Friend sent me this rare video of 1968 NCAAs at PSU. I looked up the results: Gable won a title, PSU had two All American’s: Matt Kline 160 and Rich Lorenzo 191.
1968 NCAAs at Rec Hall
- Thread starter HAMMER167
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I remember those NCAA's. I attended as a high schooler. In addition to the wrestlers you mentioned, I remember being very impressed for some reason with LHSU's Ken Melchior who won the title at 115. Maybe it was the speed of the lightweights, but I was quite struck with his wrestling that year. I do remember pulling hard for Rich Lorenzo & Matt Kline, who both came in 4th.
Yeah, I was there.
As I recall, it was nasty late winter/early spring weather in State College, which is hardly unusual.
Gable's first title, I believe; we followed Jim Blacksmith who had gone to my high school (Cedar Cliff), but he was not able to join his brother Bill who won a national title a few years before.
Here are the complete results.
As I recall, it was nasty late winter/early spring weather in State College, which is hardly unusual.
Gable's first title, I believe; we followed Jim Blacksmith who had gone to my high school (Cedar Cliff), but he was not able to join his brother Bill who won a national title a few years before.
Here are the complete results.
I had forgotten that Rich Lorenzo was the top seed and Kline was the 2nd seed that year. Thanks for posting!
Pretty sure Lorenzo was the team captain. Reid won EIWAs the year before. I was there in Rec Hall as a 7th grader. Gable won his first NCAA title, but I was not aware of who he was until 4 years later when he won gold in Munich. My main memory of the 1968 NCAAs was the PSU, Lehigh, and Navy did not dominate like I expected them to. I was completely unaware of wrestling outside of the East Coast.
I was there in 1968 too. That was the first time I ever saw a top level college tournament live. It was an eye opener in a lot of different ways. One thing that struck me in particular was how much more physically mature the college wrestlers were compared to the guys in HS.
Everyone who was at Rec Hall that year got to see what is still considered one of the biggest NCAA finals upsets in history when Dwayne Keller beat Rick Sanders in the finals at 123. Sanders was heavily favored, and if you look at the brackets, he trounced everyone up to the finals. Keller said later that his game plan was to try to keep Sanders away when they were on their feet and beat him when they were on the mat. If you watch the video, that's exactly what he does in their finals match. Keller scored all of his points with mat wrestling.
Also, if you go through the names in the brackets, there was a lot of great future talent in that tournament. Two Olympic gold medal winners, Dan Gable and Wayne Wells, and two Olympic silver medal winners, Rick Sanders and Russ Hellickson. Sergio Gonzales was also on the 1972 US team, and there may have been one or two others that I missed.
Everyone who was at Rec Hall that year got to see what is still considered one of the biggest NCAA finals upsets in history when Dwayne Keller beat Rick Sanders in the finals at 123. Sanders was heavily favored, and if you look at the brackets, he trounced everyone up to the finals. Keller said later that his game plan was to try to keep Sanders away when they were on their feet and beat him when they were on the mat. If you watch the video, that's exactly what he does in their finals match. Keller scored all of his points with mat wrestling.
Also, if you go through the names in the brackets, there was a lot of great future talent in that tournament. Two Olympic gold medal winners, Dan Gable and Wayne Wells, and two Olympic silver medal winners, Rick Sanders and Russ Hellickson. Sergio Gonzales was also on the 1972 US team, and there may have been one or two others that I missed.
I love looking at old brackets! UCLA, Portland State, Toledo, Brigham Young, Central Washington, Miami OH, East Stroudsburg, Northwest Missouri and MIT are among the schools that had All-Americans! Crazy.
I remember how much I absolutely adored the scene at my own first Nationals, in OKC in 2014, when the PA announcers asked for past All-Americans to stand, and former studs stood up all around us. Probably a pretty good chance that some of the 66 guys on this list were there & stood that day!
I met a guy in Lancaster named Bob Funk who said he was captain in like 1969. I was drinking though so I don't want to put words in his mouth. Thought it may have been 1968. I didn't get into wrestling till after the 1990s though so I'm clueless.
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Everyone knowledgeable knows about Syracuse and "Mean" Gene Mills, but Auburn had the Milkovich brothers and some great wrestlers (mostly recruited out of Ohio by the aforementioned Milkovich's) till that ungodly pretentious good old boy club manager Pat Dye canned the wrestling program. LSU had a guy who won a national title and later became a WWF wrestler; I forget his name. And Tennessee-Knoxville had a dude named Edmonds or something like that, a middleweight, who was absolutely stellar as a senior and won a national title in 1985 or so. All gone now. UCLA also had a national champ in the early 80s.
Funk was a two-time PA state champ in 1964 and 1965 wrestling Hwt for Manheim Township.
Funk did wrestle at Penn State for 3 years. Here's his college record from the Penn State Wrestling Club data (an amazing site for history and also for B1G and NCAA tournament coverage).
History – Penn State Wrestling Club
www.pennstatewrestlingclub.org
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Here is a classic bracket, from 1973. Clarion shocks the world.
Here is a classic bracket, from 1973. Clarion shocks the world.
Did I read that correctly? Clarion had 3 individual champions yet did not place in the top 10 team scoring?
Clarion as a College Division school was not included in the team scoring.
Here is a classic bracket, from 1973. Clarion shocks the world.
3 Champs--from the 1-seed, the 4-seed and the 8-seed, wow!
And the aforementioned Milkovich, Tom, was a 1-seed who finished 6th.
I should have met you and NoVa back then! We were living about 1/2 mile away when you moved in. You warmed it up for us!That was the year we moved into your house.
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