SPORTS LEGACY: A REMINDER

Sports legacy can be a ghost that shows up when you least expect it.

Wrestling takes it a little further.

One moment you’re grinding through another practice in a forgotten room in the basement of the oldest building on campus; the next you’re in a beautiful dedicated room in the same school.

The difference? Fifty years.

As group pictures go, this goes to my top ten list. Top five.

What makes it special is these are the guys from the District 5 championship team.

They finished the year with individual titles, state championships, national championships, and all-America designations.

Some wrestled in college, tried out for military teams, ran marathons, lifted weights; all of them wrestled in their backyards and front rooms.

And they all have a story that led them to the mats.

This is one of them:

I showed up my sophomore year. After a football injury ended my season halfway through I got a little depressed thinking about the next season.

The football team was in such disarray that the coach got replaced the next year after a miserable losing season that did no one any good.

I was an injured football player with enough playing time to earn a letter. I wanted to be a three year letterman like my older brother before me.

But, that didn’t happen, which made me sad and depressed. Even worse, I’d been a basketball player on school teams since fifth grade.

The high school basketball team struggled like the football team and I couldn’t see the fun of playing another losing season.

It wore on me.

I was ready to hang it up on everything sporty and camp in the library and read. Then read some more. I would dedicate myself to learning.

But first a stop in the wrestling room. It was my last stop for a sports legacy.

Wrestling Room? Where’s That

I’d never been in the wrestling room.

There was a rumor that if you went in you might never come out.

It was run by a coach with the winningest record in the school.

That was what I was looking for, a winner. It could have been any sport with a winning tradition and I would have joined up.

So I went to the wrestling room instead of moping around football practice, which cost me that football letter.

I went in and never came out.

What I found was a group of ass-kickers who were normal kids in school life. Who knew?

That room brought out a new aspect of their personality, which I took to.

Maybe a little too much.

I was sailing through my first tournament with a pin, a forfeit, and if I beat the next guy I’d win my bracket.

So I wrapped him up good and tight.

He said he couldn’t breath while I was pinning him.

I said, “Tough shit.”

The ref stopped the match for what I thought was my win.

But he stopped it to disqualify me for unsportsmanlike conduct.

I was kicked off the mat, out of the stands, and told to leave the building. And it was a home meet.

I wondered if the ref would follow me home to kick me out of there.

From That Inauspicious Beginning To A Personal Sports Legacy

It’s been said that wrestling is a ‘hand-me-down’ sport.

And I agree.

It’s a hand me down, takedown, turning, and throw me down sport.

Most of all it’s a sport your kids can do at home with your supervision.

But you don’t want them hurting each other or breaking furniture.

Pro tip: If they don’t hurt each other, they will break the legs off every couch practicing throws with a soft landing.

Plan your furniture purchases accordingly.

***

Is a sports legacy a big deal? It was Saturday afternoon for these pictures.

I was in the back when someone called out for a picture of the class wrestlers up front.

Up until then I’ve missed a few calls, like the parents’ dance at my oldest’s wedding. (I was helping my step-dad get to his truck.)

I’m not comparing a high school reunion picture to a family affair, but I did make it this time.

The ghost of a sports legacy were there in the flesh and looked ready for the whistle.

Oh, and I’m not falling down in my stance. I’m feeding an opponent my leg.

‘G’head, take it and see what happens next.’ Like Rick Sanders.

Chokes me up just thinking about it.

Keith, Atsuo, Alan, Robert, Ron, Mark.

My Sports Legacy Moment.

What’s yours?

Write it in comments and I’ll answer with what you should have done.

Lol? Come on.

All photos by Jim Denman.