Ironically enough the best years of UCLA wrestling looked to lie ahead as the program had crowned its first individual NCAA champion in 1979 & had five NCAA qualifiers in 1980, two of which were All Americans. Unfortunately athletic director Bob Fischer felt differently. He had recently been named athletic director & had a vision to help Terry Donahue turn the football program into a championship team. He felt that wrestling got in the way & in one of his first decisions as athletic director, Bruin wrestling was eliminated from campus. He stated, "Space" as the dominant factor in his decision. "There just isn't enough room on campus for the wrestling team." Space that was once used for the wrestling program, was now freed up for the football team. Allegedly rumors have it that so was money. To Fischer's credit, his goals were met. UCLA won the 1983 PAC-12 championship & they defeated the University of Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Fischer resigned as Athletic Director & UCLA went on to win two more Rosebowls under Donahue in 1984 and 1986.
UCLA did keep a mat around for intramural purposes for a short amount of time. NYPD Blue television writer & former Michigan State 177 lbs reserve informed me that well into the early 80's, he and actor Patrick Kilpatrick (who wrestled in high school) would go in and workout together from time to time.
Today UCLA has a phenomenal club program in the NCWA that has a heated yearly rivalry with the club program from USC. Despite the thoughts of the late Bob Fischer the school does indeed have room on campus to once again field a varsity wrestling program. All arguments held, there's no doubt that with Californians alone they could easily once again become a top twenty-five program.
Let's take a look at the best wrestlers in Bruin history.
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| 115 lbs Sergio Gonzalez |
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| 118/126 lbs John Meilke |
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| 123 lbs Bobbie Janko |
Wrestling for the Bruins, Janko was a two time NCAA qualifier, who took fourth at the 1964 NCAA championships as a junior.
Post college, Janko coached high school wrestling at both North Torrance & Capistrano Valley.
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| 126/134 lbs Harlan Kistler |
Kistler would wrestle his final season for the University of Iowa, winning his fourth conference title, this time BIG 10 & taking third place at the NCAA tournament.
Today Kistler works as a successful lawyer and has had success in coaching including Martin Luther King high school and California Baptist.
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| 130 lbs John Hahn |
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| 157 lbs Rahim Javanmard |
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| 152/160 lbs Lee Ehrler |
You can search high and you can search low but you won't find many athletes who were All Americans in both wrestling and swimming. Lee Ehrler was. A standout wrestler and swimmer in high school, Ehrler began his collegiate career at Modesto junior college before transferring to UCLA. He won PAC-12 titles in wrestling in both 1966 & 1967, being named the outstanding wrestler of the 1967 tournament. He finished in third place at the 1967 NCAA championships in wrestling & also took third at the NCAA championships in swimming.
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| 191/177 Rich Whittington |
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| 191/HWT Jack Ellena |
In Football he helped the Bruins to two Pacific Coast Conference titles and a win in the 1954 Rosebowl. He then went on to play Nose guard for the Los Angeles Rams. Post his NFL career, Ellena ran a summer camp for children.
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| 190/HWT Fred Bohna |
Bohna won the 1979 NCAA championships wrestling at HWT and the only blemish on his record that season was a tie to the legendary Jeff Blatnik of Springfield. Post his collegiate career, Bohna continued wrestling winning a gold medal at the 1979 PAN-AMERICAN championships and finishing as the runner-up at the Midlands wrestling tournament.
He began his coaching career immediately becoming the top assistant at UCLA in their final season of 1979-1980. He then coached at Cal State Bakersfield for a time.
We sadly lost Bohna to cancer. He was only 54 years old.
Lastly I thought about adding Mark Schultz to this list as he qualified for the NCAA championships as a freshman for the Bruins but decided not to because the bulk of his success was at the University of Oklahoma.
This installment is especially informative and interesting, Stephen!Mindblowing to learn of a student-athlete who wrestled and swam competitively! Also wanted to add another name that would fit into the Mark Schultz category: Phil Kinyon, who was an Oklahoma HS state champ for Stillwater HS (home to Oklahoma State) who then entered the US Navy, and wrestled for a year or so in the late 1950s. I've seen a team photo of Kinyon at UCLA but can't find it. He then "returned home" enrolling at Oklahoma State, where he was a three-time NCAA finalist and 1961 NCAA champ at 157. A wrestler of the era described Kinyon as "hairy as a bear and built like a brick ****house." I'd agree; Kinyon was compact, muscular and hairy-chested. -- Mark Palmer, Senior Writer, InterMat
ReplyDeleteOnce again thank you for your information Mark! You seem to always add something very interesting that I did not know.
DeleteI had the opportunity to work out with Fred the summer before his junior year at UCLA. He left camp early and went back home to lift weights and train for his junior year. We reconnected following his NCAA title win after the tournament.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great man!
I want to thank you for mentioning my name with the former UCLA wrestling greats but would like to comment on my recollections on the dropping of the UCLA wrestling program. Newly hired basketball coach, Larry Brown, wanted to use the wrestling room space for his office and for offices for his assistant coaches. Consequently, the program was dropped and the coach, Don Conway, who had just recruited Mark Shultz, was re-assigned as an “assistant” Athletic Director. Larry Brown left after a few years and so did Don Conway when he became the wrestling coach at El Camino Collegein Torrance California. What a sad ending to an emerging program.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the new information. You are right it is sad. Love to see Wrestling there again.
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