NCAA's : Sixty Years Ago.

[Pitchfork Rebel]

http://www.wrestlingstats.com/ncaa/pdf/brackets/NCAA%201962.pdf

Interesting differences in attire, head gear optional and the dancing around and hand shaking to start matches. Weight classes start at 115, end at 191 before true unlimited. No sound and not terribly sharp.

Despite thay a lot of the same moves and tactics.

Hard to imagine a HWT getting three pins in four matches. starting at 35:08, Iowa's Roger Thorson, perhaps the original "bulk job" gets one when he catches Roger Pillath of Wisconsin sitting out. Pillath appears to be in pain a couple times.

Sherwyn Thorson - Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame

www.iowawrestlinghalloffame.com

Best Penn State Finish: Ron Pifer (3rd @ 157)

Penn State Wrestling Club

PSU Sports, college wrestling, stats, schedules, merchandise, clothing, rosters

www.pennstatewrestlingclub.org

 

[nittinsc]

Is that Kemdawg at the 54 minute mark?

 

[a_mshaffer]

thanks for posting... and to think only 10 years later I sat mat side as a kid watching Ron Parks coaching his Clearfield boys. Remember a few kids - Pete Morelli from Duboise... Think he went on to Clarion. But yeah, 10 years later you had Schalles in the mix... anyone else think a lot changed in decades since?

 

[oldcougar65]

I wrestled in that era and never saw anyone wrestle without a top. Weird. I had a friend who was a finalist 3 years later. He never went topless!

Elliot Gray Simons was the god of wrestling, at least in the East at that time. After he graduated he was coaching at West Point while in the Army, I think. We went to the Lehigh-Army dual up there in '63. After the match I went down on the mat and badgered Gray Simons. He patiently talked wrestling with a star-struck 9th grader for 10 minutes.

 

[Pitchfork Rebel]

Wrestling has changed over the years, I remember reading about one of the first NCAA champs, wrestling on a horsehair mat in some kind of exhibition not long after graduating. If I recall correctly, he got a nasty abrasion and ended up getting an infection and dying of sepsis.

By the time I took a turn late 1970's, singlets, shoes with leader pads and either halos or E-41's were official attire, but we still had guys running in rubber suits to knock off 5 or 6 pounds on Friday for a Saturday dual.

 

[oldcougar65]

Wrestling has changed over the years, I remember reading about one of the first NCAA champs, wrestling on a horsehair mat in some kind of exhibition not long after graduating. If I recall correctly, he got a nasty abrasion and ended up getting an infection and dying of sepsis.

By the time I took a turn late 1970's, singlets, shoes with leader pads and either halos or E-41's were official attire, but we still had guys running in rubber suits to knock off 5 or 6 pounds on Friday for a Saturday dual.

You bring back memories. Resilite started selling their mats in the early 60's. At the Haverford College Xmas Tourney in '61 maybe, some guy with a stepladder demonstrated how he could drop an egg on the mat without it breaking. I thought it was hard boiled. Those mats stunk to high heaven. But they were worth it.
One of the worst things about wrestling then was mat burns. Everyone had mat burns. They sucked. Resilite ended that.

Talk about wet suits? I had the whole deal, with booties and a hood. When I came out of practice I'd turn my bottoms upside down and the sweat would pour out. At PSU we practiced with all the Region champs in the Lions wrestling room the night before the state semis. I was the only guy wearing a wet suit and felt like a dork. But I was 3 pounds over and slept in my wet suit over night.

You guys with your weight training and your fancy mats. Wrestling used to be a man's sport.