Please find the enclosed newspaper article from March 8, 1917. My grandfather was Bob Higgins, former head football coach at Penn State. Also included is picture of my grandfather coaching the freshman [wrestling] team in Rec Hall. As a young boy I would listen to my grandfather tell me about beating a national champion from Pittsburgh. He enjoyed wrestling, both as a wrestler and coach. [Higgins was a Penn State wrestler in 1917 and also served as coach of the freshman wrestling team in his early years here.]
Growing up in State College, I was exposed to the great wrestling teams at Penn State. When I was young my father took me to Rec Hall, and to watch the matches we stood on the track where the temperature rose to over 80 degrees at times.
Meeting Coach Charlie “Doc” Speidel in the Rec Hall locker room was a big thrill for me. As I was standing shaking his hand, he said “Who’s that behind you?” I turned to look, and he hit me in the back of my head with a tap and said, “Never turn your back on a good man!”
I remember Mike Reid winning [against Lehigh in 1967] and the crowd running out and picking him up on their shoulders, then carrying him around the Rec Hall floor. It was that great athletic atmosphere in Rec Hall which ultimately influenced me to become a Penn State wrestler.
After being on the Penn State football team with 125 players, it was enjoyable to be on a team with just 25 wrestlers where I became close friends with many of them. Coaches Koll and Lorenzo made me very comfortable with the crossover from football to wrestling. Over the past 100 years the Penn State wrestling family has grown and developed into national prominence. After following in the footsteps of my grandfather by earning a letter in both football and wrestling, I realized how great the Penn State wrestling program is and how important it is to the University. If I had ever had to go to war, I would have chosen to have wrestlers in the foxhole with me because they are the most mentally and physically tough people I have ever been around.
