My high-school wrestling coach, the late “Sprig” Gardner of Mepham High School on Long Island was an old service buddy of Charlie Speidel and was an influence in my attending State. Many Mepham wrestlers prior to my registering had done well for Coach Speidel, the Lemyre brothers coming to mind.
Favorite memories of coming to Penn State to wrestle for “Doc” begin with his ability to have incoming freshmen released from having to live in the freshmen dorms. Over the years he had developed a relationship with some of the fraternity houses to house and feed his incoming wrestlers so they would not have to be on the schedule of dorm life. It turned out to be a blessing in many ways. I was lucky to move in to the Sigma Chi house just a few steps down from Rec Hall. Steve Erber and George Edwards moved in with me, and we became teammates and fast life-long friends, who keep in contact to this day. Being so close to Rec Hall made it easy to walk up to practice and workout whenever we had the urge. The mats were always down because they were under the bleachers at the side of the Rec Hall floor behind a curtain. The three of us would push each other to drill and wrestle even out of season.
The golf course was just across the road, and I have some not so fond memories of putting on boots and running the course in the snow before practice. Another crazy activity was to jog to Beaver Field and run up and down the stadium steps. It was painful, but definitely helped get us in shape. If the weather was too bad, we ran around the upper track in Rec HaIl. If practice was running late, dinner was always waiting for us at the “House” when we returned. There was no obligation to pledge Sigma Chi—it was just a living arrangement for the athletes. Since there had been other members on the wrestling team already living at the fraternity, it was a comfortable situation. We had lots of guidance and support to help us get through the initial college experience. We eventually became members by choice. The other members and the best location on campus made the decision easy.
Wrestling for “Doc” was an experience. He had been at State for quite some time when we arrived as freshmen and knew all the tricks to deal with the administration and the league. His practices were much different than what I was used to. Instead of the rigorous practices of drilling over and over, he would tell us to go out and wrestle, and he would walk around pointing out things. He had many neat little tricks to show us. His demeanor and sense of humor was fantastic. He was a gentleman at all times and encouraged his wrestlers to be as well. It was mandatory to dress appropriately for all road trips, meaning jacket and tie. Of course, we wore our Penn State blue blazers with the proper buttons.
Back in the ’60s scheduling meets was much different than today. We wrestled only on Saturdays and very rarely had to miss class. The coaching staff had a good rapport with the faculty, who allowed us to make up any missed work without penalty. Many times we would bring our books and do work on the rides on the Penn State team bus to whichever school we were heading. The only time I remember flying was a trip to Michigan. The maximum number of meets we wrestled in a season was ten and there were no pre-season or holiday tournaments. Dave Adams was our freshman coach and he wasn’t long out of Penn State himself, having had a very successful career. I remember one time walking around some city with “Doc” on our way to a training meal when a panhandler approached us begging. “Doc” with his always quick wit yelled at the guy to get to the other side of the street since this was his territory.
Another time we were in the Lehigh “snake pit” in a very exciting meet. He got the crowd going when he took what looked like a full pail of water and flung it at the referee. The pail was really full of cut-up paper and everyone went wild with laughter. It certainly broke the tension. After the five-hour weigh-ins before the meets, the training meals at the Nittany Lion Inn and the Corner Room were always special as well as the daily training meals we were able to eat at the Hub. Back in the 60’s freshmen were not eligible to wrestle varsity so we had a separate schedule of four dual meets and an end of the season tournament at West Point. Dual-meet matches were nine minutes in length, beginning with a takedown period and two periods with each wrestler getting a turn to be on top. Some of the point scoring had different values than today.
Penn State was in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, and all the end of the season emphasis was geared to winning the “Easterns.” The NCAAs were mostly an afterthought. Usually only the Eastern winners were allowed to go to the nationals if any. There was no qualifying necessary back then—any wrestler whose team was willing to send was eligible to enter. No funds were provided by the NCAA. I was very fortunate that in 1964, my last year of eligibility, the nationals were being held at Cornell University. Since it was so close and not too expensive to attend, Coach Speidel decided to take a number of the team members to wrestle even if they had not done well at the Easterns. It was my last chance to prove myself as a Penn Stater.
Wrestling with a hyper-extended elbow that our fantastic trainer Eddie Sulkowski was able to treat and wrap, I was able to put it all together, avenge some prior loses, and come in third place and become an All American for Penn State. It allowed me to wrap up my college career on a positive note. My one loss at the tournament was to Uetake of Oklahoma State, the eventual champion. He went on to win it twice more and also become an Olympic champion. George Edwards and Marty Strayer also placed that year, and our team was in the top ten.
My last year of eligibility was also Charlie’s last year at the helm. Bill Koll arrived to take over the following season. I never got a chance to wrestle with Coach Koll as I was student teaching away from University Park during his first year aboard and in grad school with all afternoon and evening classes. It would have been a very rewarding experience to have been able to work out and learn from “Wild Bill” to help me in my post-graduate competition at Olympic tryouts in ’64 and ’68. There was never a doubt or regret attending Penn State to wrestle. I would give anything to be able to do it all over. They were definitely the best years of my life, and, as they say, ”Youth is wasted on the young.” Hail to the Lion!
