Gone, Lost & Forgotten: Their Best = Knox

This is yet another program that I have a small connection to.  One of Knox's assistant coaches, Jake Kerr was on the same Pee-Wee kid's club with me.  

Jake Kerr

In the fall of 1949, Chuck Porter came to athletic director Dean Trevor & asked him if there was any money in the athletics budget to start a wrestling program.  Trevor told him that their was money to buy a mat, but that was about it.  As a result Porter took it upon himself to schedule duals around swim meets so that the wrestling team could ride the same bus.  Throughout many seasons, Porter would be one of Knox's biggest supporters.  Knox held an annual tournament in Porter's honor.  After the 2014-2015, sixty six years of Prairie Fire wrestling came to an end. The blaze had burned out. 

Chuck Porter 

Cleveland Bridgman 

Also a member of the Prairie Fire track team, Bridgman posthumously won a Purple Heart after he was killed in Vietnam. 

James Brown

Also a member of the Prairie Fire football & track teams, Brown took third place at the 1986 Midwest Conference championships.  He graduated vice president of his class. 

J Janes

Janes was a two time Midwest Conference champion in 1954 & 1955.  Later in life he became a reverend in a church in Cleveland, Ohio.  The church had a gym in it, along with a wrestling mat. 

Chuck "Pete" Hosutt III

A World War II veteran, Hosutt was an honorable mention All American on the football team.  He later went back into the Army and played football before become a Reverend. 

Tom MacMillan

MacMillan took runner-up honors at the Midwest Conference as a sophomore, winning a title as a junior. He was also a member of the football team. 

John Rutledge 

Rutledge accumulated 116 victories during his career at Knox.  In 2006 as a junior he finished third at Regionals.  In 2007 he won a Regional title, taking third place All American honors at the NCAA Division III championships.  In 2008 he finished as the Regional runner-up & took eighth place honors at the NCAA Division III championships.   He was also All Midwest Conference in Football.