ROBIN RICHARDS TO THE RESCUE

Robin Richards top row center. Image via teamusa.org

I grew up in a small Oregon town that had one big team, the wrestling team.

And I wasn’t a wrestler, not yet.

Instead, I played ball, the usual ball. And not very well, which made me question if I’d ever be more than washed up at fourteen.

To recover some confidence my first year in high school I needed a new team, a new sport. If I was as bad at a new sport as I was at the old ones, at least I’d have a new excuse.

If I didn’t find a new sport I was going to quit trying. It’s not easy being a quitter and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I looked through an older yearbook before sophomore year, checking team wins and team losses.

One stood out more than others.

The 1971 Hesperia reported the good news:

“Wrestlers Extend Win Streak to 65 Before Being Defeated.”

One athlete stood out.

Robin Richards won Oregon’s Triple Crown, three state championships his junior year, along with a national championship, and placing second in the Junior World tournament over the summer. That record stands out on any resume.

He’d been on cultural exchange wrestling teams that traveled to South Africa and New Zealand.

He was the nation’s outstanding wrestler in big meets.

The bible of wrestling at the time was Amateur Wrestling News, and the write-up from the 1971 Junior Nationals was just two paragraphs long. This is what it said, in its entirety:

Illinois Juniors Lead Federation Nationals

IOWA CITY, Ia. – Illinois wrestlers dominated the second annual U.S. Wrestling Federation Junior Nationals at the University of Iowa, July 29-31, claiming three champions, four runners-up and two thirds. Iowa and Michigan each crowned two champions, with one each going to Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. Ten states had placewinners among the 200 individual entries.

Robin Richards, Oregon, was named outstanding wrestler. Mark Tiffany, Illinois, had the most falls in the least time.

Robin Richards, a seventeen year high school junior from North Bend, Oregon, made a mark in 1970 and continued into his senior year.

But his biggest win didn’t come on the mat

He came back from Japan with a silver medal in world competition and he was different than anyone else in the school.

He looked different. First, it was all-world style:

Instead of all jeans, t-shirts, and Converse, he mixed in striped bell bottom trousers, harness boots, and flowing shirts with long collars and puffy sleeves.

But, he went international in more ways.

Instead of coasting on his success, he refocused and got ready to do it all over again senior year.

And he didn’t make it all about him when he could have.

The North Bend wrestling room could be a harsh place in those days. Older kids were more than willing to pound the heck out of younger kids just for fun, to toughen them up or make them quit.

Robin Richards used a different tactic. He helped new guys get better. I was one of them my sophomore year, another kid taking a chance on a new sport. He was the role model.

At the time, North Bend had few black students. If a black family was assigned to the local Air Force radar station, their kids became Bulldogs.

With only one black student, race relations didn’t seem a hot issue in 1971 era North Bend High School.

One day a few guys brought their attitude to the only black kid in school. It didn’t go well until Robin showed up.

He could have minded his own business, turned away, and kept an eye on the college scholarship prize waiting for him, but he didn’t. Instead, he was a role model.

More than walking the walk as the closest thing to a super star anyone had seen up until then, he talked the talk.

What did he say? Don’t know, but the other guys decided to find something else to do somewhere else. Sticking around wasn’t a healthy choice for them.

That moment has hung with me all my life. He was the first guy I saw who could have done anything else, and didn’t.

Robin could have walked right by, got into that Thunderbird, and it would have been just another day. But he didn’t.

The example he laid down was the right one to follow then, the right one to follow now. He role modeled the sort of behavior to influence others to change.

When confronted by fear, be brave.

If you suspect lies, find the truth.

What do you do when you’re the only one who can make a difference? Make that difference.

That’s what Robin Richards did. And he kept doing it.

He’s not the only one. What’s your story?