know,people would probably bock it as you know
some of the some of the techniquesthat they that we were raised with.
But having said that, I wouldn'tchange anything. Uh. I knew that
(19:07):
they cared for me, they caredfor my brothers, uh, and they
had their best interests in mind.You know. Being a year older,
you have the opportunity to you know, experience things first obviously graduation then college.
Uh. Your your path to collegeinvolved wrestling, And why did you
decide to go from from poor Jervis, which you know, historically speaking good
(19:27):
athletic programs all around the board.I remember running into them in softball fields
when I was coming through high school. They would take trips down to spring
training and they would bring those thosethose girls softball teams up and crush teams
up and down the East Coast ontheir way back to New York. Uh,
going down south seemed to be avery attractive thing. And Clemson was
on your radar. Why why wasClemson the spot for you? Initially?
(19:51):
Well, uh, you know,full scholarship. Uh you know, we
got recruited by a number of schools. Uh, well, full scholarship.
Wade Chalice, Uh you know backin uh you know, the seventy seven
time frame, nineteen seventy seven timefor him, and I mean Wade,
Wade was one of the one ofthe best wrestlers that we had in the
country. He was phenomenal. Anduh, I owe a lot to Wade.
(20:15):
Uh you know, my uh,my time at Clemson was a it
was very much a learning experience ofgrowth experience for me. And uh and
and you know I wrestled Wade inand you know, uh quite frequent,
quite frequently, and in our practicesdown there, he brought in some really
uh you know, good good wrestlers, uh, you know on our team.
(20:37):
And and that I benefited from learneda lot. But at you know,
at the end of the day.Uh, you know, I had
two brothers that went to the Universityof Iowa, and uh you know,
so you know, I spent ayear down there with Wade, and then
uh Ed Lou uh decided to goto Iowa. So I I went out
(21:00):
over the summer between my first yearand my second year at Clemson. I
went out to Iowa to see whatEd and Lou were getting involved in.
And I realized, you know,after about a day being there, that
they're gonna they're walking into a meatgrinder. Uh that going from Port Jervis
High School wrestling, and even thoughEdlu were highly recruited and very very good,
(21:26):
they were walking into something that wasnot normal. And I knew him
both, and uh you know,I I I thought Ed would do okay,
he do well. Uh Lou uhis a little bit different than Ed,
and I had had a lot ofconcerns about Lou and so uh,
(21:47):
I stayed there, wrestled all summer, and went back to Clemson wrestled another
year, and then at the endof the season, I finished second in
the in the A C c ATand then uh at the end of that
year, told Wade that I wasgonna give up my scholarship and walk on
at Iowa to be with my twobrothers. And I did that, and
(22:08):
sure enough Ed Lou both started theirred shirt freshman year. Both did very
well. Lou I think was seventeenand four in the January I guess it
was, would have been nineteen eightytime frame, the January nineteen eighty,
(22:29):
and he was bouncing from two hundredten pounds down to one ninety, you
know, every week, and youknow, it was just too hard for
him, and so he ended upquitting the team. He joined the ROTC
program at Iowa, got linked upwith a great mentor, Lieutenant Colonel mc
bardling, who gave him a lotof good guidance. And then I got
(22:52):
to meet Colonel Bartley and formed afriendship with him there. Of course,
had stayed with the team Team UHand his red shirt freshman year he's won
won his first national title out atCorvallis, Oregon. So it's really you
know, just understanding my brothers andunderstanding you know, uh, you know
(23:14):
that they're gonna need more support thanthan it's going to be available at Iowa.
So uh. You know at theend of the day that the year
that I walked on, I paidfor school myself. And uh and then
eventually you know, got Dan Gableand Jay Robinson. Uh. You know,
we're kind enough to put me onscholarship at at equal level that Ed
(23:34):
lewer On. Uh and uh andand you know, my my uh,
you know, my time at Iowawas was covered by scholarship for the for
the remaining years I was there,So very thankful to coach Gable and and
and Jay Robinson, Mark Johnson,Chuck Yea, uh, in a host
of others. Uh. You know, I remember my that that first summer
(23:57):
I was at Iowa. I don'tthink I scored a point on anybody for
about the first thirty days I wasthere. Uh. And uh you know
that that was the it was thething that was indelibly etched in my mind
that we this is not a normalscience endeavored we are entering new territory here.
(24:18):
And uh. And you know Iwatched Ed and Lou that summer and
uh, you know, prior toprior to leaving Iowa, I knew I
was I was gonna I was gonnaleave Clemson and come up there to be
with them, and we talked aboutyou know, the careers. I mean,
you know, ads match with withMark Charltz for example, is one
of those things that you know,hindsight and in you know, history tells
(24:42):
a different story. But what thatwhat that was then versus what it could
have been historically? And what doyou remember about those times at Iowa Wrestling.
I mean, you make the move. It sounds like more for for
their benefit than yours, But youknow what did you get out of it?
What did you get to see fromyour brothers in that era as well?
Well, we'll take the Mark Schultzthing. You know, I think
(25:03):
Dan Gable had an experience, youknow, his last match Larry Owing and
Ed had a very similar experience inthat match with Schultz. You know,
they're there and maybe even Spencer Leaguecould put him in that category. Uh.
The you know, the the hypeand the expectations, there's a there's
a mental as you know, Imean, there's a mental aspect that can
(25:26):
that can kind of drain it forthose pinnacle moments and so you know it's
it's what was meant to be.I think, uh, you know what
I when I look on and rememberprobably most proudly from Ed was Mike Mann
beat ed three times at Ed's senioryear. Uh, but when it counted,
(25:49):
you know, the international finals,Ed Ed uh figured out a way
to beat Mike for for the championshipthat year's third championship. Four times Double
A finalists and uh and I willtell you that Ed worked with Dan Gable
on his conditioning technique and also jRobinson on how to beat that wrestler.
(26:12):
And uh, and that was thatwas his my epic focus. You know,
about forty five days prior to then C Double A tournament, the
three day workouts. Uh you know, uh, you know, Ed Ed
put everything he had into it,and he did a really really nice job,
as did Loup his his last yearthere. So uh, you know,
(26:33):
in terms of you know, youknow, my my, you know,
my expectations were to make the team. Uh. I mean, I
you know, I didn't go upthere not not to wrestle, but also
you know, I knew, Iknew that the competition was going to be
tough and uh and it was anduh you know you know Pete bush Wash
(26:55):
it was one hundred and ninety pounder. You know, I beat him once
and and he beat me twice andwrestlelaw, so he got the nod to
wrestle. That's just the way itis. It's a you know, and
this is a really really important lifelesson that this world's a meritocracy. Uh
you know there there there is nothingthat's given to you for free, nothing
(27:18):
worthwhile, I'll put it that way. Uh and uh you know, you
know, Pete went on to wina national title. Uh, you know,
I qualified for the final Olympic trialsin eighty four and you know,
but I but I realized, youknow, you know, at some point
in Iowa that uh, you know, I'm not I'm not going to wrestle
the rest of my life. Anduh, I always had this really compelling
(27:42):
me to serve my country. Andyou know, one of the things that
you know, it just you know, I just kind of grew on me
that, uh that I needed toserve the country. I didn't know what
what the timing would be, butas it turns out, lose quitting the
(28:03):
wrestling team and me getting connected withLieutenant Colonel mcbartlemey at the University of Io
our TC program was all part ofGod's plan for me and none of this
is by accident. You know,you could say you know each one of
us. And when you think aboutthe Bannocks homeless to the Hall of Fame,
you know could be our tagline.And you know, so you know,
(28:26):
I, you know, I gotto listen to Colonel bartle Me on
several occasions talking about the merits ofservice, and you know that you don't
have to serve a full career.You can serve three years, which is
which was my expectation. I wasjust gonna, you know, sign up
for three years. And but asit turns out, Major General Kenneth C.
(28:49):
Lore nineteen fifty six heavyweight national championat the University of Iowa became my
mentor and General Lore I met withhim in nineteen eighty two and General Lord
uh just told me what I wasgoing to do in my career. Uh
And he told me that I wasgoing to get a commission at Iowa,
(29:12):
that I'd go to the eighty secondAirborne Division. He was going to put
me under the command of a formerRanger officer that that he knew as a
battalion commander and a former Ranger battalioncommander who was going to be my brigade
commander, and he told me ifI was good enough that they would make
(29:33):
sure that I got assigned to aRanger battalion and and that was it.
And you know, and again goingback to the meritocracy theme, nothing was
given to me or anybody else Iserved with in the military. And unfortunately,
(29:53):
you know, you know, ColonelKeith Nightingale, my battalion commander,
thought I had promised, and heasked me to come down the first Ranger
Battalion and I with him later afterabout I spent two years in the eighty
second Airborne Division, and I wentdown the first Ranger Battalion and started what
turned out to be nine years ofservice in the Range seventy fifth Ranger Regiment
(30:18):
and ultimately commanded third Ranger Battalion intwo thousand and one to two thousand and
three. And you know was youknow, you know, serendipity was you
know, the Ranger Battalion commander orthe Ranger Ranger Ready Force and led a
first of two combat parachutes assaults.This one was right after nine eleven,
(30:41):
nineteen October two thousand and one,parachuted in the bb terr Airfield and Hellman
Province as the initial strike for theGlobal War on Terrorism, and then led
a second range of Battaniic combat parachuteassault in Iraq and on twenty eight March
of two thousand and three. Duringthat invasion, participated in four invasions,
(31:03):
served in six different combat zones inthose twenty seven years seemed like a lifetime
ago. Now fourteen years removed.But I'm so fortunate to have served in
the company of true heroes. Andyou know, today is Memorial Day,
(31:25):
and you know, there really isn'ta day that doesn't go by where I
don't think of some of these menwho gave their lives for our country.
Memorial Day is not the first dayof summer. It's it's intended to remember
those brave men and women, youknow, who died in combat to you
(31:48):
know, protect the incredible rights thatwe all enjoy here in the United States
of America. And coming back tothe title here outstanding American. So in
wrestling parlance, this is this iswhat we honor. People like you who
serve somebody who spent you you sayyou went in for for three years,
you know, and you almost spentthree decades in serving the country. What
(32:12):
does outstanding American mean to you youknow what you know? I think you
know that you know, I thoughtabout that a little bit, and I'll
just frame it this way. Uh. You know, all men die,
but not all men truly live inuh in some of us are are are
(32:38):
on a on a pathway. Uhthat ends up uh putting you in circumstances
that you never imagined. But butit's a crucible experience. You know,
are you going to perform you know, at the time that your country needs
(32:59):
in my case, at the timethe country needed me to perform, or
are you going to do something lessthan that? And unfortunately for me,
I had the great privilege of servingin the company of some of the finest
Americans that you're ever gonna come incontact with, men who were willing to
(33:21):
give their lives for the country,and some of them did many many wounded,
you know, in in combat.And so I think, you know,
being an outstanding American is is,you know, really up to whatever
person wants to and wants to judgeyou on or wants to think about you.
(33:45):
In terms of that Moniker, Iwill I will simply say this.
I felt the need to serve andto lead and to lead is you must
serve if you're going to to lead, if you're going to lead people,
you must serve them. Uh.And you know I learned that, you
(34:07):
know, just through my relationship withwith ed in Lieu. You know,
if I was, you know,as their older brother. You know,
if I if I could demonstrate thatI cared about them, you know,
I think you know they you know, they would, they would, you
know, listen to what I hadto say. They always follow what I
(34:29):
said, but you know sometimes,uh, they would. And so I
think, you know, at theend of the day, an outstanding American
is one who's willing to serve.And uh. And I think you know,
I think about how I've evolved inmy life. You know, I've
(34:49):
come to the realization that giving isliving. If I am giving of myself,
then I'm really truly living. Ifeel inspired. Uh. If I've
give them my time and my youknow, my energy and my my talents
to people, and if I'm makingtheir lives better, then I'm then I'm
living. Uh. You know,I I I have great joy in that,
(35:15):
you know. And I would tellyou that an outstanding American is noble
minded. And when I say that, we live in the best country in
the world, and we need toact like we are the best country in
the world. Uh. Men thatI grew up with, we're all World
(35:35):
War two, Korean War, andsome Vietnam veterans, and they carried themselves,
uh with with this sense of nobilityand and none of them, none
of them had great wealth or anything. But there was a level of respect
that I had for every single fatherthat that we had on our Clove Road
(35:59):
and in Mantau, New Jersey,and then at Port Jervis High School and
in that whole school system, therewas there was an element of respect that
I had for every single man andand woman. You know, you know,
h our ladies that taught uh andwere administrators. And we need to
(36:20):
keep that. Uh. We weneed to uh respect the flag, respect
those who have shed blood, uhto give people the freedom that that they
enjoy today. Uh So, uhyou know that I don't know that that
how well that answers your question,But that's what, you know kind of
(36:42):
comes to mind for me. Uh. You know, that's why I served
h you know, uh, II just felt the need that this country
was such a great country that Ihad to do something to pay, you
know, to pay my dues tokeep it where it is and try to
make it better. We look atthe tie into wrestling with the military service,
(37:08):
like I had alluded to earlier,and we look at the elite fighting
forces that are almost you know,the legendary the Navy Seals, the Green
Berets, the Army Rangers. Youknow, there's I'm sure there are a
number of units and divisions that thatdo things that don't get the glamor that
that just those three that kind ofemit out of pop culture. What is
(37:30):
it about serving with that brotherhood thatis uniquely wired for somebody of your background,
somebody that was had to deal withsome hardship growing up, had to
deal with some uncertainty being homeless andbeing a wrestler a sport that is ultimately
yes, you rely on your teammates, but it is a selfish, individualistic
(37:52):
effort, but you are still notthe wrestler you're going to be without those
around you, much like the soldierwho is not without his you know,
his unit around him. How doeshow do those two worlds exist and how
do they blend together to help youbecome who you were? You know,
(38:13):
I think my my experience. Uh, you know at Port Jervis High School,
it all started at the top withwith coach Fallor and assistant coach Ray
Hollick. Uh, the junior varsitycoach. They were, they were,
they were such great leaders they theydid you know, Faler, I mean
(38:43):
Fallar did everything we did. Uh. So leadership by personal example was something
I learned, you know, inthe Port Jervis wrestling room from Mark.
The other thing is and these areall transferable into the military, right,
So leadership by personal example. Uh. They would do everything that we did,
(39:04):
you know. So you know,if we're running, running sprints or
wrestling for you know, whatever itis, whatever, whatever, whatever the
physical challenge was. You know Mark, Mark was right there, Uh,
you know, doing it with us. Uh, you know. And uh
and and of course you know whenwhen you serve in in the Ranger Regiment,
(39:25):
I'll speak for the Ranger Regiment.That that's that's my experience. H
you know, leadership by personal example. Uh. And and again translated leadership
is translated into service serving others.Uh, you know, the the you
know, the platoon leader, platoonsergeant and a ranger platoon always ate last
(39:49):
and uh, you know so uh, you know you you as the platoon
leader, you made sure you gotup and walked. You know, the
defense of perimeter you don't want ispouring down rain and uh you know,
or it was snowing and and theand the guys are you in a defensive
position freezing? You know. Sothe point is is where the leadership was
(40:15):
required most. That's that's where youneed it to be h as as a
leader. And so but the thethe level of the level of respect,
because I mean it is a itis a very competitive selection process that you
go through. I went through fourtimes and you know, my four different
(40:39):
spans of service into the ranger regimentincredibly competitive. Uh. And when you
get into the unit, you youjust simply do not want to fail anyone.
You want everybody wants to give onehundred and ten percent and then some
and uh. And in the camaraderiethat the ethos that's that's in those organizations
(41:05):
is that you have you have thatthat that assurance that the guy to your
left and the right is going tobe going to be there and they're going
to be doing the right thing atexactly the right time. Uh. And
you know that that happens. Youknow, probably about ninety five percent of
the time, which is in combatis pretty darn good given the fog and
(41:27):
friction. AWAR. So, uh, you know, there's a there's there's
a culture, uh that you wantto be part of. Uh. The
Iowa Wrestling room, Uh, Iowawrestling experience in the seventy fifth Ranger Regiment
have so much in common. Uh. So it was it was an easy
(41:50):
fit for me, you know.And you know one of the things that
Dan Gable did with us is hewould he would train us to the point
where we would not break mentally orphysically. And at that point, once
he got you there, he couldteach you how to wrestle. And it
was the same way that I ledin the in the Ranger Regiment. I
(42:12):
just needed to work my guys tothe point where they would not break mentally
or physically, and then we couldfight as an elite Special Operations unit.
And it was just what we did. And you know, twice in Afghanistan
and then our deployment in two thousandand three to Iraq, we go back
(42:35):
and Jay Robinson, you'd spoke abouthim during your time there, and he's
somebody who's always kind of champion themilitary service himself having served and whatnot.
And those early years, you know, you talk about meeting individuals that that
changed the course of your life whenyou went to the University of Iowa,
when you see somebody like Coach Robinson, were their early discussions with him about
(42:57):
going into the military service be onwhat you had had with uh with I'm
sorry who was the individual of ther t C and Major General Casey Lore,
Yeah, with their conversations with Jayrob about moving on with that as
well, well, I think alittle bit in in the in the run
(43:19):
up to it. Uh. Youknow. One of the amazing things that
very few people know is that Jaywas the was the honor graduate of his
Rangers School class. Uh and andand that's hard enough, but in his
class were several Vietnam veterans. StaffSergeant Elden Bardswell was one of them.
(43:44):
Uh. Elden Bardswell later commanded DeltaForce. Uh and and Jay beat him
out for distinguished Honor graduate in Jay'sin Elden's Ranger class. So that that
speaks volumes about who Jay Robinson youknow, was and is I mean it
(44:06):
guy's got as we all know,an incredible DNA and incredible pedigree to be
beating out you know, the eliteor the elite uh for you know when
you know when he was, youknow, in the service, so uh,
I think later on, you know, you know when when when I
(44:27):
had encounter j uh, you know, we'd we'd we'd have more army discussions
because I had more to talk tohim about than than I did when I
was just starting out as a asa cadet. When you look back on
the opportunity now serve your country,You've served your school, you served the
(44:49):
sport. Uh. You know,because I look at the sport of wrestling,
this is this is serving. Imean, it's it's not the same.
But you know, as we said, you give to your team,
you give to your teammates, yougive to yourself, and a lot of
it is selfless. In order tothrive and survive in the sport of wrestling,
it's a lot of individual drive andwhatnot. But again, that family
component, that unique backstory that haswired you and your brothers uh together through
(45:15):
this sport. When are you goingto be able to kind of take this
in and realize that the moment thatyou're going to get with this outstanding American
honor by the Nashal Wrestling Hall ofFame. To join your brothers under the
same roof in such hallowed ground forthis sport. What's that? What's that
truly mean to you? You know, I think it'll mean it'll mean something
(45:38):
on Sunday morning that maybe it doesn'tmean today. But uh what, like
I said, Uh, I didn't. I didn't expect to be selected.
You know, I had no aspirationto be selected, you know. I
just I just wanted to do thenext right thing and and and try to
(46:02):
help and serve wherever I could.And uh and I've tried to do that
my entire life, you know.And so you know I think, uh,
you know, going through the experience, I think there will be added
uh uh impact, added emphasis onand just how special it is. Uh.
(46:24):
I'm just you know, thrilled that, uh that three three Bannic boys
that were the sons of Wark Lawand Genevieve Bannick who had absolutely nothing.
My parents and us, we hadnothing. We were homeless. That in
(46:45):
the United States of America you cango from being homeless to the Hall of
Fame. That's what the United Statesdoes. Okay, and in it's in
it. You're not doing that byyourself. You're you're doing it with the
people that the Lord puts around you. And you know, we wrote a
book called Uncommon Bonds, A Journeyand Optimism and publish it in twenty fifteen.
(47:12):
You know, we thought the UncommonBonds was logically between ed Lu and
I and we were on this,you know, on this on this journey
and optimism together, right, andabout halfway through the book, you know,
we kept on talking about all theseone off experiences like like, how
did that happen? You know?Uh, you know there you know,
(47:35):
Lou had asked me, you know, how the heck did you survive when
the rope broke and you swung offthat cliff and you know, hit that
slate ledge and then fell another fifteenfeet to the asphalt road below. I
said, I have no idea,you know. And by the time we
got through it, you know,through writing the book, we were like,
(47:58):
Okay, this is an uncommon bondswith our creator, who's doing something
unprecedented here with with three young guyswho had nothing, and and look or
look where we're landing. So youknow, for the you know, I
look at this as as a asa godwink. You know, if if
(48:21):
you think that Edliu and I didthis, you know that that is that
is not the case. That isnot the case at all. It was
a pathway we were meant that wewere meant to go on. But in
terms of our accomplishment, I mean, this was this was something that the
Lord had planned for us, andhe put the right people in place,
(48:44):
and it has happened. And andthat's that's the level of credit I take
for it. It's it was,it was God's provision and and I'm very
thankful for it. I'm sorry,you got to go back and roll that
story back for me for just asecond. Okay, you you did what?
(49:07):
Now you fell what? I'm sorry, that's the rope brakes. I
need to know. I need toknow that story real quick before we go,
because that's what Yeah, I gotHey, Jason, I got to
get you. I gotta get youa copy of Uncommon Bonds of Journeying Optimism.
So there were forest fires, therewere there were there were you know
(49:27):
people, people uh shooting blanks outof a twenty two rifle at you that
could have been live ammunition. Butfortunately wasn't uh and uh yeah, so
uh we were living on River Roadin money you township, and uh we
decided that this rope that we havepicked up from somewhere, uh, but
(49:52):
we needed to just tie it onto a limited a limb of a tree
and swing off this cliff and seehow far out we could get. And
so, uh, how are youat the time, Ed, Yeah,
we were probably well, I know, I was thirteen. I was in
seventh grade. Uh, and soedon Lu were twelve. So so Ed
(50:15):
and Lou both swing on the rope, no, no problem at all.
They go out, come back,go out, come back. And I'm
like, hey, man, youguys, get off the rope. Man,
give me a shot. And somy very first swing on the rope,
I feel this tug the rope snappingall right, And the next thing
I know is I'm in the backof our car with my mom and my
(50:42):
aunt in the car smoking cigarettes.And the reason why I woke up is
because I was you know, Ihad I had blood in my mouth and
I was choking on the cigarette smokethey had. They had the window down
a little bit, but the carwas full of cigarette smoked, so secondary
smoke yeah, but you know,so I swung out hit this slate ledge
(51:04):
it's probably about called the fifteen feetbelow the tree, and then I bounced
off. I literally bounced off that, hit my head on that, bounced
off that, and fell about anotherfifteen feet onto an asphalt road, and
both my brothers thought I was dead, and one of them ran up to
get my mother, and you know, and my mom had been through you
(51:28):
know, Stephanie Tooley had been throughthis so many times that this was not
her first rodeo of the boys hurtingthemselves loose, split his stomach open running
through when he was really young,about seven or eight years old, split
a stomach open running through a bobwire fence, and then you know,
(51:50):
ed ed did a number of thingsas well, and so we affectionately called
Stephanie Sarge because she was very muchhad to be a sarge to keep her
handle on her her three boys.But yeah, so, uh yeah,
that was that was one time almostyou know, killed myself and then uh
(52:13):
but like I said, the ropework for the other two, so I
figured I had a shot to havesome fun. But that was that was
the story of our life. Wewere We grew up in in Montague Township
at the in the in the foothillsof the high Point State Park Appalachian Mountains,
and and that that you know thatthat mountain range was our playground and
(52:38):
and and we we we had ablast. It was it was a great
upbringing. You know. It waseither get out there in the woods.
Uh. It's really kind of helpedme in my army career. Spent a
lot of time in the woods.Get out there in the woods, have
fun, or stay at home andand have Sarge put you to work.
(53:00):
I feel like this is that scenein Roadhouse where you just go to the
doctor and present your medical records withthem and saves them a lot of time.
So is that something that that themom brought along to Oh no,
here we go. You're you're setto go. Yeah, yeah, they
they I mean Saint Francis Hospital hadhad our medical record to know, you
guys pretty quick, pretty good.Huh. There was a history there and
(53:22):
uh, you know the worst partabout it is, you know, my
my lip was split here and Ihad a big scar, you know,
right right right through my eyebrow,split it wide open, and uh and
the you know, the the docput in the anesthesian went right through my
lip and just sprayed it down mythroat. That was that was the That
(53:43):
was the first thing. So Iyou know, had to spit that out
and then tell them that, heyman, you didn't numb anything up,
so don't stitch it up yet.Uh and and and do that with my
lip flopping around, uh, tryingto talk. And and so this happened
on a Saturday. My mom,I'm working to my dad work full time
jobs and uh so I man,I had a massive concussion. Got got
(54:06):
home on Saturday night and uh,you know, got up on Sunday,
massive headache. And my mom toldme, you're going You're going to school
on Monday. And of course Iwas in seventh grade, middle middle school,
and I can't tell you the numberof kids that called me elephant man,
you know, because my lip,my lip was swollen out here and
(54:27):
I had this goosey here on myover top of my eye, and uh,
you know, but that I mean, that was I mean, that
was our life. I mean wewe uh we did some wild stuff and
uh, stuff that you can neverdo, you know today, not not
in a million years. Yeah,there's probably all sorts of you know,
who knows there's probably a railing onthat thing, now, who knows,
(54:51):
you know, safety that careful,and then there's you know, you know
things. You know. My mydaughter was running around today, kicked her
foot off of something's like ah storryblade and picked it up. I still
good and just keep for running.I'm like, I was so proud of
her. No tears or anything.So all right, a little toughness there,
but again, uh, Karl Bannock, it's you know, when we
look at how, you know,life after the military, what is what
(55:14):
is the life like? Now?We joked that wrestling coaches never retire.
I'm not sure what a life ofof somebody who served our country for almost
three decades is like when it comesto that, but usually there's usually some
tie to the armed forces somewhere nearit, whether you may not be actively
serving. But what's life been likesince retirement from the army? And how
close do you stay to the sportof wrestling if at all? Yeah?
(55:37):
So, uh, you know,I retired in twenty ten, left the
Army for nine years, was inwas in the private sector. I had
four star general hired me and Iwork with a with a great team based
out of Washington, d C.Did a lot of leadership and design thinking
work. Uh uh. In twentyI ran my own company again focused on
(56:05):
leadership design thinking in virtual and nonkinetic war which is a new form of
warfare that's overtaken us that we're notwe're not prepared to fight right now.
Uh and uh. Then I thenI got asked to apply for a job
that would take me back into militaryas a civilian. So I did that
(56:25):
for four and a half years,and I just left in September, and
I'm working for a technology company startupdown in Kansas City and have been down
there since October. Uh. Andyou know, just focusing on on on
this new form of warfare for whichwe don't have the theory, the doctrine,
(56:51):
or the techniques to fight and winit. And so I'm trying to
shed a little bit of light,a lot of light actually on the precedented
phenomena that that we're all experiencing.And then you know, I'll do that
as uh, for as long asuh, you know, the CEO thinks
some value added and as long asI think I'm making a contribution. Well,
(57:15):
again, just scratching the surface ofof your long distinguished career. We
we scratched the surface of the wrestling, we scratch the service of the military
service. But there's there's so muchthere you want to find more about it.
Of course you we'll plug the book. There uncommon bonds that wasn't on
my to do list, but youknow, give us a little bit about
that. And then obviously being anoutstanding American joining your brothers who were in
(57:37):
as distinguish members, you know,to tell that story of how it how
it originated, and you know backin Poland is nothing short of extraordinary.
So again, congratulations and uh,this is this has been quite the journey
for you. Yeah. Uh yeah, And it goes back to what I
said earlier. Uh, you know, all men die, but not all
(57:58):
men truly live. You know,my wife, Margie, I went nursing
school of grad RN. Uh.You know, about we got married,
I was a I was arranger platoonleader in First Ranger Battian in Savannah,
Georgia. After that that assignment,uh and going off to the Gulf War
(58:20):
in nineteen ninety one, I gotback from that, I left on her
birthday to go to Iraq the firsttime. After I got back, Uh,
and we had this conversation. Ithink it was it was the first
time I heard her say life withyou is not boring. Uh. And
uh, you know I kind ofI kind of looked at her, and
you know, I was trying to, you know, judge the thoughts and
(58:45):
intentions behind those words, and uh, you know, I realized that,
you know, over time that wasreally kind of a sense of pride for
her, that that we were servingtogether. It wasn't just me, it
was her. She raised three childrenthat are phenomenal, have eight eight grand
(59:07):
seven grandchildren, with the eighth grandson going to be born in October.
Uh. And uh, you knowit's uh, you know, it's it's
been a uh you know, it'sit's been something that you know, I
could never I would have never projectedfor myself, but something I'm incredibly thankful
(59:30):
for. The only thing I wouldchange is is the you know, the
loss of soldiers that were killed,uh and those that were wounded that have
had their lives fundamentally changed forever.H m HM Legends is a presentation of
(01:00:01):
the National Wrestling Hall of Fame andproduced by the Matt Talk podcast network.
If you want to hear more fromwrestling's Legends. Contribute to the project today
by going to matttalkonline dot com slashcontribute. We hope you've enjoyed this look
in the wrestling history. This hasbeen Legends. I'm Jason Bryant.
From the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. This ISD is Legends. I'm Jason
Bryant. Prepare for a journey throughwrestling's past president future. As we'll hear
are the great stories of wrestling andsuccess from the true legends of the sport.
Here on Hall of Fame Legends.We retired to United States Army Infantry.
(00:37):
Colonel Steve Bannock began wrestling in theeighth grade and competed alongside his younger
twin brothers Ada and Lubannock and PortJervis, New York. He continued his
career at Clemson University and was electedcaptain of the wrestling team as a freshman
and was an acc finalist. Bannockthen decided to transfer to the University of
Iowa, where his twin brothers werewrestling for Dan Gable. Steve ended his
(00:59):
wrestling career in nineteen eighty four atthe Final Olympic Trials as a member of
the US Army wrestling team. Hethen served with distinction in the United States
Army from nineteen eighty three to twentyten. This period of service included deployment
to six combat zones. Steve demonstratedimpeccable leadership during his service in the United
States Army. He is a distinguishedmember of the seventy fifth Ranger Regiment and
(01:23):
served in that special operations organization fornine years, culminating with command in the
third Ranger Battalion from two thousand andone to two thousand and three. He
led US Army Rangers during a historicnight combat parachute assault in Afghanistan in October
nineteen, two thousand and one,as the spearhead for the Global War on
Terror for the United States of America. He subsequently led US Army Rangers in
(01:44):
a second combat parachute assault in theAl Anbar Province in Western Iraq in two
thousand and three. Bannack served asthe eleventh director of the prestigious School of
Advanced Military Studies and led the developmentof the U. S Army's design methodology
doctrine. Rank or Brigade Commander.He led the development of the Company Intelligence
Support Team, tactics, techniques andprocedures for the US Army. He's earned
(02:07):
the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze StarMedal with Valor Device, Bronze Star Medal
for service, the Combat Infantryman's Badgewith two awards and the Master Parachutist Badge
with two Bronze Combat Jumpstars. RetiredUnited States Army Infantry Colonel Steve Bannock twenty
twenty four Outstanding American for the NationalWrestling Hall of Fame National Wrestling Hall of
(02:34):
Fame Honors Weekend are Outstanding American forthe class of two thousand and twenty four
is retired Colonel Steve Bannock. Hespent time wrestling out of Port Jervis,
New York, Clemsing, University ofIowa, among other places. We're going
to talk about his distinguished career,his somewhat famous brothers that have done pretty
well for themselves as well, andfirst things first, Colonel Bannock, congratulations
(02:59):
on the honor, and what wasyour first inclination or your first response when
you got the call from from theHall of Fame. Well, uh,
Jason, thanks for having me onuh today. Uh, you know,
the answer to the question, itwas, uh, you know, I
don't know if I was shocked.I was definitely surprised. Uh you know,
(03:21):
you never you know, at leastyou know, I had no aspiration.
I never really saw myself being inducted. Uh, you know, into
the Hall of Fame. And youknow, obviously Ed and lew were you
know, and then uh, youknow, through the course of the months
that have transpired since I got notifiedby Lee Roy, and I think one
(03:44):
of the things that's really struck meis, uh number one, this is
a a really you know, apicture of the investment that so many people
have made in me and uh anddeveloped me along the way. And so
you know, I'm forever indebted tothem for for their their their time and
(04:05):
energy and their contribution to my life. And then the other thing that comes
along with that is, uh,you know, I have no way of
thanking everybody who had a who hada hand in doing this. We talk
about your your wrestling career. Uh, First off, we got to go
back to childhood, because both yourbrothers, your twin brothers, your younger
(04:27):
twin brothers, uh Low and Edhave talked about the upbringing being adopted.
You guys, uh three of youyou were you were older, and talk
about that life and and you knowhow that came into your world and and
how quickly wrestling came with it.And then you know how those those two
situations being a wrestler and being adopted, kind of grew with each other and
(04:47):
grew with you three especially. Yeah. So you know what what I want
to do is really just couch.This in terms of the two sets of
parents that we had. So warclaw in Genevieve Bannock. Uh, My
my dad was a was a Polishsoldier in nineteen thirty nine when the Germans
(05:11):
invaded Poland and uh he he gotshot in the in the in the right
uh trapezius and uh clean wound.The bullet went in, went in the
front and blew out the back.He had a pretty significant uh exit wound
where a lot of the flesh wasblown out. It was kind of sewn
up like a like a you know, with the end of a sausage.
(05:33):
Uh, you know, wrote rollof sausage. I remember as a little
kid, Uh you know, Icould stick my thumb in the in the
hole in the back of his uhhis you know, his trapezius. Uh.
But his his life he spent youknow, you know somewhere between you
know, five five and a halfyears in different prisoner of war camps.
(05:56):
After he was wounded, he wentdown on my mother's farm in in uh
south Way, Germany, in thein the Black Forest area. She fell
in love with him. He wasabout eight or nine years older and she
was uh and as a result fallin love with the enemy, she got
put in Nazi and doctor Nation camp. So my my father war Claw and
mother Genevieve Uh just endured hell onEarth. And at the end of the
(06:21):
war, my dad was released fromDacau. He survived all the all the
uh, all all the punishment there, and in my mom she survived as
well, and they linked up onmy mom's farm, both of them,
you know, severely uh, youknow, impeded by what what happened to
(06:41):
them and really destroyed their lives.But having said all that, uh,
you know, I really you know, for the extent you can, and
you know, this Hall of Fameselection is really about my mom and dad
Warklawn, Genevieve and and then myadoptive parents, Alan and Stephanie Tully.
I was adopted in sometime in thein the winter of or actually moved into
(07:13):
an adoption home in sometime in JanuaryFebruary of nineteen sixty four after our house
burned down in December of nineteen sixtythree. So we had fourteen children.
My father war Claw's greatest achievement isreally really strategic. He got us to
the United States, He got usout of war torn Europe, got us
(07:35):
to the United States. Any youknow, I knew, I knew,
I know he was thinking that ifhe could get us to the United States,
we'd have a chance. And thatcertainly was the case. But our
house burned down in cold, wetnight in December sixty three, fourteen children
to parents, and we were allhomeless, living in Lafayette Church basement of
(07:59):
a church in Lafia, New Jersey. And uh so, uh, you
know, every day, uh,somebody from the New Jersey adoption agency would
come in to the church, andyou know, one or two of our
siblings would go away, and soyou're just sitting there watching your family,
uh, you know, depart.And it really entered into a state of
(08:20):
liminality, a state of real disequeliverymedia. You really didn't understand what was
going on or why it was happening. But so I went to my first
adoption home ed Lou stayed together andthey got adopted by another family. Uh
And after a period of time,I mean, we're very thankful for the
people who adopted us and took careof us. But you know, in
(08:41):
the adoption world, uh, peopledon't hang on the children that they bring
in their homes for you know,their full maturation period. So after a
period of time, you know,the parents that I was staying with said
they couldn't support having me there anymore. So you know, the state asked
(09:03):
Alan and Stephanie Tooley if they wouldlike to adopt me, and they said
yes, And I went to theirhome in September of sixty four and Ed
lou coincidentally were being told the samething by their adoptive parents. And you
know, probably four to six weeksafter that, they came and joined me
and with Alan and Stephanie Tooley,our adoptive parents, in the fall of
(09:28):
nineteen sixty four. So fall nineteensixty four, to your point on when
did we get adopted. I'm thirteenmonths older than them, and so in
nineteen seventy six, my adoptive mom, Stephanie Tooley, asked my father Alan,
who had quite a sense of humor. He's like a al You know,
(09:50):
Steve's going to be a senior inhigh school and Edlue are going to
be juniors. Don't you think it'sabout time we adopt these kids. And
my dad, you know, witha little bit of a smile, said,
hey, stuff, don't jump thegun. There's still time left,
you know. And so uh youknow, at the end of the day,
uh, you know, Dad wasall for it, and and and
so was mom. But uh youknow again, I you know, dis
(10:13):
induction of the Hall of Fame doesn'thappen without my two sets of parents.
Uh, you know. Incidentally,and and Leroy told me this, uh
you know, just as a matterof fact, you know, Ed and
lu were in there. I'm goingto be in there here, you know,
next Saturday, and we'll be thefirst family with three members of our
family in the in the National WrestlingHall of Fame. And uh that that
(10:35):
doesn't just happen, you know.You know, the Lord God has had
a plan for us, and uhyou know, and our our savior,
Lord Jesus Christ, really he heldour hand all the way through this.
He put people in our lives thatuh uh you know, gave us a
tough love when we needed it.And some people, like I said earlier,
(10:58):
some people made contrabt taught our livesthat well we'll never know what they
did, but we know we youknow, we we were around a really
really good, good group of peoplein Port Jeffson, New York. Uh,
you know, we really helped us, you know, develop along the
way. Now you tell the story, how many of your your siblings from
(11:22):
you know, your your birth parents, do you have any contact with this
day? I mean there's a lotto keep up with. And you said,
you know in that time, youknow there's fosterhones you're bouncing around.
I mean, do you still haveany contact with any of them outside of
your younger brothers. Yeah, youknow we used to in the earlier years.
I mean I spent you know,over twenty seven years in the military
(11:43):
and traveling all around the world,so you know, you know, the
staying in contact with Ed and Louwas was a little bit of a challenge,
you know. And and you know, my my deployment cycle, you
know, spent nine years in theseventy fifth Ranger Regiment at Special Operations Community
Operational TEMPO, and you know itwas deployed to uh six combat zones during
(12:05):
my career, So it was areally really hard uh task uh to be
home for my my family. Uh, you know, you know, staying
in contact with you know, thirteenother siblings. Was it was a was
a real, real difficult task forme. And you know, case in
point I missed. There was aperiod where I missed four Thanksgivings in a
(12:28):
row and two back to back Christmases. And my children are asked, my
wife, isn't Dad supposed to behome for Christmas? And my one daughter,
Audrey, who's an amazing human being. Uh, you know, she's
you know, she's ten or elevenand uh one one one evening. Uh,
she's getting ready to go to bed, and and she goes, mom,
(12:50):
I don't remember what Dad looks like. And uh so uh, you
know, so my mother or mymy wife finds eight by eleven's of me,
pictures of me and puts them byeach one of the kid's beds.
So you know, it's a itwas a it was a atypical career in
terms of, you know, beingbeing connected with family. Uh it was
(13:13):
honestly, it was about service tothe country and everything else basically was was
played. It was it was alower priority than that, and and it's
just the pathway that we were on. My kids served just because of what
they had to endure. So tomy wife, My wife's the best leader
(13:35):
I've ever met. And I'm notjust saying that, durned brownie points.
She's a phenomenal human being. Andmy children did her did a really really
nice job and some of the toughestcircumstances that you can imagine. You know,
a lot of a lot of thetalk about the drive and the recruitment
for the the arm Services does centeraround wrestling. You know, the Marine
(13:58):
Corps, for example, is avery big partner in USA wrestling in the
NBC A and and those initiatives ifthey they like to pluck wrestlers into their
ranks. And uh, when whenit comes to the sport of wrestling,
how quickly did you take to it? And and how is it a natural
fit for you? For you well, you know, I tell you it
(14:18):
was. It was very much anatural fit, uh, edlu and I
you know, in our adoptive homewith Alan and Stephanie Tooley, we literally
broke every meaningful piece of furniture thatthey had in the house. And uh,
and we broke so much and anduh, you know, we we
(14:39):
we started having to take terms orwho's going to take the blame for who
broke what? And uh and thentake the take the punishment, so all
three of us wouldn't get punished.Uh but uh so, you know it
was it was just in in theDNA. You have. You have three
brothers that uh you know, theoldest is thirteen months older, and we
(15:01):
did everything together. Uh you know, I I was you know, the
you know, the father figure forEd and lou Uh you know, and
you know for a long time,and uh you know, and I you
know, I love them, youknow, more than more than anything else
in the world. And you know, I didn't want anything bad to ever
happen to them. And you know, so we thought we fought each other,
(15:24):
uh and you know, and prettymuch every day, and when we
were younger, uh, fist fightsand those kinds of things, and uh
you know, if anybody, youknow, picked on one of us,
all three of us would would goafter that person. And uh so it
was really you know, we hadeach other's back and and you know where
it got formalized and thankfully slow.So we had we had seven coaches that
(15:50):
that happened to be our teachers atPort Jervis Middle School and high school.
And uh and Eddie and Louis startedwrestling in seventh grade in the in the
model program and I started a yearlater in eighth grade. So we had
coach Phil Chase take us up underneneathhis wing. You know, Coach Chase
was a real fundamental guy when itcomes to when it came to wrestling,
(16:12):
really heavy focus on conditioning and andand uh and maybe less so on on
wrestling technique at the time. Butfortunately for us, I you know,
when I got to be a freshmanat Port Jervis High School, I tried
out for the you know, thejunior varsity team. And my math teacher,
Mark Faller, doctor Mark Fallor wasyou know, he graduated high school
(16:37):
at Port Jervis in three years.He went to Harvard and got a degree
in philosophy and physics, and youknow, after he graduated, sometime after
he graduated, he was asked tocome back to Port Jervis and teach math.
So Mark was a little bit biggerthan ed Lu and I. Initially
he was a lot bigger, butthe further we went, the closer size
we got. But you know,point on all that is, uh,
(17:00):
Mark, Mark was so instrumental,uh and maybe the most instrumental of all
the people in our early life interms of being a workout partner for us,
being a friend both in the wrestlingroom, and and uh and just
really having a real high standard interms of academic excellence. Uh. You
(17:22):
know, I remember, uh,you know, doing bad on a on
an algebra test or geometry test orwhatever. And uh and and you know,
Mark would hand me my homework orthe results of the test and he
said, hey, we're wrestling tonightjust because I did bad. So he
would you know, take it outon me. And you know, just
(17:42):
to realize, you know, toget the point that you know, I
got to I've got to do verywell in the classroom or it's not going
to go well for me. Andso but it's the iron sharpens iron thing,
ed lu and I you know,all basically you know, grew up
uh you know, similar size andweights and all all this. And and
(18:02):
then we had Mark in the roomand and and Mark Mark would just you
know, he'd go toe to toewith all of us, and and uh,
you know, over over time,you know, one thing led to
another and we ended up uh reallyenjoying the sport and became our our our
you know, our lead sport interms of our ability to go to college.
(18:23):
And so we awe a lot touh every one of our our our
teachers in and our coaches that weredual hated there because they, like I
said, you know, you knowat the outset here, they did such
a remarkable job making a contribution toour life when they didn't have to.
(18:44):
But they were good people. Theywere very very noble minded. They did
what was right. Uh and alot of that what was right was tough
love that would not uh you knowbe looked well you know on uh look
well on today, you know,people would probably bock it as you know
some of the some of the techniquesthat they that we were raised with.
But having said that, I wouldn'tchange anything. Uh. I knew that
(19:07):
they cared for me, they caredfor my brothers, uh, and they
had their best interests in mind.You know. Being a year older,
you have the opportunity to you know, experience things first obviously graduation then college.
Uh. Your your path to collegeinvolved wrestling, And why did you
decide to go from from poor Jervis, which you know, historically speaking good
(19:27):
athletic programs all around the board.I remember running into them in softball fields
when I was coming through high school. They would take trips down to spring
training and they would bring those thosethose girls softball teams up and crush teams
up and down the East Coast ontheir way back to New York. Uh,
going down south seemed to be avery attractive thing. And Clemson was
on your radar. Why why wasClemson the spot for you? Initially?
(19:51):
Well, uh, you know,full scholarship. Uh you know, we
got recruited by a number of schools. Uh, well, full scholarship.
Wade Chalice, Uh you know backin uh you know, the seventy seven
time frame, nineteen seventy seven timefor him, and I mean Wade,
Wade was one of the one ofthe best wrestlers that we had in the
country. He was phenomenal. Anduh, I owe a lot to Wade.
(20:15):
Uh you know, my uh,my time at Clemson was a it
was very much a learning experience ofgrowth experience for me. And uh and
and you know I wrestled Wade inand you know, uh quite frequent,
quite frequently, and in our practicesdown there, he brought in some really
uh you know, good good wrestlers, uh, you know on our team.
(20:37):
And and that I benefited from learneda lot. But at you know,
at the end of the day.Uh, you know, I had
two brothers that went to the Universityof Iowa, and uh you know,
so you know, I spent ayear down there with Wade, and then
uh Ed Lou uh decided to goto Iowa. So I I went out
(21:00):
over the summer between my first yearand my second year at Clemson. I
went out to Iowa to see whatEd and Lou were getting involved in.
And I realized, you know,after about a day being there, that
they're gonna they're walking into a meatgrinder. Uh that going from Port Jervis
High School wrestling, and even thoughEdlu were highly recruited and very very good,
(21:26):
they were walking into something that wasnot normal. And I knew him
both, and uh you know,I I I thought Ed would do okay,
he do well. Uh Lou uhis a little bit different than Ed,
and I had had a lot ofconcerns about Lou and so uh,
(21:47):
I stayed there, wrestled all summer, and went back to Clemson wrestled another
year, and then at the endof the season, I finished second in
the in the A C c ATand then uh at the end of that
year, told Wade that I wasgonna give up my scholarship and walk on
at Iowa to be with my twobrothers. And I did that, and
(22:08):
sure enough Ed Lou both started theirred shirt freshman year. Both did very
well. Lou I think was seventeenand four in the January I guess it
was, would have been nineteen eightytime frame, the January nineteen eighty,
(22:29):
and he was bouncing from two hundredten pounds down to one ninety, you
know, every week, and youknow, it was just too hard for
him, and so he ended upquitting the team. He joined the ROTC
program at Iowa, got linked upwith a great mentor, Lieutenant Colonel mc
bardling, who gave him a lotof good guidance. And then I got
(22:52):
to meet Colonel Bartley and formed afriendship with him there. Of course,
had stayed with the team Team UHand his red shirt freshman year he's won
won his first national title out atCorvallis, Oregon. So it's really you
know, just understanding my brothers andunderstanding you know, uh, you know
(23:14):
that they're gonna need more support thanthan it's going to be available at Iowa.
So uh. You know at theend of the day that the year
that I walked on, I paidfor school myself. And uh and then
eventually you know, got Dan Gableand Jay Robinson. Uh. You know,
we're kind enough to put me onscholarship at at equal level that Ed
(23:34):
lewer On. Uh and uh andand you know, my my uh,
you know, my time at Iowawas was covered by scholarship for the for
the remaining years I was there,So very thankful to coach Gable and and
and Jay Robinson, Mark Johnson,Chuck Yea, uh, in a host
of others. Uh. You know, I remember my that that first summer
(23:57):
I was at Iowa. I don'tthink I scored a point on anybody for
about the first thirty days I wasthere. Uh. And uh you know
that that was the it was thething that was indelibly etched in my mind
that we this is not a normalscience endeavored we are entering new territory here.
(24:18):
And uh. And you know Iwatched Ed and Lou that summer and
uh, you know, prior toprior to leaving Iowa, I knew I
was I was gonna I was gonnaleave Clemson and come up there to be
with them, and we talked aboutyou know, the careers. I mean,
you know, ads match with withMark Charltz for example, is one
of those things that you know,hindsight and in you know, history tells
(24:42):
a different story. But what thatwhat that was then versus what it could
have been historically? And what doyou remember about those times at Iowa Wrestling.
I mean, you make the move. It sounds like more for for
their benefit than yours, But youknow what did you get out of it?
What did you get to see fromyour brothers in that era as well?
Well, we'll take the Mark Schultzthing. You know, I think
(25:03):
Dan Gable had an experience, youknow, his last match Larry Owing and
Ed had a very similar experience inthat match with Schultz. You know,
they're there and maybe even Spencer Leaguecould put him in that category. Uh.
The you know, the the hypeand the expectations, there's a there's
a mental as you know, Imean, there's a mental aspect that can
(25:26):
that can kind of drain it forthose pinnacle moments and so you know it's
it's what was meant to be.I think, uh, you know what
I when I look on and rememberprobably most proudly from Ed was Mike Mann
beat ed three times at Ed's senioryear. Uh, but when it counted,
(25:49):
you know, the international finals,Ed Ed uh figured out a way
to beat Mike for for the championshipthat year's third championship. Four times Double
A finalists and uh and I willtell you that Ed worked with Dan Gable
on his conditioning technique and also jRobinson on how to beat that wrestler.
(26:12):
And uh, and that was thatwas his my epic focus. You know,
about forty five days prior to then C Double A tournament, the
three day workouts. Uh you know, uh, you know, Ed Ed
put everything he had into it,and he did a really really nice job,
as did Loup his his last yearthere. So uh, you know,
(26:33):
in terms of you know, youknow, my my, you know,
my expectations were to make the team. Uh. I mean, I
you know, I didn't go upthere not not to wrestle, but also
you know, I knew, Iknew that the competition was going to be
tough and uh and it was anduh you know you know Pete bush Wash
(26:55):
it was one hundred and ninety pounder. You know, I beat him once
and and he beat me twice andwrestlelaw, so he got the nod to
wrestle. That's just the way itis. It's a you know, and
this is a really really important lifelesson that this world's a meritocracy. Uh
you know there there there is nothingthat's given to you for free, nothing
(27:18):
worthwhile, I'll put it that way. Uh and uh you know, you
know, Pete went on to wina national title. Uh, you know,
I qualified for the final Olympic trialsin eighty four and you know,
but I but I realized, youknow, you know, at some point
in Iowa that uh, you know, I'm not I'm not going to wrestle
the rest of my life. Anduh, I always had this really compelling
(27:42):
me to serve my country. Andyou know, one of the things that
you know, it just you know, I just kind of grew on me
that, uh that I needed toserve the country. I didn't know what
what the timing would be, butas it turns out, lose quitting the
(28:03):
wrestling team and me getting connected withLieutenant Colonel mcbartlemey at the University of Io
our TC program was all part ofGod's plan for me and none of this
is by accident. You know,you could say you know each one of
us. And when you think aboutthe Bannocks homeless to the Hall of Fame,
you know could be our tagline.And you know, so you know,
(28:26):
I, you know, I gotto listen to Colonel bartle Me on
several occasions talking about the merits ofservice, and you know that you don't
have to serve a full career.You can serve three years, which is
which was my expectation. I wasjust gonna, you know, sign up
for three years. And but asit turns out, Major General Kenneth C.
(28:49):
Lore nineteen fifty six heavyweight national championat the University of Iowa became my
mentor and General Lore I met withhim in nineteen eighty two and General Lord
uh just told me what I wasgoing to do in my career. Uh
And he told me that I wasgoing to get a commission at Iowa,
(29:12):
that I'd go to the eighty secondAirborne Division. He was going to put
me under the command of a formerRanger officer that that he knew as a
battalion commander and a former Ranger battalioncommander who was going to be my brigade
commander, and he told me ifI was good enough that they would make
(29:33):
sure that I got assigned to aRanger battalion and and that was it.
And you know, and again goingback to the meritocracy theme, nothing was
given to me or anybody else Iserved with in the military. And unfortunately,
(29:53):
you know, you know, ColonelKeith Nightingale, my battalion commander,
thought I had promised, and heasked me to come down the first Ranger
Battalion and I with him later afterabout I spent two years in the eighty
second Airborne Division, and I wentdown the first Ranger Battalion and started what
turned out to be nine years ofservice in the Range seventy fifth Ranger Regiment
(30:18):
and ultimately commanded third Ranger Battalion intwo thousand and one to two thousand and
three. And you know was youknow, you know, serendipity was you
know, the Ranger Battalion commander orthe Ranger Ranger Ready Force and led a
first of two combat parachutes assaults.This one was right after nine eleven,
(30:41):
nineteen October two thousand and one,parachuted in the bb terr Airfield and Hellman
Province as the initial strike for theGlobal War on Terrorism, and then led
a second range of Battaniic combat parachuteassault in Iraq and on twenty eight March
of two thousand and three. Duringthat invasion, participated in four invasions,
(31:03):
served in six different combat zones inthose twenty seven years seemed like a lifetime
ago. Now fourteen years removed.But I'm so fortunate to have served in
the company of true heroes. Andyou know, today is Memorial Day,
(31:25):
and you know, there really isn'ta day that doesn't go by where I
don't think of some of these menwho gave their lives for our country.
Memorial Day is not the first dayof summer. It's it's intended to remember
those brave men and women, youknow, who died in combat to you
(31:48):
know, protect the incredible rights thatwe all enjoy here in the United States
of America. And coming back tothe title here outstanding American. So in
wrestling parlance, this is this iswhat we honor. People like you who
serve somebody who spent you you sayyou went in for for three years,
you know, and you almost spentthree decades in serving the country. What
(32:12):
does outstanding American mean to you youknow what you know? I think you
know that you know, I thoughtabout that a little bit, and I'll
just frame it this way. Uh. You know, all men die,
but not all men truly live inuh in some of us are are are
(32:38):
on a on a pathway. Uhthat ends up uh putting you in circumstances
that you never imagined. But butit's a crucible experience. You know,
are you going to perform you know, at the time that your country needs
(32:59):
in my case, at the timethe country needed me to perform, or
are you going to do something lessthan that? And unfortunately for me,
I had the great privilege of servingin the company of some of the finest
Americans that you're ever gonna come incontact with, men who were willing to
(33:21):
give their lives for the country,and some of them did many many wounded,
you know, in in combat.And so I think, you know,
being an outstanding American is is,you know, really up to whatever
person wants to and wants to judgeyou on or wants to think about you.
(33:45):
In terms of that Moniker, Iwill I will simply say this.
I felt the need to serve andto lead and to lead is you must
serve if you're going to to lead, if you're going to lead people,
you must serve them. Uh.And you know I learned that, you
(34:07):
know, just through my relationship withwith ed in Lieu. You know,
if I was, you know,as their older brother. You know,
if I if I could demonstrate thatI cared about them, you know,
I think you know they you know, they would, they would, you
know, listen to what I hadto say. They always follow what I
(34:29):
said, but you know sometimes,uh, they would. And so I
think, you know, at theend of the day, an outstanding American
is one who's willing to serve.And uh. And I think you know,
I think about how I've evolved inmy life. You know, I've
(34:49):
come to the realization that giving isliving. If I am giving of myself,
then I'm really truly living. Ifeel inspired. Uh. If I've
give them my time and my youknow, my energy and my my talents
to people, and if I'm makingtheir lives better, then I'm then I'm
living. Uh. You know,I I I have great joy in that,
(35:15):
you know. And I would tellyou that an outstanding American is noble
minded. And when I say that, we live in the best country in
the world, and we need toact like we are the best country in
the world. Uh. Men thatI grew up with, we're all World
(35:35):
War two, Korean War, andsome Vietnam veterans, and they carried themselves,
uh with with this sense of nobilityand and none of them, none
of them had great wealth or anything. But there was a level of respect
that I had for every single fatherthat that we had on our Clove Road
(35:59):
and in Mantau, New Jersey,and then at Port Jervis High School and
in that whole school system, therewas there was an element of respect that
I had for every single man andand woman. You know, you know,
h our ladies that taught uh andwere administrators. And we need to
(36:20):
keep that. Uh. We weneed to uh respect the flag, respect
those who have shed blood, uhto give people the freedom that that they
enjoy today. Uh So, uhyou know that I don't know that that
how well that answers your question,But that's what, you know kind of
(36:42):
comes to mind for me. Uh. You know, that's why I served
h you know, uh, II just felt the need that this country
was such a great country that Ihad to do something to pay, you
know, to pay my dues tokeep it where it is and try to
make it better. We look atthe tie into wrestling with the military service,
(37:08):
like I had alluded to earlier,and we look at the elite fighting
forces that are almost you know,the legendary the Navy Seals, the Green
Berets, the Army Rangers. Youknow, there's I'm sure there are a
number of units and divisions that thatdo things that don't get the glamor that
that just those three that kind ofemit out of pop culture. What is
(37:30):
it about serving with that brotherhood thatis uniquely wired for somebody of your background,
somebody that was had to deal withsome hardship growing up, had to
deal with some uncertainty being homeless andbeing a wrestler a sport that is ultimately
yes, you rely on your teammates, but it is a selfish, individualistic
(37:52):
effort, but you are still notthe wrestler you're going to be without those
around you, much like the soldierwho is not without his you know,
his unit around him. How doeshow do those two worlds exist and how
do they blend together to help youbecome who you were? You know,
(38:13):
I think my my experience. Uh, you know at Port Jervis High School,
it all started at the top withwith coach Fallor and assistant coach Ray
Hollick. Uh, the junior varsitycoach. They were, they were,
they were such great leaders they theydid you know, Faler, I mean
(38:43):
Fallar did everything we did. Uh. So leadership by personal example was something
I learned, you know, inthe Port Jervis wrestling room from Mark.
The other thing is and these areall transferable into the military, right,
So leadership by personal example. Uh. They would do everything that we did,
(39:04):
you know. So you know,if we're running, running sprints or
wrestling for you know, whatever itis, whatever, whatever, whatever the
physical challenge was. You know Mark, Mark was right there, Uh,
you know, doing it with us. Uh, you know. And uh
and and of course you know whenwhen you serve in in the Ranger Regiment,
(39:25):
I'll speak for the Ranger Regiment.That that's that's my experience. H
you know, leadership by personal example. Uh. And and again translated leadership
is translated into service serving others.Uh, you know, the the you
know, the platoon leader, platoonsergeant and a ranger platoon always ate last
(39:49):
and uh, you know so uh, you know you you as the platoon
leader, you made sure you gotup and walked. You know, the
defense of perimeter you don't want ispouring down rain and uh you know,
or it was snowing and and theand the guys are you in a defensive
position freezing? You know. Sothe point is is where the leadership was
(40:15):
required most. That's that's where youneed it to be h as as a
leader. And so but the thethe level of the level of respect,
because I mean it is a itis a very competitive selection process that you
go through. I went through fourtimes and you know, my four different
(40:39):
spans of service into the ranger regimentincredibly competitive. Uh. And when you
get into the unit, you youjust simply do not want to fail anyone.
You want everybody wants to give onehundred and ten percent and then some
and uh. And in the camaraderiethat the ethos that's that's in those organizations
(41:05):
is that you have you have thatthat that assurance that the guy to your
left and the right is going tobe going to be there and they're going
to be doing the right thing atexactly the right time. Uh. And
you know that that happens. Youknow, probably about ninety five percent of
the time, which is in combatis pretty darn good given the fog and
(41:27):
friction. AWAR. So, uh, you know, there's a there's there's
a culture, uh that you wantto be part of. Uh. The
Iowa Wrestling room, Uh, Iowawrestling experience in the seventy fifth Ranger Regiment
have so much in common. Uh. So it was it was an easy
(41:50):
fit for me, you know.And you know one of the things that
Dan Gable did with us is hewould he would train us to the point
where we would not break mentally orphysically. And at that point, once
he got you there, he couldteach you how to wrestle. And it
was the same way that I ledin the in the Ranger Regiment. I
(42:12):
just needed to work my guys tothe point where they would not break mentally
or physically, and then we couldfight as an elite Special Operations unit.
And it was just what we did. And you know, twice in Afghanistan
and then our deployment in two thousandand three to Iraq, we go back
(42:35):
and Jay Robinson, you'd spoke abouthim during your time there, and he's
somebody who's always kind of champion themilitary service himself having served and whatnot.
And those early years, you know, you talk about meeting individuals that that
changed the course of your life whenyou went to the University of Iowa,
when you see somebody like Coach Robinson, were their early discussions with him about
(42:57):
going into the military service be onwhat you had had with uh with I'm
sorry who was the individual of ther t C and Major General Casey Lore,
Yeah, with their conversations with Jayrob about moving on with that as
well, well, I think alittle bit in in the in the run
(43:19):
up to it. Uh. Youknow. One of the amazing things that
very few people know is that Jaywas the was the honor graduate of his
Rangers School class. Uh and andand that's hard enough, but in his
class were several Vietnam veterans. StaffSergeant Elden Bardswell was one of them.
(43:44):
Uh. Elden Bardswell later commanded DeltaForce. Uh and and Jay beat him
out for distinguished Honor graduate in Jay'sin Elden's Ranger class. So that that
speaks volumes about who Jay Robinson youknow, was and is I mean it
(44:06):
guy's got as we all know,an incredible DNA and incredible pedigree to be
beating out you know, the eliteor the elite uh for you know when
you know when he was, youknow, in the service, so uh,
I think later on, you know, you know when when when I
(44:27):
had encounter j uh, you know, we'd we'd we'd have more army discussions
because I had more to talk tohim about than than I did when I
was just starting out as a asa cadet. When you look back on
the opportunity now serve your country,You've served your school, you served the
(44:49):
sport. Uh. You know,because I look at the sport of wrestling,
this is this is serving. Imean, it's it's not the same.
But you know, as we said, you give to your team,
you give to your teammates, yougive to yourself, and a lot of
it is selfless. In order tothrive and survive in the sport of wrestling,
it's a lot of individual drive andwhatnot. But again, that family
component, that unique backstory that haswired you and your brothers uh together through
(45:15):
this sport. When are you goingto be able to kind of take this
in and realize that the moment thatyou're going to get with this outstanding American
honor by the Nashal Wrestling Hall ofFame. To join your brothers under the
same roof in such hallowed ground forthis sport. What's that? What's that
truly mean to you? You know, I think it'll mean it'll mean something
(45:38):
on Sunday morning that maybe it doesn'tmean today. But uh what, like
I said, Uh, I didn't. I didn't expect to be selected.
You know, I had no aspirationto be selected, you know. I
just I just wanted to do thenext right thing and and and try to
(46:02):
help and serve wherever I could.And uh and I've tried to do that
my entire life, you know.And so you know I think, uh,
you know, going through the experience, I think there will be added
uh uh impact, added emphasis onand just how special it is. Uh.
(46:24):
I'm just you know, thrilled that, uh that three three Bannic boys
that were the sons of Wark Lawand Genevieve Bannick who had absolutely nothing.
My parents and us, we hadnothing. We were homeless. That in
(46:45):
the United States of America you cango from being homeless to the Hall of
Fame. That's what the United Statesdoes. Okay, and in it's in
it. You're not doing that byyourself. You're you're doing it with the
people that the Lord puts around you. And you know, we wrote a
book called Uncommon Bonds, A Journeyand Optimism and publish it in twenty fifteen.
(47:12):
You know, we thought the UncommonBonds was logically between ed Lu and
I and we were on this,you know, on this on this journey
and optimism together, right, andabout halfway through the book, you know,
we kept on talking about all theseone off experiences like like, how
did that happen? You know?Uh, you know there you know,
(47:35):
Lou had asked me, you know, how the heck did you survive when
the rope broke and you swung offthat cliff and you know, hit that
slate ledge and then fell another fifteenfeet to the asphalt road below. I
said, I have no idea,you know. And by the time we
got through it, you know,through writing the book, we were like,
(47:58):
Okay, this is an uncommon bondswith our creator, who's doing something
unprecedented here with with three young guyswho had nothing, and and look or
look where we're landing. So youknow, for the you know, I
look at this as as a asa godwink. You know, if if
(48:21):
you think that Edliu and I didthis, you know that that is that
is not the case. That isnot the case at all. It was
a pathway we were meant that wewere meant to go on. But in
terms of our accomplishment, I mean, this was this was something that the
Lord had planned for us, andhe put the right people in place,
(48:44):
and it has happened. And andthat's that's the level of credit I take
for it. It's it was,it was God's provision and and I'm very
thankful for it. I'm sorry,you got to go back and roll that
story back for me for just asecond. Okay, you you did what?
(49:07):
Now you fell what? I'm sorry, that's the rope brakes. I
need to know. I need toknow that story real quick before we go,
because that's what Yeah, I gotHey, Jason, I got to
get you. I gotta get youa copy of Uncommon Bonds of Journeying Optimism.
So there were forest fires, therewere there were there were you know
(49:27):
people, people uh shooting blanks outof a twenty two rifle at you that
could have been live ammunition. Butfortunately wasn't uh and uh yeah, so
uh we were living on River Roadin money you township, and uh we
decided that this rope that we havepicked up from somewhere, uh, but
(49:52):
we needed to just tie it onto a limited a limb of a tree
and swing off this cliff and seehow far out we could get. And
so, uh, how are youat the time, Ed, Yeah,
we were probably well, I know, I was thirteen. I was in
seventh grade. Uh, and soedon Lu were twelve. So so Ed
(50:15):
and Lou both swing on the rope, no, no problem at all.
They go out, come back,go out, come back. And I'm
like, hey, man, youguys, get off the rope. Man,
give me a shot. And somy very first swing on the rope,
I feel this tug the rope snappingall right, And the next thing
I know is I'm in the backof our car with my mom and my
(50:42):
aunt in the car smoking cigarettes.And the reason why I woke up is
because I was you know, Ihad I had blood in my mouth and
I was choking on the cigarette smokethey had. They had the window down
a little bit, but the carwas full of cigarette smoked, so secondary
smoke yeah, but you know,so I swung out hit this slate ledge
(51:04):
it's probably about called the fifteen feetbelow the tree, and then I bounced
off. I literally bounced off that, hit my head on that, bounced
off that, and fell about anotherfifteen feet onto an asphalt road, and
both my brothers thought I was dead, and one of them ran up to
get my mother, and you know, and my mom had been through you
(51:28):
know, Stephanie Tooley had been throughthis so many times that this was not
her first rodeo of the boys hurtingthemselves loose, split his stomach open running
through when he was really young,about seven or eight years old, split
a stomach open running through a bobwire fence, and then you know,
(51:50):
ed ed did a number of thingsas well, and so we affectionately called
Stephanie Sarge because she was very muchhad to be a sarge to keep her
handle on her her three boys.But yeah, so, uh yeah,
that was that was one time almostyou know, killed myself and then uh
(52:13):
but like I said, the ropework for the other two, so I
figured I had a shot to havesome fun. But that was that was
the story of our life. Wewere We grew up in in Montague Township
at the in the in the foothillsof the high Point State Park Appalachian Mountains,
and and that that you know thatthat mountain range was our playground and
(52:38):
and and we we we had ablast. It was it was a great
upbringing. You know. It waseither get out there in the woods.
Uh. It's really kind of helpedme in my army career. Spent a
lot of time in the woods.Get out there in the woods, have
fun, or stay at home andand have Sarge put you to work.
(53:00):
I feel like this is that scenein Roadhouse where you just go to the
doctor and present your medical records withthem and saves them a lot of time.
So is that something that that themom brought along to Oh no,
here we go. You're you're setto go. Yeah, yeah, they
they I mean Saint Francis Hospital hadhad our medical record to know, you
guys pretty quick, pretty good.Huh. There was a history there and
(53:22):
uh, you know the worst partabout it is, you know, my
my lip was split here and Ihad a big scar, you know,
right right right through my eyebrow,split it wide open, and uh and
the you know, the the docput in the anesthesian went right through my
lip and just sprayed it down mythroat. That was that was the That
(53:43):
was the first thing. So Iyou know, had to spit that out
and then tell them that, heyman, you didn't numb anything up,
so don't stitch it up yet.Uh and and and do that with my
lip flopping around, uh, tryingto talk. And and so this happened
on a Saturday. My mom,I'm working to my dad work full time
jobs and uh so I man,I had a massive concussion. Got got
(54:06):
home on Saturday night and uh,you know, got up on Sunday,
massive headache. And my mom toldme, you're going You're going to school
on Monday. And of course Iwas in seventh grade, middle middle school,
and I can't tell you the numberof kids that called me elephant man,
you know, because my lip,my lip was swollen out here and
(54:27):
I had this goosey here on myover top of my eye, and uh,
you know, but that I mean, that was I mean, that
was our life. I mean wewe uh we did some wild stuff and
uh, stuff that you can neverdo, you know today, not not
in a million years. Yeah,there's probably all sorts of you know,
who knows there's probably a railing onthat thing, now, who knows,
(54:51):
you know, safety that careful,and then there's you know, you know
things. You know. My mydaughter was running around today, kicked her
foot off of something's like ah storryblade and picked it up. I still
good and just keep for running.I'm like, I was so proud of
her. No tears or anything.So all right, a little toughness there,
but again, uh, Karl Bannock, it's you know, when we
look at how, you know,life after the military, what is what
(55:14):
is the life like? Now?We joked that wrestling coaches never retire.
I'm not sure what a life ofof somebody who served our country for almost
three decades is like when it comesto that, but usually there's usually some
tie to the armed forces somewhere nearit, whether you may not be actively
serving. But what's life been likesince retirement from the army? And how
close do you stay to the sportof wrestling if at all? Yeah?
(55:37):
So, uh, you know,I retired in twenty ten, left the
Army for nine years, was inwas in the private sector. I had
four star general hired me and Iwork with a with a great team based
out of Washington, d C.Did a lot of leadership and design thinking
work. Uh uh. In twentyI ran my own company again focused on
(56:05):
leadership design thinking in virtual and nonkinetic war which is a new form of
warfare that's overtaken us that we're notwe're not prepared to fight right now.
Uh and uh. Then I thenI got asked to apply for a job
that would take me back into militaryas a civilian. So I did that
(56:25):
for four and a half years,and I just left in September, and
I'm working for a technology company startupdown in Kansas City and have been down
there since October. Uh. Andyou know, just focusing on on on
this new form of warfare for whichwe don't have the theory, the doctrine,
(56:51):
or the techniques to fight and winit. And so I'm trying to
shed a little bit of light,a lot of light actually on the precedented
phenomena that that we're all experiencing.And then you know, I'll do that
as uh, for as long asuh, you know, the CEO thinks
some value added and as long asI think I'm making a contribution. Well,
(57:15):
again, just scratching the surface ofof your long distinguished career. We
we scratched the surface of the wrestling, we scratch the service of the military
service. But there's there's so muchthere you want to find more about it.
Of course you we'll plug the book. There uncommon bonds that wasn't on
my to do list, but youknow, give us a little bit about
that. And then obviously being anoutstanding American joining your brothers who were in
(57:37):
as distinguish members, you know,to tell that story of how it how
it originated, and you know backin Poland is nothing short of extraordinary.
So again, congratulations and uh,this is this has been quite the journey
for you. Yeah. Uh yeah, And it goes back to what I
said earlier. Uh, you know, all men die, but not all
(57:58):
men truly live. You know,my wife, Margie, I went nursing
school of grad RN. Uh.You know, about we got married,
I was a I was arranger platoonleader in First Ranger Battian in Savannah,
Georgia. After that that assignment,uh and going off to the Gulf War
(58:20):
in nineteen ninety one, I gotback from that, I left on her
birthday to go to Iraq the firsttime. After I got back, Uh,
and we had this conversation. Ithink it was it was the first
time I heard her say life withyou is not boring. Uh. And
uh, you know I kind ofI kind of looked at her, and
you know, I was trying to, you know, judge the thoughts and
(58:45):
intentions behind those words, and uh, you know, I realized that,
you know, over time that wasreally kind of a sense of pride for
her, that that we were servingtogether. It wasn't just me, it
was her. She raised three childrenthat are phenomenal, have eight eight grand
(59:07):
seven grandchildren, with the eighth grandson going to be born in October.
Uh. And uh, you knowit's uh, you know, it's it's
been a uh you know, it'sit's been something that you know, I
could never I would have never projectedfor myself, but something I'm incredibly thankful
(59:30):
for. The only thing I wouldchange is is the you know, the
loss of soldiers that were killed,uh and those that were wounded that have
had their lives fundamentally changed forever.H m HM Legends is a presentation of
(01:00:01):
the National Wrestling Hall of Fame andproduced by the Matt Talk podcast network.
If you want to hear more fromwrestling's Legends. Contribute to the project today
by going to matttalkonline dot com slashcontribute. We hope you've enjoyed this look
in the wrestling history. This hasbeen Legends. I'm Jason Bryant.
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