Gone, Lost & Forgotten: Their Best = Southern Illinois Carbondale

If you visit Southern Illinois Carbondale's wikipedia page, you'll read that the Salukis' have had success in football, baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball & softball. Omitted from the list of athletic achievements is perhaps where the Salukis have had the most success, wrestling.

I've had it in the back of my mind for a long time that one day I was going to look up & find as much information about dropped wrestling programs as I could.  It's been on the back burner for a long time.  While I've had many incidents that have motivated me in my search I think the most inspiring one happened in 2010.

I was attending the NCAA wrestling championships, watching the action with one of my best friends, Dennis Doderer who had been a backup 177 lbs'er at Michigan State from 1968-1972.  We struck up a conversation with three gentlemen sitting beside us.

"Sheesh kid, you sure do know you're shit about wrestling." The one says to me. "He (Dennis) points at the mat and you tell him who the kid is, what his record is, what place he took at conference and what happened the last time the two met."

I laugh and say, "I enjoy the sport."

Then one of the others says to me, "What can you tell me about Southern Illinois wrestling?"

I start to rattle off what I know about Edwardsville when he stops me and says, "No, no, no I'm not talking Cougar crap.  What do you know about Carbondale wrestling?"

"Nothing"

And that was the honest truth.  I didn't know anything about SIU-Carbondale wrestling. I didn't even know that SIU-Carbondale had ever had a wrestling team.

He cut me some slack because he said that people who attend SIU-Carbondale might not even know. He was a NCAA qualifier for the Salukis, as were the other two guys, and I could feel the bitterness and resentment in his voice as he spoke.

I'll never forget what he said next.

"It's like we've been forgotten."

It was then that I decided that I was going to make this something I did & while I've gotten sidetracked and busy with the rest of this existence we call life, I've spent the last 10 years collecting as much information as I can find.

This is for those gentlemen I spoke to all those years ago in Omaha, Nebraska.  Maybe your school forgot about you and the wikipedia page on SIU-Carbondale athletics doesn't celebrate your accomplishments, but I do.


The Salukis had success at every level they competed in including NAIA, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I.   At the NAIA level they took Runner-up honors in 1959 & 1960.  In NCAA Division II they rook runner up honors in 1963 & finished in third place in 1964.  In NCAA Division I they took runner up honors in 1962 & finished in fourth place in 1964.

They were also Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions four times & winners of the 1971 Mid-Western Conference championships.  They also won the Wheaton Invitational (one of the toughest Division II tournaments) on three occasions.

Individually I had a hell of a time narrowing it down to the best.

123, 115 lbs
Terry Finn

Finishing as the Illinois state runner-up three times, the one thing that alluded Terry Finn was winning a high school state championship. He wouldn't suffer the same fate in college.  Competing for the Salukis, Finn won the NCAA Division II title in 1963 as a junior.  The next season as a senior he won the Midlands title and then finished as the runner-up at the Division II tournament. Doing what many feel would be impossible, Finn then entered the Division I tournament and won it.

177 lbs
Ken Houston

A state champion for Oak Lawn high school, Houston had a very successful career at SIU-Carbondale earning All American honors at three levels of collegiate wrestling.  In the NAIA he took runner-up honors at the 1960 national tournament as a freshman. As a junior in 1962 he placed third at the NCAA Division I tournament and then he capped off his career as the NCAA Division II champion in 1963.

Post his time at SIU-Carbondale, Houston has remained active in the sport. He continues to work for the Northwestern Wildcat wrestling club.

191 lbs
Roger Plapp

A beloved favorite on the team, Roger Plapp came to Southern Illinois a graduate of Dekalb high school where he took third at the 1958 Illinois state tournament. Known to keep spirits up on the team with his positive & jokester personality, Plapp always kept his optimism even in times of adversity.  After placing third at the NAIA championships as a freshman in 1960, Plapp couldn't find a spot in the varsity lineup in 1961 & 1962.  Nevertheless he kept his focus forward and he not only reclaimed his varsity position in 1963, he won both a IIAC championship and a NCAA Division II championship.

HWT
Larry Kristoff

Larry Kristoff is not only one of the best wrestlers to ever come out of SIU-Carbondale, he's one of the best wrestlers to ever come out of the state of Illinois period.  A two time state champion in high school, Kristoff also played football for a short amount of time for the Salukis before deciding to focus solely on wrestling.

A two time NCAA Division II champion in 1963 & 1964, Kristoff also finished as the NCAA Division I runner-up in 1963.

Post college he had an extremely decorative career which included four Midlands titles, a PAN-American gold, two bronze & three silvers at the World Championships.  He barely missed out on an Olympic bronze medal, losing a close match.

For as successful as he was as a wrestler, he was even more successful as a coach.

He started the wrestling program at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, which began a long rivalry between the Salukis and the Cougars.  The battle of the "Southerns."    While at SIU-Edwardsville Kristoff won three NCAA Division II titles in 1984, 1985 & 1986.  In thirty years of coaching, Kristoff's Cougars finished in the top ten on 18 occasions.  111 times his wrestlers made All American status at the Division II level with 11 of them earning Division I All American status. 12 NCAA Division II individual national titles. 

Among the many accomplishments Kristoff had in his career he was also head coach of one of our World Cup teams.

167 lbs
Don Millard

A two time state champion out of Pekin high school (Illinois), Millard had a standout career while wrestling for the Salukis. A three time NIAC (Northern Illinois Athletic Conference) champion, Millard had a phenomenal senior campaign which involved a runner-up finish at the Midlands and then winning both the NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I title.

Post college Millard coached at Pekin, Elgin Larkin & West Chicago high schools.

130, 123 lbs
Jim Bledsoe

A graduate of Granite City high schoo, Jim Bledsoe won NAIA titles for the Salukis in 1959 & 1960.

Bledsoe sadly passed away in 2018.

157 lbs
Herman Ayres

Yet another Saluki to win a national title who never won a state title, the best Herman Ayres ever did wrestling for Harvey Thornton high school was third in the state in 1956.  He won the NAIA national title in 1959.

190 lbs
Marion Rushing

For those of us that also played basketball, there came a point during our athletic careers when we made the choice to give up hoops for good in pursuit of the mat. In the case of Marion Rushing come that moment in eighth grade, he decided that he was going to continue to do both.

Matter of fact when he entered SIU-Carbondale, he played basketball his first two seasons.  Yet he was still able to win the 1959 NAIA national title.

Altogether Rushing would earn 13 letters competing for the Salukis.  Wrestling, basketball, Track and his best sport football.  In track he threw the Javelin and set school records.   In football he helped the Salukis to a IIAC title as a defensive lineman. 

Post college he went on to have a successful career in professional football playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Atlanta Falcons, the Chicago Bears and the Houston Oilers.   After he retired from professional football, he worked as a coal miner.  Rushing passed away in 2013.

Today there is a street in Carbondale near the football stadium named after him.

HWT
Houston Antwine

Perhaps the most interesting fact about Houston Antwine was that he was born in Louise, Mississippi.  Had it not been for moving to Memphis, Tennessee, he may never have been introduced to the mat.  A standout football player and wrestler for Manassas high school, Antwine sent on to have a successful career in both football and wrestling for SIU-Carbondale.   As a wrestler, he placed third at the NAIA championships in 1959 before being crowned champion in 1960.

Post his collegiate career, he went on to play professional football for the Houston Oilers and the Boston Patriots. During his career he had 39 sacks and was named to the All-Star team on six occasions.  A firm leader in civil rights, we sadly lost Antwine in 2011.

190 lbs
Ken Moore

Another graduate of Harvey Thornton high school, Ken Moore was a two time state champion before coming to SIU-Carbondale.  He won the NAIA title in 1960.

Don Schneider
130/137 lbs 

A graduate of Provisio East high school, Don Schneider had a very successful career for the Salukis.  He won a Midlands title in 1963 and placed third in 1965.   Placing third at the 1964 NCAA Divison II tournament, he would qualify for the NCAA Division I tournament in 1966.

177 lbs
Al Bulow 

Coming to SIU-Carbondale from Carl Sandburg high school where he won a state title with a 30-0 record, Al Bulow placed fifth as a junior at the 1967 NCAA Division I tournament.  Post his collegiate career he taught Driver's Ed and coached wrestling at both Glenbrook South & Deerfield High School.

150 lbs
Richard Casey

A graduate of West Chicago high school, Richard Casey was a four time NCAA qualifier, qualifying in 1968, 69', 70' & 71'.

130, 134 lbs
Jim Cook

A three time NCAA qualifier for the Salukis, Jim Cook captured All American honors his senior season of 1972 when he placed sixth at the NCAA championships.   He Later went on to coach wrestling at Valley High School in Elk Grove, California.  He also worked as a correctional officer/probation officer as well.

158, 167 lbs
Don Stumpf 

A graduate of Arlington High, Stumpf only lost once his senior season and that was in the Illinois high school state semi-finals.  Finishing in third place, his record of 31-1 including twenty-two falls.

Competing for the Salukis, Stumpf made the NCAA tournament twice, placing fifth as a senior in 1973.

Post his collegiate career Stumpf coached at Bloomington high school for a short amount of time before having a long career as the head coach of Crystal Lake South.   There he won multiple regional titles leading his team to 316 dual victories.


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As you can see SIU-Carbondale provided the state of Illinois with an assortment of valuable resources.  Nearly every single one of the wrestlers mentioned above came from Illinois, thus showing that SIU-Carbondale recruited locally and could again.  Nearly all of the wrestlers mentioned above went on to coach within the state of Illinois.  Saluki Vs Cougar wrestling could once again be a hot rivalry.  May one day SIU-Carbondale return to the mat.