NWHOF Honors Weekend 2025: Tribute Brunch

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we hope you enjoyed their meal, and let's begin
our program. One of the most meaningful parts of a
tribute like this is hearing from the people who've walked
closely with our honorees, the ones who have seen them
at their best, stood with them through challenges, and shared

(00:21):
with them in life's quiet, behind the scene moments. These
are the voices that know the real stories, the ones
that don't always make it into the headlines or onto
the resumes. They remind us that legacy isn't just about accomplishments.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's about impact, and impact.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Has always most deeply felt in relationships. Life's about relationships.
So as we listen to these reflections today, let's really
lean in, because this isn't just a program, it's a
glimpse into the heart of who our honorees truly are.
Each of our speakers will be allowed to talk for

(01:02):
five minutes. Speakers, there's a five minute clock up there
in green, and and.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Then there's the red.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
And I'm just old enough that I'm not auditioning for anything,
and We're going to keep this program rolling. There will
be no injury timeouts, and we do not have overtime,
So without any delay. Let's begin with Pa Bowler, who
will be speaking about our meritorious official recipient, Ken Merra,

(01:36):
who Pa says is his hero, not only because of
what he did for him, but the fact that Ken
works hard to make everyone better.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Welcome Pa, Uh, thank you, Tim I Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
They might have a problem with with my relationship with
Ken now because I've been trying to keep my idolatry secret,
so I may have some things to work out with
him when this is over.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
But Ken is excellence personified.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
When when you're that good and uh, when you're that good,
it is so.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Hard to be as humble as he is.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Ken.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
He walks with integrity and honor and and and Ken's not.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Walking the line. Ken, That's just who Ken is.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
And the actually the line is is the path that
he has led. Is is the line that we're trying
to follow.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
And and him eight just from his example, you know,
referees have a simple job, all right.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
It's not an easy job, all right, but it's simple
when you break it down to the best of your ability.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
You want to ensure the safety of the wrestlers.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
You want to make sure that one wrestler doesn't gain
an unfair advantage over the other.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
Right, I want to keep it.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Safe and fair.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
And then after that you recognize when points have been scored.
All right, referee has never penned a wrestler. Referee has
never thrown a coach out. Is recognized when those things
have been earned.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And I see a couple of you looking at me.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
I've seen the videos too, but so for our purposes,
Ken has never pinned a wrestler. If you're a wrestler
or I'm sorry, if you're a referee, your eye is
more likely drawn to the one thing that went wrong
than the twenty things that were done well.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Referees can be tough critics.

Speaker 6 (04:06):
So when.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
When well respected referees have come out of the woodworks
to support and to write letters of recommendation and more
letters than we were able to put in the application, right,
it is it's very telling. Ken is the kind of
official that makes people around him better. I remember working

(04:33):
my first state tournament as a as a young referee,
and Ken was assistant me on the mat.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
And what Ken.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Did not say, you know, red estalling his ass off,
right right, What Ken said was in a voice that
I was the only one that could hear him in
the he says, if you're thinking about red forestalling, I'm
with you. In that moment, I gained confidence as an official.

(05:05):
I learned what stalling looked like on that setting, which
is what stalling looks like in any match, all right.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Because.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
For for Ken, you get the same match. Whether David
Taylor is sitting in the corner, or whether Dan Gables
sitting in the corner, or whether Coach Brown from Podunk
High School sitting in the corner, you get in the
same match. You know. It said that the best compliment

(05:36):
of referee can get is that he wasn't seen, all right,
And I don't really ascribe to that, but I understand
the sentiment. Ken wasn't seen for twenty NCAA tournaments that
he worked, and Ken wasn't seen for the nineteen finals
he called. Ken wasn't seen for all the big conference

(05:59):
turn months that were fighting for him, and I want
to date you a little bit, Ken, and including four
SEC tournaments that used to be a thing. Ken could
have called it a fine career after hanging up his
NCAA whistle, but he came back to Tennessee, back to
high school where he was needed, and I tried to

(06:25):
I tried to draw comparisons between Ken and the thousands
of referees that have received this honor. Wait a minute's hundreds, right,
I'm sorry, it's dozens, right, it's a handful of dozens
that have received this honor.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Ken, your honor today makes you a member of one
of the.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Most exclusive clubs on the planet.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
And I see you, Ken, Maarra, We all see you.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thank you, Thank you, Pa.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
And now we'll hear more about one of the best
that's ever done it, Ken Merra from one of the
best that's ever done.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
It make Mike Haggerty, who.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Has also been recognized by the Hall of Fame as
a meritorious Official.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Please welcome Mike.

Speaker 7 (07:37):
Thank you Tim.

Speaker 8 (07:40):
First of all, I would just say anytime that I
have an opportunity to share about another official, especially a
guy that I have so much admiration for, I'll take
that opportunity. And when I was asked to say something
on behalf of I knew right away what that was

(08:04):
going to be. What was I going to say about Ken?
And as PA just mentioned a moment ago, he mentioned
those twenty NCAA Championships, He mentioned the nineteen finals that
he worked, but for me watching Ken as I came up,

(08:28):
it wasn't anything about that. It wasn't anything about what
Ken did statistically. As PA mentioned, it was the fact
that he was on the mat. In my estimation as
another fellow official, probably the ultimate professional. I watched Ken

(08:52):
and mimicked Ken. I wanted to be like Ken. I
felt like his style was something that maybe I could
bring to the table. I felt like he was one
of the very very best at the time. Yeah, there
were guys that were maybe a little bit more flashy.
There were guys that we probably know in the wrestling community,

(09:17):
maybe more than Ken, but that's not the story. That's
not who Ken was. Ken was a guy that went
out and did his job and almost nobody knew it.
Nobody knew it, including a lot of the other officials.

(09:37):
I didn't know what Ken's numbers were, and then when
I looked at him, it's like, Wow, twenty NCAA Championships,
nineteen Finals, all the other championships that he worked. But again,
the ultimate professional. He went out and almost unrecognized and
did just an amazing job. And like I said, it

(09:58):
was also the that influenced me a lot in my
career and a lot of other officials Ken, not just mine,
a lot of other officials which I truly respect now
and the roles that I play so as I look back.
I also wanted to mention in regards to Ken's career,

(10:19):
that I know the sacrifices that my family.

Speaker 9 (10:23):
Made to allow me to do what I did.

Speaker 8 (10:25):
I'd never had the chance to meet Ken's wife, but
I met her today.

Speaker 7 (10:32):
And for Kathy, I.

Speaker 8 (10:34):
Don't know where you're at, but thank you for sharing
Ken with us. Thank you to the rest of the
family for all the sacrifices, for the travel and the
weekends away from home, and the mentorship, the phone calls
after the duels are over, listening to sitting in the
crowd and listening to people damn your name as an official.

(10:56):
Thank you to Kathy and the rest of the family.
Very special people to allow.

Speaker 7 (11:03):
Ken to be a part of our community.

Speaker 9 (11:06):
We appreciate that.

Speaker 7 (11:11):
When I had a chance.

Speaker 8 (11:14):
To really work with Ken, it was as my role
coming into the NCAA, and Ken was an evaluator after
he signed off as an official, and it was so
great to have a guy that sort of I admired
whenever I got my evaluations at the end of a session,

(11:37):
the first one I would go to was Ken's What
did Ken have to say about me? And I remember
one of the things that to this day, that he
put on one of those evaluations for evaluation forms was
simply this.

Speaker 7 (11:51):
Haggard, you hustle a lot, but you make it look easy.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
That to me.

Speaker 8 (11:59):
Defined how I wanted to be on the mat and
Ken reassured that Ken helped me become a much better
official with a handful of words. And every time after that, again,
I promise you that the first person that I went
to to see or hear what they had to say
was Ken Marra's evaluation. So again, Ken, thank you for everything.

(12:25):
With that said, and closing again I would just say
the respect, the professionalism that he's brought to the sport
is something that I know myself and so many other
officials will certainly appreciate.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
Thank you so much, Ken, Thanks to him.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Thanks Mike.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
What you said reminds me I call it the life
changing power of well chosen words. It sounds like that's
what Ken did for Mike and so many others and
just reminds me also how much fun is it going
to be tonight when we hear personally from these honorees
and see the story as spoken by them, and so

(13:21):
what an evening that's going to be. And before I
leave off from Ken shamelessly since he's a ut Chattanooga
Mack and my son in law as a head coach there, Hey,
the mocks are coming, all right, thanks, so thank you.
One of the awards that we present annually is the

(13:41):
Order of Merit, which is given to an individual who
has made a significant contribution to the sport of wrestling,
but not necessarily on the mat. We will now hear
about our twenty twenty five Order of Merit honoree Van Stokes,
beginning with long time USA RUST Director of Communications and

(14:01):
Special Projects Gary Abbott, who received the Order of Merit
award in twenty twenty one. Thank you and welcome Gary.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
So make sure it's short enough for me. Thank you.

Speaker 10 (14:29):
So I've been at USA Wrestling for about forty years
and one of the most impressive people I've had the
honor to work with is Van Stokes. Van's initial involvement
with USA Wrestling was with Armed Forces Sports, but didn't
take very long until he was helping be a leader
in almost every aspect of the organization.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
And in sport. Van's one of.

Speaker 10 (14:50):
Those behind the scenes guys, you know that actually get
things done, look at a big picture, and collaborate with
other people for the good of the whole. And I've
learned a lot from Van. He's a volunteer. I worked
on the national staff, but we often work together.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
On a whole lot of projects.

Speaker 10 (15:09):
He's been an officer for USA Wrestling positions like vice president, treasurer, secretary.
But I'd need this big whiteboard to write down all
the things that Van has done for organization in our
sports since he's been there. He and I both came
in about the same time, late eighties. We were talking
about it yesterday. Van has a certain flare when he speaks.

(15:31):
He's good at it right.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
Unlike myself. This is easy for me, but Van's really good.

Speaker 10 (15:38):
When it's time is the treasurer to get in front
of the board and to sell them on the new budget. Right,
So he gets out there, He's well prepared, he tells
a story and he gives the reason for why the
Finance Committee made this recommendation. I mean, if anyone can
make budget discussions interesting, it's Van Stokes, right.

Speaker 5 (16:01):
It's amazing. But he's even better when he's involved with
our strategic planning process. This is something he really enjoys.

Speaker 10 (16:09):
Doing, and he gets well prepared and he really works
to make sure that we're on task and we're very
effective and efficient in the time we spend. And these
meetings are two days long, so if you really are
going to be involved in that, you need a really
good leader to get you through two days of conversation,
and Van's awesome at it. I'm a communications director and

(16:32):
I've had the privilege to work with Van as a broadcaster.
He's a pro on the microphone. He's the Austin p
Voice of Sports for athletics. He's done national television broadcasts.

Speaker 5 (16:44):
And boxing and other sports.

Speaker 10 (16:45):
And when Van came and called wrestling, he was well
prepared right, he did his homework, he asked a lot
of questions, and he was very on spot when he
was ready to go. So that's the kind of person
like to work with. And he was one of the
guys that'd say, hey, I'll take Greco Roman whenever we
had a tournament, because he's been chairman of our Greco

(17:07):
Roman committee for years and years and really really cared
about that style. So Van was wonderful to work with
as a broadcaster. His impact on wrestling is international.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Right.

Speaker 10 (17:18):
He would be the guy that would be a team
leader when Team USA would go all over the world.

Speaker 11 (17:23):
Right.

Speaker 10 (17:24):
But there were a couple situations where we had to
send our team to dangerous parts of the world and
Van was our security.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
Officer.

Speaker 10 (17:32):
His job was to keep the team safe and places
like Iran in Russia, and it was Van's job to
make sure the athletes were able to perform and go
home safely, and he did a great job at that.
Van's one of those guys that when you ask him
the volunteer to do something.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
He'd say yes.

Speaker 10 (17:53):
But he's also one of those guys that would volunteer
before you.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
Ask him, right.

Speaker 10 (17:57):
As one of our friends, Greg Strobl late Great Throble,
used to say, if you want to get something done,
give it to a busy person, and that's who Van
Stokes is. He's the kind of guy you would go
into foxhole with and know that you'd come out come
out okay. We had an example recently. You said wrestling
didn't have a finance director. We were between chief financial officers,

(18:22):
so Van was involved in the committee that selected our
new finance director, but he also volunteered to come.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
He lives in Tennessee. He came all the way out.

Speaker 10 (18:31):
The Colorado Springs on his own time to help our
finance staff, work with Marybeth Powers, work with Sonja Johnson,
and make sure that we handled the finance workload when
we were between people. So he's willing to do that
kind of thing to support the staff, and it's really appreciated.
With the extra things a Van would do. One of

(18:52):
the best times we had, I don't know if you
remember when the Worlds were in Las Vegas. The Van
was on our communications team and we gave.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
Him the toughest job. Had to do the non.

Speaker 10 (19:01):
Rights holder video people who weren't actually allowed to shoot
anything or show it. But we were really impressed with
the ability we had to run a World Championship communications project.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
And when it was over our.

Speaker 10 (19:14):
Myself and and Bob Condron from the USOC, who's one
of my heroes, we sat back, had a glass of
wine in an empty arena and felt really good about
the work we did. Basically, Van, you're getting an award.
They called the Odor Merit. My wife and I call
it the Bird because it's like a big eagle like
this big and you're gonna have a lot of fun

(19:34):
taking that home.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
Good luck getting that on a plane.

Speaker 10 (19:37):
But when Van got announced as the winner, he called
me said I don't know what to do about this,
and I said, Van, you know what, just go have
a good time, relax, enjoy the process. And I'm hoping
that right now, Van, that you're having a good time
with your family and friends, because you've made a huge
impact on wrestling and we really appreciate what you've done

(19:57):
for us.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Thank you, Thank you, Gary.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
And how can it be any more enjoyable than to
have your son speak for you? Here to speak more
about Van is his son, Jonathan Stokes.

Speaker 12 (20:29):
Good morning, everybody.

Speaker 11 (20:35):
My dad.

Speaker 12 (20:37):
Helped or did produce the nineteen ninety eight Olympics in Atlanta.
I think that up until this point in time, that
was the highlight of his professional career. But this weekend,
I think is the new winner. My dad has been
involved with USA Wrestling and Army Wrestling longer than.

Speaker 11 (20:57):
I've been alive.

Speaker 12 (21:00):
Spoke with multiple men last night who said they genuinely
believe that my dad has affected the lives of thousands
and thousands and thousands of young men and I think
that that number may be low. He did it all
with a heart of a servant. He is an incredible

(21:22):
example of humility and service to others, and that's two
great qualities for a father to set for his kids.
You have men that dedicate themselves to their career, that's
nothing new, but that dedication usually involves the pursuit of

(21:46):
personal acclaim or money. And my dad has committed himself
to USA Wrestling and Army Wrestling for the love of
the game. He has never asked for in return, and
so for the Hall to recognize him in this manner
I can tell you now is extremely meaningful to him

(22:09):
and it's the.

Speaker 6 (22:09):
Highlight of his career.

Speaker 12 (22:12):
Of course, you know he's going to say that he's
most proud of his family. He has three boys and
six grandkids. Where he's going to say he's most proud
of his fifty plus year marriage to my mom, without
whom none.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Of this is possible.

Speaker 12 (22:30):
And I think I speak on behalf of everybody when
I say that without the spouses and the wives, nobody
would be up here on the stage tonight getting honored.
So leave it to my dad. If you know him personally,
you'll know that he turned a work obligation into him

(22:53):
being inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame. And what
that means is he and my mom moved to Germany
and around nineteen seventy five nineteen seventy six for him
to begin working for the army and developing sports programs
for soldiers and one of them being wrestling. And my
dad went to college on a football scholarship. He didn't

(23:15):
know a thing about wrestling, but in ten short years
he turned that work obligation in Germany for the Army
to turn that work obligation in Germany to the Army
asking him to serve on the Board of Directors for
USA Wrestling as the Armed Services representative. And my dad

(23:37):
was a civilian, so when you consider the work ethic
of an Olympic caliber wrestler, my dad's work ethic was
every bit of that of an Olympic wrestler. And that's
why it's easy to understand why he would be admitted
to the Hall of Fame. He's a civilian with no
experience in the sport, and he was asked to represent

(23:59):
the Army in this country's governing body over the sport.
And for the next thirty years. He committed himself to
this organization, both behind the scenes and.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Out in the field.

Speaker 9 (24:09):
And he did this in addition.

Speaker 12 (24:12):
To giving his time to serving on the national YMCA,
doing sports broadcasting for the local college baseball and football,
playing the drums in our church's band, raising three boys
and making sure they all graduate college on time, and
being a devoted husband to his college sweetheart. He was

(24:34):
a part time pastor when he needed to fill in.
He moderated my hometown's political debates when they asked him
to during election season. He has m seed multiple concerts
and events for soldiers at Fort Campbell, and he coached
my little league little league baseball team. And he did
all of this while holding down a full time job.
So the obvious question then is why do this? Why

(24:56):
give yourself to USA Wrestling winning You had all of
these other outlets. And I can tell you now that
he's going to say tonight when he walks, when he
talks at the podium. First off, you better make sure
that you put a time limit on him because it
will go all night. And second, he's gonna say, it's
not about what I gave, It's about what.

Speaker 9 (25:15):
It's not about what I gave.

Speaker 12 (25:16):
It's about what they gave to me. This man has
been a dedicated servant to this organization forty years and
he's going to walk away from it talking about how.

Speaker 11 (25:25):
Blessed he was to be able to serve.

Speaker 12 (25:28):
And in this context it's easy to see why he
is being inducted and so behath of everybody in the family. Dad,
we are very proud of you and we love you.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (25:46):
Where are you Van?

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Where's Van? At Van?

Speaker 1 (25:52):
He's talking about enjoying earlier Proverbs ten one says a
wise son brings joy to his father. I think that's
truth in scripture and truth in your life.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Thank you, Jonathan.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Every year we have the opportunity to introduce you to
our Medal.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Of Courage recipient.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
This award is given to a wrestler or former wrestler
who has overcome what appeared to be insurmountable challenges and
whose story provides inspiration to others. Our recipient this year
is Mark Coleman. Speaking on behalf of Mark is Matt Brown,
who Mark coached in MMA and now Mark helps out
at Matt's Jim, welcome Matt Brown.

Speaker 13 (26:49):
All right, good morning everyone, Thank you for allowing me
to speak for Mark for a few minutes here.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
See, so normally, I guess when people do these.

Speaker 13 (27:00):
Kind of speeches, they talk a lot about the funny
stories and all the silly things that everyone did together,
and all those.

Speaker 9 (27:07):
Types of things.

Speaker 13 (27:08):
But you know, my best memories of Mark, you know,
they were on the match, suffering through grinding workouts, him
motivating us to push us a little bit more. So,
I let Coleman tell you all the funny stories, and
I'm just gonna talk about some more serious things.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I guess.

Speaker 13 (27:29):
First off, it's an incredible honor to stand here at
this Hall of Fame ceremony to celebrate my friend of
many years, Mark Coleman.

Speaker 11 (27:40):
When I was asked to speak today, the.

Speaker 13 (27:42):
First thought that I had was how wrestlers are already
known for so much toughness, grit, and courage. So when
someone when a group of wrestlers offer to come together
to give someone a metal of courage, you know that
must be something very special, because even among the most

(28:03):
courageous men on this planet, there are a few that
stand above the rest. They don't just go through the
motions of being a wrestler and a fighter that actually
live it and epitomize it. Mark Coleman is one of
those men. We all know his accolades. We've seen him
on the Mats, we've seen him in the cage. But

(28:24):
his greatest victories aren't the ones listed in record books
and stats. They're the ones that show up in his
life as a father, as a mentor, as a friend,
and a man of extraordinary courage. Words like relentlessness, unbreakable, fearless,
these are the types of things that you think of
when you watch Mark Coleman competing. I know Mark Coleman

(28:49):
is that type of man outside of the arena. He
has a story, a specific story that defines courage more
than anything on the Mats ever could. And that was
when he ran into a burning house to save his
parents' lives. He didn't hesitate it, he didn't think about it,
and when others would freeze, Mark acted. He carried them

(29:11):
to safety, risking his own life. Because that's who Mark is.
When I spoke to Mark in the hospital when he
was recovering from the smoke inhalation, he wasn't asking anyone
for any accolades or any media attention. He actually wasn't
asking anything at all. The only thing that he told
me was that he'll see me in the gym Monday.

(29:32):
The amazing part was that came true. But that's the
Mark that I know, and that's the guy you can't
keep out of the gym.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
The things that he's done for my.

Speaker 13 (29:43):
Gym, he's done out of love for the mats and
the love of martial arts and wrestling. What he's done
for his family, that is courage and no medal, no championship,
no title can match the weight of that moment. So
we're here today to celebrate Mark in his life. We're

(30:03):
here to celebrate the wrestling that he's done, the achievements.
But it's not just about what he's done on the mat.
It's also about the battles he's off the mats, and
that's where no cameras, there's no medals, no referees to
raise your hand. We all know that he was a
two time Olympian, NCAA champion, climbing mountains that only the

(30:25):
toughest men can ever reach. He's also stepped into other
new worlds filled with chaos in danger. When he stepped
into octagon for the first time, I believe it was
UFC ten.

Speaker 9 (30:39):
Is that right?

Speaker 8 (30:42):
No?

Speaker 13 (30:42):
Gloves, no time limits, no weight classes, just two men
in the cage. He became the first UFC heavyweight champion.
He showed the world what toughness looks like wrestling, toughness
looks like even when there's no rules to protect, and
in doing so, he helped pioneer the sport today that we

(31:04):
know as MMA. But before the bright lights and the
billion dollar sport that it is today, there was Mark Coleman,
carving the path with his bare hands and head butts.
As much as that defines who he is, what truly
sets him apart is the fights that he has had
in his life, the devastating injuries, the personal demons that

(31:26):
I've seen myself. He's endured a told that only a
lifetime of combat brings, and through it all he's never quit.
He's inspired generations, not just through victory, but through resilience, loyalty,
and heart. To this day, he talks about wrestling every

(31:46):
single day that I see him, and not to boast
about his accolades, but to honor the legends who have
shaped him. You'll hear stories about Dan Gable, Kurt angle Way, Solger,
State Wrestling, the Olympics, and many more. But when you
actually listen and talk to him about it, you realize

(32:07):
he didn't just train with the guys, he belonged with them.
He's not talking about it to boast about who he
is or what has happened. He's talking about it to
preach about the beauty of wrestling. He teaches a success
that he has had was not given. It was earned
through pain, sacrifice, and showing up when no one else will.

(32:31):
So this medal that the Hall of Fame is given Coleman,
to me, it is more than just about the wins.
It's more about the fights that he's taken on in
his life, the times he stood tall when everyone thought
he would fall, the night that he ran into the
fire to save the people that he loved. Because that's

(32:52):
what courage truly is. It's about that, not the absence
of fear, but the will to move forward despite the fear.
Mark Coleman is absolutely definition of a champion, but more importantly,
he's the definition of courage. So I just want to
thank you guys for allowing me to speak about Mark

(33:15):
and thank you for recognizing him in the Wrestling Hall
of Fame. I think it's long overdue and I'm just
honored to be a part of his life.

Speaker 5 (33:26):
And thank you.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Guys, wonderful words. Matt, thank you so much. And now
we will hear more about Mark, I'm sure, and be
entertained from Roy Salger, who was a member of Team
Hammerhouse founded by Mark.

Speaker 14 (33:49):
Royce Mark, that was a great speech she wrote for
your buddy there.

Speaker 15 (34:07):
I got two disappointments before I start. Dan Gable could
not make it and Rich Bender could. I just figured
after listening to that eloquent I mean, it's a little
bit of levity and a little bit of fun. Mark
Coleman born in December twelfth, nineteen sixty four.

Speaker 6 (34:28):
My age, my grade. I knew about him in high school.

Speaker 15 (34:33):
He went to Ohio State. I went to Iowa. We
kind of teetered in between weights. We always kid that
I was going to move up. I moved up my
senior year to seventy seven. He was worried that I
was going to move up for the duel. I didn't
have the heart to tell him that I wasn't going
to move up to one ninety and take on that
big behemoth.

Speaker 6 (34:53):
But you know, I talked to him.

Speaker 15 (34:56):
I said, courage, you're gonna have to be created just
because you've got three daughters.

Speaker 6 (35:01):
That's not only expensive.

Speaker 15 (35:03):
It's gonna be a You're gonna have some courage to
get through that. He's got three, three beautiful daughters. They
are probably, no doubt the love of his life. McKenzie,
Morgan and Skyler. Also, I echo a lot of things

(35:23):
that mister Brown said earlier. You know when I think
of tough guys. When when we got the list to
see who's going to different tournaments and stuff, I was like, man,
I hope, I hope Coleman's going on this one because
he was so like mine.

Speaker 9 (35:39):
I was.

Speaker 15 (35:40):
I just had a connection with him, and I remember
one year they canceled the trip to to Euregan. It
was the first year they ever had Yuregan and Schultz
was on that trip in Campbell and there was twenty
four guys met in New York City to go to
uh it's actually Iberia, and that is a trek in itself,

(36:03):
four day train ride. They got thirteen time zones over there,
and we were just ready to We were on the
eve of bombing in that first go for war back
in ninety one, and everybody conferred and a lot of
guys went home.

Speaker 6 (36:21):
I gotta worry.

Speaker 15 (36:22):
About my wife this and that. Mark Coleman was one
of the very first like men, we're going over there.
If our boys are over there fighting, we're going to
go to Russia. So we call it the Renegade Tour.
And it's one of my most coveted memories of Mark
Coleman when he stood up in that airport and just
screamed that we're going. So he kind of rallied all

(36:42):
of us, and we had some family men. We had
Campbell Schultz, Jira Davis, Zeke Jones, Kevin Jackson, myself. There
was a cadre of people there. Like I said, you
find out how the metal. You know, we always talk

(37:02):
about being tough and this and that, and you know,
then we have kids and we learned there's a whole
nother paradigm of feelings that you never knew you had.
And then I echo what he said, when you when
your parents are in a burning house, you don't think
you the Mark Coleman, I know, he stands up and
he goes in and uh, you know that's the impetus

(37:24):
for this award here. You know, I have so many
stories and I know he remembers we we we talk
about unbelievable times we had from you know, he was
on he was a silver in the world.

Speaker 6 (37:38):
We were both silvers in the world.

Speaker 15 (37:40):
And we won our national titles together, big ten titles
together at at he was at Ohio State, I was
at Iowa. Then we went to Ames and we both
won our titles. So we've shared a lot of great,
great things. We never quite made a world team. We
kind of I'd make one and he'd make one, and
then he made that two team. I went over there

(38:01):
in Barcelona and we spent a couple of weeks after
the competition.

Speaker 6 (38:05):
I won't tell you what happened. That was pretty fun.

Speaker 15 (38:09):
But he was impetus to get me into the UFC,
and I was actually running a restaurant at the time.
And he came out and stayed at the farm. Not
many people have come out and stayed at the farm
with me. That takes courage right there, because you're gonna
get put to work. But he came out there. He's
been a big part of my life, whether we've been

(38:29):
on the phone or just one of them guys you
cannot talk to for two years and you pick right up.

Speaker 11 (38:34):
You know.

Speaker 15 (38:34):
When I saw him last night, I drove in last
night and I hadn't seen him in a while, and
he was just out in front of the hotel, just
getting a breath of Franist two in the morning. That's
that's Mark Coleman, just inordinate times, inordinate thinker in Ornit
just how we viewed life. You know, we were big

(38:55):
meatheads in the in the weight room. We weren't the
guys watching film. We were like, you know, we got
to work on that high cross. Yeah, you need to
put about twenty more pounds on your on your lap poles.
That's going to fix that. So we were We had
that kind of mentality. So we were We were bruisers
and and fighters, and I believe that we were representative

(39:16):
of an era of some of the best wrestling we've
ever had.

Speaker 6 (39:20):
In this country. You know, I walked the line.

Speaker 15 (39:23):
He was on teams with Bumgardner and John Smith and
Kenny Monday, and you know, there's a lot of a
lot of great great wrestler. Zeke Jones was a good
little guy. We talked about Chris Campbell. When Chris Campbell
decided to come back to wrestling after six a six
year hiatus, I was one of his first calls, and

(39:44):
I Coleman was my first call, Like, I got this
guy that it's impossible to take down, and so we
both kind of we still share stories about that he had.
Coleman had an impossible leg and I tell people if
I would pay rent to be on that, be on
that leg for like days trying to finish on that.

(40:06):
But we have so many conjoined stories. But like I said,
this is this is the metal courage, and it really is.

Speaker 6 (40:16):
Justified.

Speaker 15 (40:16):
And it's coming from a guy that's a bruiser too.

Speaker 6 (40:20):
I have kind of a fighting mentality wrestling.

Speaker 15 (40:23):
I've always been real physical and whatnot, and he shared
that with me. So it was kind of neat to
see a lot of my contemporaries didn't think the same
way I did.

Speaker 14 (40:33):
Maybe the Brands Brothers a little bit, but uh, that's
a little bit too much.

Speaker 15 (40:37):
But Coleman, Coleman is, Uh, he's been a he's been
a steadfast guy in my life since nineteen eighty three.

Speaker 6 (40:48):
Ye Junior Nationals. You know, he'd wear them two knee pads.

Speaker 15 (40:51):
I'd always tell him how dorky he looked with those
things on, but that's how he worked, That's how we rolled.

Speaker 6 (40:58):
But it was.

Speaker 15 (40:59):
It was nice to share the limelight with him in college.
We want big ten titles together, national titles. But like
you said, I'm gonna I'm gonna close with the courage
he takes like like you say, well, you find a
whole nother level of courage when it comes to your family.
And I mean, there couldn't have been any better guy
in the world to be out there to run in

(41:21):
and save his parents than Mark Coleman.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
I'll give it up for him one hand for Mark Coleman.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Thank you, Royce.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
The Outstanding American Award is described as recognizing individuals who
have used what they learned in wrestling to launch notable
careers after concluding their wrestling career. This year's Outstanding American
is Terry Davis. Speaking about Terry as his friend Frank Delardo,

(41:56):
Frank was unable to be with us, but he has
shared his comments on video and we've got a big
video screen and here we go.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
Hello.

Speaker 16 (42:06):
My name is Frank Glardo and I'm talking to you
from Suen City, Arizona, and it's my honor and privilege
to talk today about mister Terry Davis, recent inductee into
the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Terry, I'm so proud
of you, so privileged to know you, and so grateful
that we have become great friends over the years, and

(42:26):
so thankful for what the writing of Vision Quest has
meant to me and to several wrestlers whom I've coached
over the years. I wrestled in high school from nineteen
eighty three to nineteen eighty seven, and nineteen eighty five,
I believe, is when the Vision Quest movie came out.
Loved the movie, and for the twenty five plus years

(42:49):
that I coached high school wrestling after nineteen eighty seven,
I started coaching right out of high school. I made
a point when I took over my school's var the
program that the night before the regional term and every
year I would show that movie. We would talk about
it as a team, and it was a great motivating
factor for us in terms of going into the end

(43:12):
of the season competitions. I finally bought the book when
I was in Portland, Oregon, early twenty fifteen, and when
I got home, I read the book, fell in love
with it, fell in love with the nuances between the
book and the actual movie, and decided to do some

(43:33):
research on Terry Davis. I found out that he had
been a professor of literature. I found out that he
had written two other books. On top of that, and
most important, I found a website that was specific to
Terry Davis, and on that website there was a link
where you could email the man.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
So I took a chance.

Speaker 16 (43:51):
I did so, just expressing my gratitude for that story
and what it meant to me, and shared how I
shared that with the another generation of wrestlers.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
After that, and much to.

Speaker 16 (44:03):
My surprise, Terry reached out to me in replied to
that email, even to the point of offering to send
me an autograph copy of the book. And thus began
a great friendship that culminated.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
I shouldn't even.

Speaker 16 (44:19):
Say culminated, because our friendship continues to grow. But in
twenty nineteen, as part of my fiftieth birthday celebration, when
I took a two week trip to different places around
the country and to Canada as well, I made a
point of stopping to visit and meet Terry for the

(44:39):
first time face to face in man Cato in Minnesota.

Speaker 6 (44:45):
Great visit.

Speaker 16 (44:46):
We talked a lot about the book. We talked about
the book that he's wanting to write after that Son
of Swain, and that was the first of three times
I had an opportunity to spend time with Terry face
to face. I met him again just a year later
when he had moved to Spokane, and visited him there,

(45:10):
and he showed me all the different places that were
used as locations for the filming of the movie. Since
the story of Vision Quest is set in Spokane, so
it's great to visit his hometown and to have Terry
share all of these stories about growing up and his
love of the sport of wrestling. The next year, Terry

(45:30):
had an opportunity to come visit me in ten p
when a Issue was hosting the Pac six Wrestling Championships.
Terry and I continue to talk often, and it's I
think the right honor for him to be inducted in
the National Wrestling Hall of Fame because he has inspired

(45:50):
a I can't even count the number of people in
terms of wrestlers, in terms of coaches, in terms of
fans who have fallen in love with that movie, and hopefully,
as a result, has also picked up his book and
read that as well and realizes what a great piece
of literature he has contributed to the sport of wrestling.

(46:14):
So once again, Terry, I want to say thank you
for being my friend, and more important, congratulations. I'm being
inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He deserved,
my friend, and as you've always said to me some
in a commitment, You've done that, sir. And congratulations again,

(46:35):
Thank you all.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
And now to speak more about the author of the
book that inspired the greatest movie of all time, We're
going to hear from Terry's step son, Josh de Bell,
whose doctor would not let him travel and is also
here by video.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Good morning.

Speaker 17 (47:02):
I'm so said, I'm not able to be there with
y'all to celebrate this weekend. I'd be there my surgeon
hadn't forbidden air travel. I tore my achilles in pursuit
of athletic glory, and I blamed Terry Davis. I grew
up with Terry Davis became my stepdad when I was
in fourth grade. I remember one day after school he

(47:26):
came to pick me up from the playground, and he
did so by pulling up on the sidewalk and playing
Aerosmith very loudly. I remember thinking, no grown ups with
the guts to do that. Terry showed me a life
full of language, curiosity, and physical and intellectual bravery. At
summer dinners, he used to recite epic poetry passionately from

(47:50):
the table. Sometimes he'd weep at the beauty of it all.
I remember thinking this was perhaps normal.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
It was not.

Speaker 17 (48:01):
After Terry fell on his head and was airlifted to
the male clinic in twenty eleven, we were summoned to.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Come say goodbye. We flew in.

Speaker 17 (48:10):
They took the breathing tube out, and to the astonishment
of his doctors, he was soon reciting large chunks of
Tennyson's ulysses. They called him Lazarus, but this was no
divine miracle. Terry had built a strong brain, and he
contends he did it by reading a lot. All of

(48:32):
my life his brain, he said, often, our brains are
muscles like anything else. You do the push ups, you
get the pecks, he said. He said this about everything.
Terry bought me Bob Dylan albums and we talked about them.
He gave me books by wild writers. He gave me

(48:54):
the classics too, some of which I read. He taught
me how to clean a carburetor, which I had forgotten,
and how to respect work that one does with his hands.

Speaker 11 (49:02):
He taught me about the care.

Speaker 17 (49:04):
It was necessary when making choices in language as well
as choices involving actual physical moving parts. Along the same
vein he instilled in k me of reverence for learning
and a respect for physical labor that I am lucky
to gain, was lucky to gain so early. I recognize
pieces of Terry in myself when I'm at my best

(49:27):
with a student and I say something like, you know,
the paragraph is a remarkable thing. At first, when I
heard about Terry winning the Outstanding American Award, I was
slightly surprised. I believe I chuckled, knowing the vitriol that
he espoused about most politicians and waivers of flags.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
But then I thought about it.

Speaker 17 (49:51):
Terry Davis is the epitome of the American voice and
the physicality that Whitman invoked when he insisted that he
speaks for us and contains multitudes the rugged individual who
cannot escape the need for team and family. His novel
Vision Quest captures this perfectly. It's a novel that takes

(50:12):
us inside the mind and the body of the and
the soul of a young athlete on a quest. There's
a reason the novel ends before the match. The quest
is the point, to hear him tell, it is about
getting on the mat with the guy. Those of us
lucky enough to read it while still striving for athletic excellence,

(50:35):
were gifted the permission to see our training as a
holy thing, a quest worthy of the sort of selfishness
demanded of some athletic pursuits. Those of us who encounter
this later in life, I imagine we're gifted the opportunity
to apply that same intensity and joy to other pursuits.

(50:58):
I'll close with some lines Terry recited those years ago
in the hospital bed. Come, my friends, tis not too
late to seek a newer world. For my purpose holds
to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of the
western skies until I die.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Though much is.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
Taken, much abides.

Speaker 17 (51:23):
And though we are not now that strength which in
old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are
we are one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak
by time and fate, but strong in will to strive,
to seek and not to yield. Thank you and congratulations Terence,

(51:48):
much love.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
That's great, nice influence and impact on your son.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Our first distinguished member is Daryl Burley. Speaking first on
behalf of Daryl will be Pete Schuyler, an opponent in
high school who became a teammate at Lehigh and now
is a lifelong friend.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Welcome Pete Schuyler. The first time I.

Speaker 18 (52:43):
Met Daryl Burley was at the Point Pleasant Summer wrestling
tournament in nineteen seventy seven. We met in the finals,
and I remember winning the match by a very convincing.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Scorer six to four.

Speaker 18 (52:59):
We would meet again in the New Jersey state finals
as seniors, where Daryl won by a very narrow marchin
seven to five. Later that year, we would meet up
again as teammates for Team New Jersey at the Junior
Nationals in Iowa. I worked out and drilled with Daryl

(53:21):
while we competed out there.

Speaker 9 (53:24):
We watched each other, pulled for each other.

Speaker 18 (53:28):
Former competitors now teammates for Team New Jersey. We both
placed at that tournament. I placed six at one hundred
and thirty two and Darryl was second at one hundred.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
And forty three.

Speaker 18 (53:44):
Once we both realized we were headed to Lehigh, we
connected shortly after our freshman orientation and became workout partners
and fast friends. We both were at Lehigh for five years,
red shirting and op years.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Daryl won four.

Speaker 18 (54:04):
EIWA titles and made four trips to the NCAA Finals,
winning two titles, one as a true freshman and one
as a fifth year senior. As an undergraduate, he would
also win the Midlands Championships and be named the Outstanding
Wrestler in nineteen eighty two. Daryl would shine also in

(54:27):
freestyle wrestling, where he won the US National Freestyle Championships
in nineteen eighty five at one hundred and thirty six
and a half pounds. Daryl was a very focused athlete
who trained very hard to become the best wrestler he
could be. He was also a very diligent student worked

(54:51):
very hard to earn his undergraduate degree. He graduated with
a GPA of above a three point me I was
also focused focused on becoming an outstanding college wrestler, will
making sure my GPA was just good enough to graduate.

Speaker 9 (55:11):
For most of the.

Speaker 18 (55:11):
Five years, we frequented, frequently trained together, and also spent
a lot of time talking, often arguing about politics and
other various subjects. When we were both in our fifth
year and final season. I was at one hundred and
thirty four pounds. Darryl had started at one hundred and

(55:32):
thirty four pounds the previous three years. We were both
in our last season of eligibility. Darryl moved up to
one hundred and forty two pounds so I could start
at one hundred and thirty four. He won the title
at one forty two and I finished third at one
thirty four.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
That year.

Speaker 18 (55:51):
Following graduation, we worked in many Lehigh wrestling camps together.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Over the years.

Speaker 18 (55:58):
We both served as an usher in each other's weddings
and continue to keep in close.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Touch with each other.

Speaker 18 (56:06):
I am thrilled to be here today to see Darryl
be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He
is indeed a deserving member, as his wrestling history has shown.
He is also a true friend, a genuine friend who
I am fortunate.

Speaker 19 (56:24):
To have known for the past forty five years.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
Thank you, Thank you, Pete.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Helping us learn more about Darryl is Solomon Fleckman, also
a Lehigh wrestling alum. How about that's Lehigh show of
support ed has gotten?

Speaker 20 (56:48):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Solomon is a Lehigh wrestling alum and the head coach
at the Cannon School in Concord, North Carolina, where Darryl
assists him with the wrestling team.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Welcome, solom inflected.

Speaker 21 (57:17):
I'm pretty excited to be here today to speak about Darryl.
Let's share a little bit about my journey with him,
which actually started, truthfully, only about five years ago. I
grew up in the wrestling megalopolis of South Florida, and

(57:40):
I was nine years old when Daryl won that first
NCUBA title, and he was only eighteen years old when
he beat the defending NCAA champion and OW in the finals.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
On ABC Sports.

Speaker 21 (57:56):
I'm watching this, like I said, in South Florida, I
only knew of him as this icon. I didn't have
the Internet or Flow Wrestling or any other way to
know about wrestling out beyond South Florida other than amateur
wrestling news. Darryl's face was in that magazine all the time.

(58:18):
When I came on my recruiting visit to Lehigh, the
first picture I went to go see on the wall
was Daryl Burley's picture.

Speaker 11 (58:26):
He was Babe Ruth to me.

Speaker 21 (58:31):
So cut to five years ago, Coach Turner, both of
our coaches. He says to me, Solomon, I understand you're
going to North Carolina. I said, that's right, Coach. He goes, well,
give Daryl a call. I'm like, babe, ruth, like I
had never spoken to him. I mean, this guy was

(58:53):
like my idol, you know, from Afar, because of all
the amazing things he had done. And then I did
give him a call, and Tim already kind of gave
away my punchline. He was my assistant.

Speaker 5 (59:07):
Imagine that.

Speaker 21 (59:10):
So I've been very blessed, blessed to go to Lehigh,
blessed to have Daryl in my life. And I'm just
going to try and share three main points about Darryl
since I've gotten to know him, and we've gotten to
know each other really well over these last five years.
First of all, brilliance. Second of all groundbreaker and probably

(59:34):
most important giver. I've taken Daryl back and forth to
Lehigh on road trips now I don't know, maybe six
times in the last five years. His knowledge of the history,
not only of the United States, but of the world
is unbelievable. His brain is constantly going and I will

(59:57):
listen to how the great Greeks were to World War Two,
all the way to Vietnam and to the present day.
Darryl just basically, you know, giving me lectures on all
the things that he knows and that's in his brain.
Going twenty four to seven. He's got a degree in history,
a master's degree in history, and he's got a doctoral

(01:00:20):
degree as a law graduate at Hofstra University. People don't appreciate.
I think sometimes how brilliant this guy is. And I'm
here to share a little bit of that because he
shares it with me all the time. It's about eleven
hours from North Carolina to Lehigh, so I get to

(01:00:41):
hear a lot about his brilliant I also want to
talk about him being a groundbreaker because I think maybe
there's probably some young people in the audience that don't realize.
Right these days, we talk about going to Tulsa Nationals
and being a kid wrestler and having you know, ten
years experience before he ever get to high school. Daryl

(01:01:02):
started wrestling in eighth grade in New Jersey, which that's
not easy, by the way, and his freshman year he
wrestled JV. They wouldn't even less let him try out
for the varsity team. So then three years of experience,
try to picture this. He wins the state title in

(01:01:24):
New Jersey. Twelve months later, he's on the platform at
NC Double A's winning it as an eighteen year old. Now,
I know we have a lot of great young wrestlers
these days, and I know Marcus Blaze and all these
great names of young people that are wrestling at the
open level. But this is kind of a new phenomenon.

(01:01:45):
Back then, there weren't many guys doing this. There was
Joe Russell, there was Dave Schultz. There were a few
people that were of that ilk Jimmy Carr another one,
Lee Kemp another one. But Daryl was a groundbreaker. So
I checked with Jason Bryant. He was one of the
first four time finalists, not first, but there weren't many before. Now,

(01:02:09):
you guys can rattle off a lot because recently that's
been a thing, but when he was wrestling, it wasn't.
I see, I'm almost out of time, so I'm just
going to go to the giver part. So when he
finished his wrestling career, I just want to read to
you real quickly. Some of the places where Daryl worked.

(01:02:30):
He worked in health and human services. He was a therapist.

Speaker 11 (01:02:35):
He was a.

Speaker 21 (01:02:37):
Liaison trainer, developer, program director overseeing mental retardation services, professional
services for the Handicapped Association for Children with Learning Disabilities,
assistant manager for Intermedia Care facility, and a direct care
counselor supervising senior citizens. He did this for a quarter
of a century after his wrestling career, and then he

(01:03:01):
went to become his parents full time caretaker. For eight
years of his life. He held his mother and his
father in his arms, Leonard and Elouise Burley when they
passed away. He's been a giver his whole life. Dad
Turner told me to call Babe Ruth. I called him. He,

(01:03:24):
without even asking me any questions, agreed to be the
assistant coach at the Cannon School. I don't know how
many people can just give and give and give, Although
we've heard about some fantastic people already, but I just
want you to know Darryl Burley is among them. And yes,

(01:03:45):
he was a Hall of Fame wrestler. He was an
amazing wrestler, but he was also a Hall of Fame
human being. And I am very proud to know Darryl Burley.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Brilliance and groundbreaker giver.

Speaker 9 (01:04:09):
Terry Davis.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
I think there's a book and a movie there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
The Bambino as a Yankee fan of the Matt Wow.
Our next distinguished member is Matt Linlan. Here to speak
about Matt is Mark Cody, who was an assistant coach
when Matt competed at Nebraska and then Matt's personal coach

(01:04:33):
from nineteen ninety seven until two thousand and helping prepare
Matt for the two thousand Sydney Olympics. Welcome Mark Cody.

Speaker 11 (01:04:57):
That's a long walk. There's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 22 (01:05:01):
Tim Newman was the head coach at Nebraska and called
me into the office one day and said, it's spring break.
I'm bringing in and recruit Matt Linlan. And I don't
have a host for him because everybody's out of town,
so you have to take him out. So we're walking
through downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. It's karaoke night. Of course it's

(01:05:23):
a Tuesday night. So we walked in. There were two tables,
probably three people at each. Matt and I sat down,
got the list of songs. Matt said, I love karaoke.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
I said, this is.

Speaker 11 (01:05:36):
Great, So sure enough.

Speaker 22 (01:05:39):
He picks out a song walks up on stage, and
it was on blame it all on my roots.

Speaker 11 (01:05:46):
I shut up in boots and.

Speaker 22 (01:05:50):
I'm listening to Alfalfa the rest of the So he
comes back to the table and he said to me,
would think now, look, as a coach, you always have
to be honest with your athletes, and that also starts
with recruits, right when you bring him in. So I

(01:06:11):
looked at him and I said, Matt, that was awesome,
that was great, did a really nice job. Let's pick
another one. Next one comes up. We got Johnny cash
boy named Sue.

Speaker 6 (01:06:21):
I knew that snake.

Speaker 22 (01:06:22):
It was my own sweet dad from a warn out
picture that my other He went on and on, song
after song. It was one of the greatest nights of
my life, one of the most entertaining. And you know
how when you see something that's so funny, you can't.

Speaker 11 (01:06:37):
You don't even laugh, you just do this.

Speaker 22 (01:06:42):
Well, that's why I did every song, because I didn't
want to distract myself from what was going on up there.
All right, Sonny comes back and sits at the table
and we're sitting there chatting away. I'll beat anybody. I'll
beat anybody who put in front of me. Everything that
he said was right on the money, definitely what I
wanted to hear. The next day, I come into the
office and Coach Newman asked me, how did it go? Said,

(01:07:05):
if we don't get this guy, I'm resigning just for
entertainment value alone. And sure enough, every day with this
guy was a different adventure. I could go on and on,
but I've only got five minutes, you know. On the
other side of it, it was that, you know, we

(01:07:25):
we'd always look for these different ways to train and
cross train, particularly when he was done well, you know,
the wrestling part of it, when he said he could
beat everybody. Sure enough, his senior year, he rolled right
through the season, right up the national tournament.

Speaker 11 (01:07:37):
Beat everybody, beat everybody put in front of him.

Speaker 22 (01:07:39):
So he definitely backed what he said he was going
to do. Right, So then, you know, moves on to
his international career, and we we would just always try
to find different ways to different ways to train to
cross train. So we went out and got roller blades
instead of a rollerblade course, commissioning.

Speaker 11 (01:07:59):
Wrestlers on rollerblades.

Speaker 22 (01:08:01):
It wasn't very pretty, but we would we would race,
and then of course our financial situation was never great
as a coach, particularly that time we go to grass
Sales and we bought a couple of bikes and we
did bike races around these uh around these courses. Of course,
he beat me every time, except for the one time
that he was supposed to hit a corner and he
went straight into the woods and I won the race,

(01:08:22):
so that worked out. But uh, you know, with Matt,
it was always every coach wants a guy who does
what most people aren't willing to do, and that's Matt.

Speaker 11 (01:08:34):
You know.

Speaker 22 (01:08:34):
For what maybe he lacked in talent, he he uh
was very blessed with a work ethic that still is
unmatched to me I've never seen before as a coach.
And his wonderful wife Angie was right there with him
all the way through, all the way through, side by side.

Speaker 11 (01:08:53):
She was so supportive all the way through because they
were they were married.

Speaker 22 (01:08:56):
I think they got married on a Tuesday when he
hit a day off of practice one time, so they
go out and tie the knot, and again she was
with them all the way through, and obviously all the
way through his Olympic and World wrestling career.

Speaker 11 (01:09:09):
And you know, as far as.

Speaker 22 (01:09:12):
You you want to be remembered for a couple of
different things as a competitor, how hard you worked, and
who you helped.

Speaker 11 (01:09:19):
Along the way, And that was Matt. He was. He
was a great coach, great.

Speaker 22 (01:09:23):
Mentor to too many guys on our team. He also
you know, his goal every time was to walk out
and destroy whoever he's going to wrestle and then come
off the mat and be a kind, considerate person. And
that's Matt in a nutshell. And we all know why
we're here for all the recipients, and we know why
we're here for Matt. And you know, no different than anybody,

(01:09:44):
just work ethic through the roof. And just I'm so
proud to be have been a part of that journey
that he and he let me. I'm honored that he
let me be a part of that journey. And I
want to congratulate him and his family and thank you
for this opportunity to be.

Speaker 11 (01:09:58):
Able to say some words. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Mark was a little worried about it, and I think
you nailed it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Mark. So here to share.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
More about Matt is his best friend, teammate and training partner,
Chris Saba.

Speaker 19 (01:10:37):
You've got to bring that down. Thanks for having me here.

Speaker 23 (01:10:44):
I'm so thankful and honored to be able to speak,
especially in front of this crowd of a lot of
people I'd admired.

Speaker 5 (01:10:50):
Over the years.

Speaker 23 (01:10:52):
Me and Matt's relationship goes back thirty years, training partners,
teammates a lot of blood, sweat and tears, and athletes
at the Olympic Training Center. Uh, and we know each
other pretty well countenance hours on mats together. If I
had to describe Matt as a wrestler, and I didn't
want to do it with too many words, but I

(01:11:13):
want to come up with a few, but I would
say he's tough, determined, and most importantly, Matt is extremely
composed in pressure situations. As a friend, he's humble, entertaining,
and he's extremely kind. What I'd like to do is
kind of recap a few memories in time of situations

(01:11:34):
that I was involved in him that really exemplify these
these characteristics of Matt. I'd like to start. I'd like
to start Pan American Games. And I don't know how
long it's been where you've had to actually qualify every
weight class. It was kind of my almost my entire
wrestl unless you were the home country like Atlanta had

(01:11:55):
the Olympics, you you had a person in every weight class,
but now as you go on with the and they've
even reduced himount of weight classes, you have to qualify it.
So it's not like the World Championships where every country
can send a full team.

Speaker 19 (01:12:06):
So I think you only get sixteen or eighteen.

Speaker 23 (01:12:09):
So we're at the Pan Am Games and Matt's weight
class is not qualified and this is uh. He's about
to wrestle the Cuban and it's a do or die situation.

Speaker 19 (01:12:18):
If wins this match, we haven't qualified. If not, we
do not.

Speaker 23 (01:12:22):
It doesn't matter if you win the Olympic tricks or not,
you don't go. So I talked a little bit about
Matt being composed and you know, under pressure situation.

Speaker 19 (01:12:30):
So he's warm it up for this match.

Speaker 23 (01:12:32):
There's a few people around and the coach, and I'll
spare the coach's name so he doesn't he doesn't have
to hear about this. But the coach, you know, next
to Matt and a couple of us here, he goes, man,
I'm so nervous for this match, and Matt Linlan without
a hesitation, looks at him. He goes, well, it's a
damn good thing. You're not going out there to wrestle,

(01:12:54):
and so that was just, uh, it was just really funny,
you know, and how how he was his composure on
stuff like that. So fast forward to the Olympic Games.
We know Matt won a silver medal, had an amazing
tournament there. He's wrestling the life tournament of his lifetime.
And I'm fortunate enough to be his training partner and

(01:13:17):
warmed up with him, and you know, we trained together forever.
So we're out there and for me, it was amazing.
You know, I didn't I didn't make an Olympic team
two time alternate, but he always brought me along as this,
you know, as his training partner. But just the gravity
of the situation, you know, and some we have Olympic
champions here and I've seen it. But Matt's side, I'm

(01:13:38):
warming up with him, and I'm I'm definitely a little
bit nervous, and uh, Matt's just ready. The straps go up,
and I swear to you the last thing he said
to me before he walked out or there.

Speaker 19 (01:13:49):
He looks and Matt looks at me, he goes, man,
I'm so excited for this match.

Speaker 5 (01:13:54):
I was like, how could you be like that?

Speaker 19 (01:13:57):
It was just absolutely amazing. And I to this day know.

Speaker 23 (01:14:01):
That his excellence from hard work and training and all that,
but was his ability to be composed and controls emotions.
And it was really something to see. And there's countless
examples of it.

Speaker 9 (01:14:13):
You know.

Speaker 23 (01:14:13):
My third little quick story about a different part of
his humanity is just how kind he is and humble
and just altruistic and willing to do things without being
asked and for the greater good of friends and whatnot.
So I have a seventeen year old son, junior in
high school. Loves wrestling pretty cool, took six in the

(01:14:35):
state last year, and he's in a tough weight class
this year and he's having a great tournament. He's ranked
like sixth again or seventh. In my mind and my
wife's minds, they were like, man, he just gets too
nervous before match.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Just I'd love Matt to talk to him. I would love.

Speaker 23 (01:14:49):
Matt to be able to talk to him. So in
me and matter good buddy. So I pick up the
phone call Matt, hey, could you reach out to Michael?
And I leave it at that, and he, you know,
he'd us and I hear it from Michael.

Speaker 19 (01:15:01):
Later on, did you have Matt Linlan call me?

Speaker 23 (01:15:04):
I'm like no, we were just talking and you know,
I wanted to have him, you know whatever, So.

Speaker 19 (01:15:09):
I just I left it.

Speaker 23 (01:15:10):
And you know, these kids today, all they text and
they snapchat. They're not used to like interaction. They need
more of that. Fast forward to the tournament. My son
has the tournament of a lifetime, beats the returning state champ,
beats a kid that he doesn't that he had beaten
him before.

Speaker 19 (01:15:27):
It was just amazing.

Speaker 23 (01:15:29):
They finished the tournament, tournament after we gets the rewards
and stuff, and I swear to you, my son just
out of nowhere, he's like, man, thanks for having Matt
talk to me. That really helped me out. And I
was like, because I never said anything about it. I
didn't want to, you know, violate his space. But somehow
or another, Matt found a way to get through the

(01:15:49):
text and get an actual.

Speaker 19 (01:15:51):
Phone call with my son and it helped. I mean,
thank you. That was so amazing.

Speaker 23 (01:15:57):
So in conclusion, before I get the hook, you know
one thing about Matt, and I just wanted one sentence
to say it is that he puts family first, and
you treat your friends like family, and whether that means
driving a zamboni at nights and make a few extra
box or give your buddy's kid a call and help

(01:16:20):
him out.

Speaker 19 (01:16:21):
You know, that's the type of person he is, and
we're all proud of you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Matt.

Speaker 19 (01:16:25):
I love you.

Speaker 23 (01:16:26):
Thank you for bringing me along your journey. You're amazing
and you deserve this, so thank you, Matt Limmer.

Speaker 6 (01:16:33):
Congratulations.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
Another example of how life's about relationships. Our next distinguished
member is Terry Steiner. Here to speak about Terry will
be Adeline Gray, the first USA wrestler male or female
of any style to win six Senior World Championships.

Speaker 20 (01:17:08):
Welcome Adline Gray.

Speaker 5 (01:17:22):
Hello everyone.

Speaker 24 (01:17:23):
My favorite thing to do, other than analyze the technique
when I'm watching film is to watch Terry Steiner. His
passion is unmissible. His facial expressions vividly portray every ounce
of his sorrow, his joy, his disappointment, and his pride.
One of my favorite wins was World Championships, where I

(01:17:44):
hit a move that I may not have practiced enough,
and you could vividly seize Terry's head fall into his hands,
and then they called it a slip and he pops
up and is yelling at me, and you can see
the disbelief when that happened, and then you can see
the pure relief when it does finally happen that we're
back on the mat. I teck her with the leg

(01:18:05):
lace that he perfected, and you can truly see that
he's proud of not only me, but his entire accomplishment
of being a coach. His tuck jump that he did
at the end of that match is something that lives
in my head forever, and it's really fun to watch.

(01:18:25):
Terry isn't just about sideline passion. He built something monumental.
He helped convert women's wrestling from potential into a potentiated
reality as a powerful movement of women in sports swelled.
He was not just a passive observer. He was at
the forefront, actively laying the groundwork, ensuring that when the

(01:18:49):
opportunity for women's wrestling arrived, that he and this sport
were ready. He empowered so many of us in that process.
Terry was also kind to a generation that maybe didn't
approve of me being on a mat. He was patient
with them and he trusted they would come around the
way he did. He possessed an empathy for people, and honestly,

(01:19:14):
I want to be mad at the skepticism, but Terry
knows they just need time, time to see what he
has seen so clearly that women can be wrestlers. They
can be strong, talented and technical. They can understand the
profound nuances of wrestling, of winning, of losing, of battle.

(01:19:37):
He saw us as worthy of his time and his teachings.
We absolutely would not be here today without Jody, his
driving force, of his wife and his compass. She was
instrumental in seeing and believing in the equality women deserved
on this wrestling mat. Thank you, Jody, but thank you
more for Terry for picking Jody.

Speaker 19 (01:20:00):
He's a role model all of us needed.

Speaker 24 (01:20:03):
Your daughter, Raven ended up with twenty new sisters every
season because of your love and commitment to this sport
and your family. To truly put in perspective Terry's job
and how difficult it is, I want to take you
back to the Senior World Championships.

Speaker 14 (01:20:19):
I was in the back.

Speaker 24 (01:20:20):
Prepping for my first attempted back to back world titles
and the panic was setting in.

Speaker 7 (01:20:26):
I needed Terry.

Speaker 24 (01:20:27):
I looked at my assistant coach and I said, go
find Terry. A few minutes passed and a familiar head
of hair and a small knock on the door.

Speaker 19 (01:20:37):
Peeked in and I looked.

Speaker 24 (01:20:39):
At Troy dead in the eyes, and I said, you know,
I know you're not Terry, right, and he goes, yeah,
but will I do.

Speaker 19 (01:20:47):
He's on the mat with Helen right now.

Speaker 24 (01:20:49):
I was like, Okay, that's fine. So I talked with
Troy and I met Terry out on the mat and
he helped guide me to another win and it was
truly amazing.

Speaker 19 (01:21:00):
That's the dedication we're honoring tonight.

Speaker 24 (01:21:03):
My teammates also wanted me to share some of their
favorite nicknames for coach Steiner t stein Teestein, Elite, tear Bear,
t Money, Euro, Terry, which is a new one I
got from this generation. This is the previous generation, Terrence,
and then his zoom name, the Stronger Twin. Terry is
so proudly deserving of being in the Hall of Fame

(01:21:25):
because he did so much more than being the right
place at the right time. He helped make this the
right place at the right time. He crafted, sculpted, guided, believe,
and trusted in generation of us. Thank you, Terry, and
welcome to the Hall of fame.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
Thank you, Adeline.

Speaker 1 (01:21:57):
Next we'll hear from one of the the great leaders
in our sport, USA Wrestling Executive director and fellow distinguished member,
Rich Bender.

Speaker 9 (01:22:14):
He's a long walked over here. Thanks Tim, and good morning.

Speaker 25 (01:22:20):
On an unsuspecting day in April of two thousand and two,
USA Wrestling was tasked with a very tough job of
selecting our very first Women's Olympic wrestling coach. Sure we
knew this person had to have wrestling knowledge, understand wrestling
skill development, know how to game plan and develop match's strategy,

(01:22:40):
have unbelievable technique, but person also had to be willing
to move their family to Colorado Springs.

Speaker 9 (01:22:45):
This person had to be a visionary.

Speaker 25 (01:22:47):
But this person also had to be a risk taker
and yet have the patience of job. As we blaze
the path that would become the foundation for women's wrestling
in America. They were a handful of fresh, young coaching
talents at the time that matched well with coaching women
with at the time in a.

Speaker 9 (01:23:05):
Male dominated sport.

Speaker 25 (01:23:07):
Well, I'm here to tell you that when we interviewed
Terry Stein, are four things led us to select him. First,
he has the heart of a teacher, the heart of
a servant, his patient. Patient's level with athletes both on
and off the mat is admirable, and we all know
at coaching high performing athletes is a really difficult gig.

(01:23:29):
His tenacity at analyzing wrestling strategy and technique has paid
off for Team USA, starting with our very two, very
first two Olympic medals earned by Sarah McMahon and Patricia
Miranda in Athens and four. Women's wrestling has had some
big wins as a result of this man's uncanny ability
to break down our competitors and build game plans, as

(01:23:51):
evidenced by Helen Rose's monster win over Sashii Yashida for
our country's very first women's Olympic gold medal in Rio,
and Randy Miller's upset win for a bronze over Martine
Gurganda and eight. I think is one of Terry Steiner's
best coaching accomplishments, Clarissa Chun's big, big win for Olympic

(01:24:12):
bronze in twenty tail twelve, and of course Sarah and
Emeats monster gold medals this past summer. Certainly, coach Steiner
was exactly who we needed in the corner.

Speaker 9 (01:24:25):
For those wins.

Speaker 25 (01:24:26):
Heck, every single women's wrestling Olympic medal ever won by
Team USA in history is doing part to his influence,
every single one. Secondly, this man carries himself with such
incredible class poison respect both self respect, respect for others,
and respect for the sport that I've had numerous international
coaches refrees and yes administrators like myself thanked me and

(01:24:50):
which others had a similar matt Side demeanor.

Speaker 9 (01:24:53):
We should all strive to emulate that character trait.

Speaker 25 (01:24:56):
Next, we needed someone who had the respect of the
entire wrestling community.

Speaker 9 (01:25:01):
Building women's wrestling.

Speaker 25 (01:25:03):
Building women's wrestling as sport, which at the time was
dominated by men, meant everyone needed to be on board.

Speaker 9 (01:25:09):
Terry brought that to the table.

Speaker 25 (01:25:10):
He's a respect as a respected competitor, a dominant high
school wrestler, a gable trained NCAA champion, and someone who
competed internationally at a very high level. He was also
regarded boys he and Troy at the time as two
of the up and coming young college coaches that were
destined to be a Division one college coach someday. And lastly,

(01:25:31):
and maybe most importantly, we were looking for a coach
of extreme character and as a Christian man that I
know Terry to be is his massive humility. An athlete's
success has many fingerprints on their game plan. Terry always
steps back and defers as celebration. Accolyides accolades and medals

(01:25:52):
to their coaches, athletes and family members.

Speaker 9 (01:25:54):
He gives all the glory to others and the God.

Speaker 25 (01:25:57):
Well, with all that said, I felt pretty confident that
we could seal the deal with one final phone call
to his wife, and Jody said to me, quote, Oh,
he's taken the job.

Speaker 9 (01:26:10):
He just doesn't know it yet. End quote.

Speaker 25 (01:26:13):
And we can chuckle at this, but I share this
with you because wrestling requires everyone to be all in,
not just the athlete, the coach, but the entire family.
And Terry is blessed beyond measure with this from his
exceptional family unit, led by his beautiful and spirited wife Jody,
his daughter Raven, who, Raven, I think you were just
eighteen months old when your dad became our coach. His

(01:26:37):
sister in law Terry, who holds down his sister in law,
Terry Zuger, who holds down the fort in Colorad's springs.
When Jody and Terry are so often traveling, and yes
it's an identical twin brother, Troy.

Speaker 9 (01:26:49):
The two of in many ways inseparable.

Speaker 25 (01:26:51):
And I know Troy that Terry shares us a word
with you today. Terry and Troy's sister Tracy, who quote
has always been a big supporter of the boys and
is in Terry and the family were raised by this
exceptional parents, Strong Terry, it was alls blessed to be

(01:27:16):
raised by exceptional parents.

Speaker 8 (01:27:18):
Uh.

Speaker 25 (01:27:19):
Strong willed, hard working, dedicated parents who settled it for
nothing less than excellence. Troy shared with me a funny
story about Terry's.

Speaker 9 (01:27:28):
Mom, Lil, given Terry a little.

Speaker 25 (01:27:30):
Pep talk after a tough loss in the Big Ten finals,
and they always say, we learn a little bit more
from our losses than our victories. And Terry, you know,
your dad's smiling down today, so proud of you. So
in closing, and it's and with an immense debt of
gratitude and extreme pride on behalf of team USA, USA

(01:27:50):
Wrestling and the entire women's national wrestling program. Thank you,
Coach Steiner for choosing us your loved.

Speaker 2 (01:28:07):
That's high praise.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
Our final distinguished member is Greg Wojakowski. First to speak
about greg Is John Coll, who Greg coached to an
Ohio state wrestling championship.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Welcome John Col.

Speaker 6 (01:28:42):
Thank you.

Speaker 26 (01:28:44):
It was nineteen seventy two when I read an article
about Greg Wak. He's very dear, dear to me, I'm sorry.
Wrestling for Toledo first, he won two state championships Ohio

(01:29:06):
state high school state championships. He was three times NCAA
finalist and NCAA champ. He had just missed the seventy
two Olympic team by losing to Chris Taylor. They had

(01:29:27):
to wrestle for greco and freestyle and best of seven
in eat sport, and they had to go seven matches both.
So we were thrilled to get him as a high
school wrestling coach. After school started, he called a team meeting.

(01:29:56):
Thirteen wrestlers showed.

Speaker 14 (01:29:59):
Up k.

Speaker 6 (01:30:02):
In Woju.

Speaker 26 (01:30:03):
Woj's uh speech to the team, he said, we were
only going to be as strong as the weakest. Link
brought a little bit of laughter because we had two
kids on the team with the last name link.

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
Uh.

Speaker 26 (01:30:25):
A couple of weeks later, we started practice conditioning, and
Woch was very much into conditioning. We had tough practices
UH here we go, We'll go, We'll Joe set an

(01:30:48):
example of hard work. He was married with one young
son that's here today. His UH first year of teaching
and coaching, Plus he worked several nights a week unloading
trucks unloading and he still had an Olympic dream, so

(01:31:14):
he also had to drive fifty miles to get good
work workouts in at Victorio's health club. He asked me
if I would like to join him going to Toledo

(01:31:35):
several times a week, and I jumped at the opportunity.
He lined up workouts for me. I called him beat ups,
and I was a beat but I got tougher. Those
workouts were instrumental to me, but the rides who were

(01:31:57):
priceless well. Uh shared many stories about his wrestling career
in Philosophy of Wrestling. Our Team. UH started off the
season with a loss, the first loss of Wojo's coaching career.

Speaker 9 (01:32:21):
He was not happy.

Speaker 26 (01:32:23):
Practice practice has got harder and we got tougher. We
were concerned. Middle of the season, Woge qualified to be
on the Russian team on a US team to go
to Russia for two weeks. Luckily for US, an old

(01:32:44):
coach filled in for Woj and did a good job,
but practices were a much needed break for the team.
We couldn't keep up with Woj. Uh we got we
got a break, but when Woj got back hard work
started again and it had results. We ended up WOJ

(01:33:12):
ended up qualifying five kids for districts and then two
kids uh first State and that was first time Archbald
sent two kids to state in a year. Archibold also
had had its first sorry first state champ under Oojo.

Speaker 9 (01:33:39):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 26 (01:33:42):
Oojo was it focused only on Archibald kids, but he
helped a lot of kids. A year after Wood took
the job, he went He took a job back at
in Toledo so he was closer to his workouts. It
was tough to get big people to wrestle, but not
in Toledo, and they all would come to help.

Speaker 5 (01:34:06):
Boge uh Woad.

Speaker 26 (01:34:13):
Started Team Toledo when his sons got into high school.
Kids come came from all over the area to work
out under WOJ and many state champs, State pless Leonard,
state place winners, and good wrestlers came out of that club,

(01:34:40):
especially during the summer months. Boge worked with kids and
I was honored when he showed interest in working with
my son to meet you, to meet his goals to
become a state champ, and he did. Would sit down Jordan,

(01:35:03):
go over the matches, scouting reports which helped him a lot,
and conditioning was everything. I am truly proud to call
Wojo a role model, my friend, my mentor for the

(01:35:24):
past fifty years. Congratulations, We're all proud.

Speaker 1 (01:35:30):
Of you, John, you just won another championship for coach Wojo.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
It's incredible reminded.

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
I mean, when I was watching Wojo, it was the
time I was watching all of our heroes and he
was just such a great competitor and going up against
Chris Taylor and Pete Lee and others. But I'm just
reminded of from John's talk here of never underestimate the

(01:36:11):
power and influence of a coach, and I think that's
where Wojo's greatest impact is. Obviously, we'll now hear more
about Greg from his former workout partner and mentor Don Wiper.

Speaker 27 (01:36:34):
How about that, John, cal there's courage for you right there.
I don't know about all you folks, but I want
to take this moment to say thank you the National
Wrestling Hall of Fame for an unbelievable weekend, what a great,
great show. And like Johnny Carson says, I have had the

(01:36:57):
last envelope. It's hard to five minutes, fifty plus years
squeeze it in, consolidate it. Can't do it. But I'll
make it four minutes and fifty nine seconds. I was
a football player at University of Toledo. Friend of mine,

(01:37:20):
Paul Elsie, convinced me to go out with him on
the wrestling team. He said, we'll get great workouts. Well,
part of that introduction was to Torio's Health Club. And
Toreo's Health Club was this unique gym in Toledo owned
by Wrestling Hall of Fame official Dictorial help coaching Wrestling

(01:37:47):
Hall of Fame Joe Scalzo, help coaching Wrestling Hall of
Fame Dick Wilson.

Speaker 5 (01:37:53):
So it was a family, family, family affair.

Speaker 27 (01:37:57):
And everybody once you get, once you got to fix,
you were Toio. I got to fix for forty years.
It was unbelievable. And if nothing else, if you go
there to work out, you got a great workout. But
if you go there to get politics, boy you got politics.
It was unbelievable. The biggest thing about Greg, I mean I.

(01:38:24):
You know, everybody can go on and on about all
the things he's done. But when I heard about Darryl
Burley and the commentary about giving, that's Greg, and I said,
I'm going to try to paint that picture just a
little bit, because Greg's a giver also, and you know,
just he won't say it because of his dry sense

(01:38:46):
of humor.

Speaker 5 (01:38:46):
He won't say anything.

Speaker 27 (01:38:48):
But once I got to Torio's I started to develop
this love for the sport of wrestling. A lot of
you guys we were wrestling when you were in the
sixth grade. I'm in college and I'm getting.

Speaker 6 (01:39:05):
Introduced to it.

Speaker 27 (01:39:06):
Well, that love stayed there for the next the rest
of my life. I mean, I ended up officiating and
loved it. But then the period of time that we
had initially we developed this sort of really good stand
of heavyweights to give Greg workouts, and he always called

(01:39:29):
them workout partners. We called ourselves Greig's throwing dummies. More
than more than one, more than one injury happened, but
Paul Elsie was one. Connie Petros, Jim Hardy, the Hungarian.

Speaker 5 (01:39:47):
Madman, his old time Ivan was there.

Speaker 27 (01:39:51):
We never figured out where he came from, but he
was a wrestler for sure, but the giving portion of
it came from the Toorio family. And part of that
you'll see here with all the people that have shown up,
my dear friend Myron Shapiro, all American at the University

(01:40:14):
of Toledo, a lifetime Torio devotee, Mark Goodermont.

Speaker 5 (01:40:20):
They made their way here.

Speaker 27 (01:40:22):
The family that Greg has developed over his coaching career.

Speaker 5 (01:40:30):
Certainly family.

Speaker 27 (01:40:31):
I should say, hill to Hilda, you you number one
in the in the group Greg's wife, Hilda.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
Is the main family.

Speaker 27 (01:40:39):
Sun, Chad son Kyle, solid solid, good people. But the
other beyond that. When Greg started coaching again at Libby
High School and teaching under privileged kids, and he'd take
kids you know that walk in as sophomores or juniors

(01:40:59):
to start the wrestling program, and believe it or not,
more often than not he'd have a kid as a
senior that was competitive. But it was the giving portion
that I mean. They realized he was giving to them
to do something. And those kids even today, somewhere out
in here, I can't see it. There's a group of

(01:41:21):
Libby Bouser coaches that grew up under Greg, and they're
all here to Hunter him. So it's one of those
family deals all built around one person, and it's because
he gives and gives back and gives back. Oh what

(01:41:43):
was the one I didn't want to miss?

Speaker 26 (01:41:45):
Oh?

Speaker 27 (01:41:48):
I promise I wouldn't talk about the accolades. But there's
a guy that was a freestyle champ, the GRECO champ,
and the NCAA champ before he was twenty one. I mean,
that's signific Then the other part was my blood and
sweat and tears, and five other guys were there to

(01:42:09):
help him to the eighty Olympics. And I remember the
day that Carter canceled that Olympic team and Greg, I mean,
anybody else, I mean, I don't know what the response
would be, but Greg showed the dignity and the grace.
I mean, he just did not let it get in

(01:42:32):
his way. And from that day forward, he's been giving
back to the sport of wrestling. So I guess I
can you know, sort of wrap it up that I
got a friend of fifty plus years. He's one of
the best people you ever want to have around you
because if you need something, he's.

Speaker 5 (01:42:47):
Going to be there for you.

Speaker 27 (01:42:48):
So Greg, congratulations, And as i've told you five thousand times.

Speaker 2 (01:42:54):
It's well well deserved.

Speaker 1 (01:43:06):
Thank you, Don, and thank you to all of this
morning speakers who enjoyed learning more about the members of
the Class of twenty twenty five. I'd just like to
thank all of you for truly leaning in to this special,
this special morning, and congratulations again to our class of

(01:43:27):
twenty twenty five. I would also like to echo Don's
thankfulness to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, to Leroy
Smith and his entire staff, Jim Miller, the director of
the Dan Gable Museum in National Hall of Fame, and
especially this weekend, in this particular weekend, Jack Carnifix, who

(01:43:50):
is LeRoy's right hand man and my boss during this weekend,
and I just really appreciate the behind the scenes work
that he does.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
So we hope to see you all.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
Back here at the McKnight Center for the perform Performing
Arts this evening for the forty eighth Honors Induction ceremony,
which will be mceed by the best of the Best,
Sandy Stevens and held in this same room. The reception
begins at five thirty pm. It's a great reception. It's

(01:44:23):
a good long reception to come and enjoy each other refreshments,
and then the ceremony starts at seven pm

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