Never wrestled him. He didn't get that far. It was the era of one-and-done.
OT: "Old" people stories
- Thread starter AgSurfer
- Start date
Nah, those people were sitting in the dirt around the stage. We were about 40 feet back in the woods. This is what we heard before this guy appeared:
Mountain Sprout
OK - here's a wrestling story with a really bizarre coincidence that still amazes me. Bear with me here because it requires a little bit of background history to understand the whole story.
Way back in 1977, after I had graduated from Penn State, I started my first engineering job with General Dynamics in San Diego. I became pretty close friends with one of the guys in my group at work who happened to be a Pitt graduate. (Not relevant to this story) One day he came to work and told us he had been tapped for jury duty. After sitting through a trial for about a week, he returned to work and said he found the experience so interesting that he decided to get a law degree. So he worked out a plan to make it happen and eventually left the job to attend law school. We kept in touch for a number of years, but after a while, we both moved too many times and lost track of each other.
OK, now fast forward to 2004. I had moved to WA for a while but ended up back in San Diego again. While in WA, I made some friends through wrestling. One of them was the head coach at a HS a little East of Seattle and his son had become a pretty decent wrestler. In 2004, I saw that he was going for his 3rd state title, so I decided to go to WA for the weekend of the state tournament and watch his son wrestle. I went ahead and booked a flight and made arrangements with a friend for a place to stay.
At the beginning of the same week for the state tournament, for some odd reason I started thinking about my old friend from our days in San Diego, so I did a quick Internet search for him on Google. Sure enough, I got a hit and it turned out he was a partner in a law firm in Seattle! The web page for his law firm listed his email contact so I sent him a quick note hoping he would respond. Sure enough, I got a quick reply with the same humor I was used to hearing from him in the good old days. So we quickly traded a few emails catching up with each other and then I told him that I was actually going to be in the Seattle area the coming weekend to see a friend's son wrestle for his 3rd state title. He replied that was interesting because his wife's nephew was going to be wrestling in the same tournament, and he thought there was a chance that his wife's nephew knew my friend's son. Well it turned out that we were both talking about the same guy! My friend had married my other friend's sister about 15 years earlier and we never had any idea of the connection!
Needless to say, that weekend turned into a really special occasion. All of us from both families had a great time seeing each other and my friend's son did win his 3rd state championship. This happened 20 years ago and I'm still in awe every time I think about it.
I keep two quotes posted on the wall by my desk at work that are largely inspired by what happened.
"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." -- Albert Einstein
"Too coincidental to be a coincidence." -- Yogi Berra
Way back in 1977, after I had graduated from Penn State, I started my first engineering job with General Dynamics in San Diego. I became pretty close friends with one of the guys in my group at work who happened to be a Pitt graduate. (Not relevant to this story) One day he came to work and told us he had been tapped for jury duty. After sitting through a trial for about a week, he returned to work and said he found the experience so interesting that he decided to get a law degree. So he worked out a plan to make it happen and eventually left the job to attend law school. We kept in touch for a number of years, but after a while, we both moved too many times and lost track of each other.
OK, now fast forward to 2004. I had moved to WA for a while but ended up back in San Diego again. While in WA, I made some friends through wrestling. One of them was the head coach at a HS a little East of Seattle and his son had become a pretty decent wrestler. In 2004, I saw that he was going for his 3rd state title, so I decided to go to WA for the weekend of the state tournament and watch his son wrestle. I went ahead and booked a flight and made arrangements with a friend for a place to stay.
At the beginning of the same week for the state tournament, for some odd reason I started thinking about my old friend from our days in San Diego, so I did a quick Internet search for him on Google. Sure enough, I got a hit and it turned out he was a partner in a law firm in Seattle! The web page for his law firm listed his email contact so I sent him a quick note hoping he would respond. Sure enough, I got a quick reply with the same humor I was used to hearing from him in the good old days. So we quickly traded a few emails catching up with each other and then I told him that I was actually going to be in the Seattle area the coming weekend to see a friend's son wrestle for his 3rd state title. He replied that was interesting because his wife's nephew was going to be wrestling in the same tournament, and he thought there was a chance that his wife's nephew knew my friend's son. Well it turned out that we were both talking about the same guy! My friend had married my other friend's sister about 15 years earlier and we never had any idea of the connection!
Needless to say, that weekend turned into a really special occasion. All of us from both families had a great time seeing each other and my friend's son did win his 3rd state championship. This happened 20 years ago and I'm still in awe every time I think about it.
I keep two quotes posted on the wall by my desk at work that are largely inspired by what happened.
"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." -- Albert Einstein
"Too coincidental to be a coincidence." -- Yogi Berra
I had one other freaky coincidence occur. After a few years of marriage, we were finally able to buy our first house - a huge old place we got for a song because it needed a lot of work. The previous owners had turned it into 2 apartments. I lost 10 pounds using a steamer to remove wall paper in the height of summer. Our kids' bedroom had several layers of linoleum which I had to pry up. Under the final layer of linoleum was a newspaper, opened to an article about me.
I have a weird coincidence. My twin brother met a girl from Honesdale and moved out there from where we grew up in Somerset county....about a 4 hr drive I think. Anyway, he was working one day out there and got to talking to an older guy and through the conversation found out they were from the same town and went to the same high-school. The man asked him where exactly he lived. My brother explained to him what road to take from the high school and described the house and area around it. The guys jaw dropped! Turns out my step dad bought the house from the mans parents after he had already gone out on his own. They grew up in the very same house!
Along the same lines, here’s another weird coincidence. Way back in the late 70’s , a friend and I bought a condo together in San Diego as a real estate investment. We kept it and rented it out for a while and then sold it for a small profit. About 20 years later, I was talking to my girlfriend at that time and her dad. The discussion took a turn such that I realized that her dad was friends with the brother of the guy who I bought the condo with. We talked about him for a bit and then my girlfriend told me she bought her first home through a deal that he had arranged. When she told me where the place was located, I realized that she had bought the condo that we sold! (I teased her by saying we made a huge profit on the sale! )
You want a coincidence? I have the holy mother of coincidences.
There's a guy at my gym "Bill", known him for at least 7-8 years; went to Penn State when I did. Didn't know him then-but -we have common pre-internet memories and perspectives and ;aments of lost youth.
One day this summer Bill starts telling me a yarn about a girl he had a crush on and how she ended up telling him about an alternative to a required class that he needed but was filled. She said "hey take this class with me", My response was "did you not realize that was a gold plated invitation?", to which he admitted he didn't take it that way.
I proceed to tell him I said, I got a better story/bigger screw up than that. I start with There was this girl, "Sandy" in one of the next dorms and she had these piercing steel grey eyes, it took me a month to get up the nerve to call her, but I invited her to an end of the semester blow out.
She was non-committal and said her parents were coming early next day so I figured she'd never show so I went to the party and did what all good Penn Staters did then, I played "quarters" and got pretty lit.
To my surprise, she shows up. Now I'm a dog that finally caught the bumper of the car- but I only mustered a brief conversation and then wished her a good night and a happy summer.
With sobriety, I kind of realized I should have offered her a walk home; so I went to the local library that had PA phone books, so I wrote her a goofy apology letter over the summer.
The next year, she came to our parties again and I thought maybe I could make amends for my complete lack of social graces the prior spring. One day a friend cautioned me "that girl hates your guts, you left her in the lurch, you didn't even try to see her back to her dorm".
I proceed to tell Bill so the story should have ended there right, but no sir. Four years after I graduated and six after my faux pas, just before I head back to Jersey for a new job, I get a surprise call from an old college buddy AJ, who tracked me down with one of those phone book relics.
AJ invites me down for a weekend in Phillipsburg. He said we can do the usual bar-hopping and go to Chi Chis for dinner. Turned out one of the managers was a guy from our floor, so we get real nostalgic.
We start reminiscing and AJ asks me if I remembered "that girl you liked so much in college", to which I said "yeah long time ago dude". He then says "I called her" and I was floored. Silly me, I thought stupidity like that ended with post-college adulthood.
I said AJ good grief man, you are going to get me arrested and he said it was ok, he only talked to her mother and that Sandy was now working in the greater X area. I told him don't ever do anything that stupid again.
Bill gets a funny look and says says to me. Hey were was this girl from?, so I told him.
He stops and says "Rebel, the Sandy in your story is my wife".
When Mrs. Rebel got home from work that night, I said "have I got a story for you, and I'm not sure if you'll be slightly perturbed or laugh your ass off" . I was relieved when she sort of smiled and said "you know he's heard this story before right-and probably didn't believe it".
There's a guy at my gym "Bill", known him for at least 7-8 years; went to Penn State when I did. Didn't know him then-but -we have common pre-internet memories and perspectives and ;aments of lost youth.
One day this summer Bill starts telling me a yarn about a girl he had a crush on and how she ended up telling him about an alternative to a required class that he needed but was filled. She said "hey take this class with me", My response was "did you not realize that was a gold plated invitation?", to which he admitted he didn't take it that way.
I proceed to tell him I said, I got a better story/bigger screw up than that. I start with There was this girl, "Sandy" in one of the next dorms and she had these piercing steel grey eyes, it took me a month to get up the nerve to call her, but I invited her to an end of the semester blow out.
She was non-committal and said her parents were coming early next day so I figured she'd never show so I went to the party and did what all good Penn Staters did then, I played "quarters" and got pretty lit.
To my surprise, she shows up. Now I'm a dog that finally caught the bumper of the car- but I only mustered a brief conversation and then wished her a good night and a happy summer.
With sobriety, I kind of realized I should have offered her a walk home; so I went to the local library that had PA phone books, so I wrote her a goofy apology letter over the summer.
The next year, she came to our parties again and I thought maybe I could make amends for my complete lack of social graces the prior spring. One day a friend cautioned me "that girl hates your guts, you left her in the lurch, you didn't even try to see her back to her dorm".
I proceed to tell Bill so the story should have ended there right, but no sir. Four years after I graduated and six after my faux pas, just before I head back to Jersey for a new job, I get a surprise call from an old college buddy AJ, who tracked me down with one of those phone book relics.
AJ invites me down for a weekend in Phillipsburg. He said we can do the usual bar-hopping and go to Chi Chis for dinner. Turned out one of the managers was a guy from our floor, so we get real nostalgic.
We start reminiscing and AJ asks me if I remembered "that girl you liked so much in college", to which I said "yeah long time ago dude". He then says "I called her" and I was floored. Silly me, I thought stupidity like that ended with post-college adulthood.
I said AJ good grief man, you are going to get me arrested and he said it was ok, he only talked to her mother and that Sandy was now working in the greater X area. I told him don't ever do anything that stupid again.
Bill gets a funny look and says says to me. Hey were was this girl from?, so I told him.
He stops and says "Rebel, the Sandy in your story is my wife".
When Mrs. Rebel got home from work that night, I said "have I got a story for you, and I'm not sure if you'll be slightly perturbed or laugh your ass off" . I was relieved when she sort of smiled and said "you know he's heard this story before right-and probably didn't believe it".
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I grew up on the south coast of Oregon. I moved to San Diego in 1987 to join SDPD. In 1989 I met my now wife, Jill, who had moved into my apartment complex in San Diego. It turned out she was from Oregon also and had moved to San Diego after college. We had been dating a few months when I told my Mom about Jill and how her mother also grew up on the south coast of Oregon. It turned out that my mother and my wife's mother had been friends in high school in a little town of approximately 1500 people called Bandon and they currently lived less than an hour from each other. My mom even had a photo of Jill's mom from a party in high school.
I didn't initially tell Jill about all of this. I had my mom send me photos of her and Jill's mom from back in high school. I showed Jill the photos and she later told me she had never felt more trapped : ) I took the opposite position and felt our relationship was meant to be! A few months later I proposed and we recently just celebrated 34 years of marriage.
I didn't initially tell Jill about all of this. I had my mom send me photos of her and Jill's mom from back in high school. I showed Jill the photos and she later told me she had never felt more trapped : ) I took the opposite position and felt our relationship was meant to be! A few months later I proposed and we recently just celebrated 34 years of marriage.
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That’s a great story!
Aren’t you from Coos Bay or nearby? I was wondering if you knew Steve Garner. He was an Oregon state champion in HS and later had a good career at Princeton. My best friend beat him in the EIWA finals and was awarded OW for the tournament.
Yes. I grew up in North Bend (state wrestling champions my freshman year in 1979) which butts up against Coos Bay. I did not know Steve. The state of Oregon was producing some solid wrestlers back then and still is having success getting wrestlers onto D1 teams. Probably the most accomplished wrestler in Oregon who wrestled contemporaneously with me was Les Gutches. Les has the distinction of beating Cael at the 2000 U.S. Senior Nationals. Howard Harris and I shared a few high school years. I did share one year at North Bend High School with Eric Messner, who was a phenomenal freestyle talent and a Pac-10 champion for Oregon. Dan and Joe Russell wrestled a few years after me. And before my time Rick Sanders and Greg Strobel stand out as some of the best.
Okay, here goes. Short version. While on my way out of grad school at Iowa in 1992 I finally met a girl that I had previously dubbed to my classmates “the girl of my dreams.” We dated until I rolled out of town while she did a semester at Laval in Quebec City. Up until then it seriously looked like she might be the one. She told me of her dream to ride horses out west. Mine was to go fly fishing in the same areas.
Fast forward to 1995-6 when internet search was gaining speed. I did an AOL (laugh, I do too!) search on her and all indications were she married a guy with a distinctive last name that was easy to remember.
Fast forward to 1999 when Dad and I decided to take a fly fishing trip to Missoula. As we were waiting for our guide on about Day 4 I hear a guy at the fly shop counter say he was was there to meet his guide as well. When asked his name I heard him say that very distinctive last name. I made small talk and worked in that I believed that an old acquaintance married a guy with the same last name. He confirmed that I was indeed fact to face with her husband, and he was doing exactly the same I was there to do. She was out there … riding horses.
For some reason, I can’t get the icon to work to post a photo, but at the Pac 12 tournament in 2016, I was sitting only a few seats away from Les Gutches so I took a picture. (I was sitting with Brandon Kaylor and his dad!) The same day, Greg Strobel came over to say hi to me because he saw me wearing a Penn State shirt. Super nice guy and I was really upset when I read about him passing due to cancer.
A little bit later, I had a chance to get a picture of Gutches, Strobel and Stephan Neal all standing together talking. Unfortunately, I didn’t jump on it. That would have been a great one to hang on to.
