The Love/Hate Relationship Wrestling Has With Football

 Over the years I have made it my business to know as much as there is to know about wrestling programs we have lost and why we lost them. It's no secret to anyone that knows me that I have been rather vocal and rather critical towards institutions that cut wrestling to benefit the football program.  There are plenty of examples.  

The best example  I'd have to say is Charlie Pell at the University of Florida. He (allegedly) purposefully worked the numbers so that Florida would be in violation of Title IX.  He wanted the space and facilities wrestling took up for his football program as well as wrestling's budget to increase scholarships. 

The other classic example is Dick Rosenthal at Notre Dame. Bucky O'Connor as multimillionaire in the oil industry sets up a permanent endowment after his wrestler son Pat is killed overseas during a class trip in the spring of his sophomore year.  Rosenthal loves to claim that the Fighting Irish dropped wrestling because of Title IX, but there are two holes in that story that don't add up to me.  For one, studies show that when Rosenthal first became the Athletic Director at Notre Dame in 1987 he was trying to get rid of the wrestling program.  Yet ironically enough it wasn't until 1992, less than a year after Bucky O'Connor's passing in 1991 that Rosenthal announced the 1992-1993 season would be the final year of Notre Dame wrestling.  That's too coincidental for my taste.  Along with other representatives from Notre Dame, Rosenthal convinced Bucky's widow that they had no choice but to eliminate wrestling and that Bucky would want the endowment to go to other sports at Notre Dame. And maybe he would have. Bucky himself was a football player at Notre Dame, so maybe he'd be perfectly fine with what happened. I doubt it though.  The solace within all of this is that the 1994 season was one of the worst ever in Notre Dame football history. 


Are Pell and Rosenthal the only two?  No.  Pat Dye of Auburn is another example.  An even better one than Dye is Terry Donahue at UCLA.  

So yes, Football has been an enemy to wrestling on more than one occasion, but enough with the negativity.  

Football has also been a friend to wrestling on many occasions.  


We hear horror stories of athletic directors all the time.  Scott R Wetherbee, Trev Alberts, & Ryan Bowles.  It sometimes makes you wonder with greedy avarices like these, are there any decent A.D.'s out there?  

Of course there are.  I can name them. 

I've heard wrestling fans make the argument before that with the insane amount of money that some football and basketball programs rake in, why couldn't they use the money to help fund other programs at the school?  Good question.  

Want an example of when this DID happen? 

George McCarty the athletic director of Texas-El Paso in the 1970's, who also coached football and basketball, was very instrumental in starting a wrestling program at the school.  Matter of fact, it was his idea.  Unfortunately the program only lasted a few seasons, but it did produce NCAA qualifiers.  The obstacles that UTEP faced that eventually led to the program being discontinued were that none of the other schools in the area would commit to wrestling and that no one wanted to travel to El Paso to duel the team.  McCarty was given the impression that other schools in the area would add/reinstate wrestling if he did. Only when he did, none of the schools followed in suit.  While he tried hard to get Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to come down for duals, both felt that the journey was way too far.

Tuffy Mullison was rather instrumental in Colorado State's wrestling success. 

When John Caccio was brought back to coach football at The University of Idaho he helped get the wrestling program reinstated. Unfortunately upon his departure, the wrestling team was once again discontinued. 

Ade Sponberg who was the athletic director at both Augustana (S.D.) and North Dakota State was said to be very good to the wrestling programs. 

I don't know whether to count this one or not....but it's worth a mention.  Fran Curci at Kentucky desperately wanted Fletcher Carr as a football coach. In order to lure him in, he started the wrestling program and allowed Carr to head it.  Of course once Carr left Kentucky, so too went the wrestling program. 

Larry Coyer upon seeing that some of his best football players had also wrestled in high school, helped to start the wrestling program at Marshall. 

James Phillips who was a standout football and basketball player in both high school and college, was the main reason Morgan State decided to keep wrestling.  The school started a wrestling program but didn't have enough money to pay for a head coach.  Phillips had wrestlers on his football team that really wanted to wrestle, so even though he had no experience or knowledge of wrestling, he volunteered for the unpaid position.  Believe it or not, Morgan State ended up winning 13 conference titles, winning 197 duels and finished in the top 10 at the NCAA DII tournament on five occasions.  


Are these the only examples?  Heavens No!  There are plenty more. 

Then of course there are all of the wrestlers who played football.  If you go back in time before the days of "1 sport only" collegiate athletes, many of our star wrestlers were also standouts on the gridiron.  So many, that if I were to post them, it'd have to be a post of its own. 


Bottom line? Football has been both good and bad to wrestling.  I'd say more good than bad. 

Just do yourself a favor.  Don't cheer for Auburn, UCLA, Florida, and above all else Notre Dame Football!!  

Plenty of other teams to cheer for!  

Mississippi Has Already Produced Some Great Wrestlers

 As you can imagine, I get into conversations about wrestling quite often. Had a guy the other day that went on and on about the talent and phenom that was Bo Nickal.  How it made him wonder over the years how many great athletes the sport of wrestling missed out on because wrestling wasn't really a thing in Texas high schools for such a long period of time. I of course had to mention other greats from Texas, such as Brandon Slay and Tom Grossman.  

Our conversation soon turned to Mississippi as we pondered how many kids from the hospitality state would make great wrestlers if given the opportunity.  Much to his surprise, I told him that I already knew of a few. 

Houston Antwine 

Antwine spent most of his youth in Louise, Mississippi.  Destined to be a legend on the gridiron, he played basketball during the winter. The court wasn't too friendly to the short and stalky Antwine, so when his family uprooted to Memphis, Tennessee, Antwine took immediate notice that there was another option during the winter.  Wrestling.  While it would never replace his love and passion for football, Antwine soon found his second favorite sport.  

Good enough to earn scholarships in both football and wrestling, Antwine took his athletic career to Southern-Illinois Carbondale where he was a standout on the football field and on the wrestling mat.  He was third at the 1959 NAIA championships, winning the NAIA title in 1960.  

Post college, Antwine went on to play professional football.  Ironically enough along with the Boston Patriots the other team Antwine played for was the Houston Oilers!  Houston for Houston! 

Dick Arrington

The summer before his freshman year of high school, Dick Arrington's family moved from Kiln, Mississippi to Erie, Pennsylvania.  Already a promising Football player, Arrington decided to also go out for the wrestling team.  

Post high school, Arrington went on to have a standout football career at the University of Notre Dame where he also took third place All American honors in 1965 as a wrestler.  After college, Arrington played for the Boston Patriots in the NFL. 

Edwin Barnett 

Edwin Barnett spent up through eighth grade in Corinth, Mississippi before moving to Michigan as a freshman in high school.  There he went out for the wrestling team at Warren Fitzgerald High school, where by the time he was a senior in high school he saw himself finishing third in the state. 

Post high school Barnett competed for Wayne State (Michigan) where he went 43-5, making the regional finals four years straight. 

When Collegiate Wrestling Finally Comes to Mississippi Where Will It Be?

 Anything is possible. I could drop dead of a heart attack before the end of this sentence.  However, I imagine that at 35 years of age, I have ahead of me quite a few more years in this life.  I'm going to see a lot of things between now and the day I die.  A whole lot of things.  One of those things I predict is the growth of amateur wrestling in Mississippi. 

It'll of course start with getting the sport sanctioned at the high school level. Something many in the amateur wrestling community have already been working diligently on for a long period of time. It will happen. It's not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.   Once it happens, then the idea of wrestling getting into colleges and universities becomes more and more realistic. 

My ideas here are nothing new.  Hell, back in 1968 Arnold "Swede" Umbach came to both the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State with the idea of adding men's wrestling teams. Fifty-three years ago, both responded with answers of "No!" and "Never!"  They've held fast to their stance for a half a century. 

Yet we live in a day of change.  This isn't going to happen overnight.  I'm not predicting amateur wrestling to have a sudden burst of growth in Mississippi any time soon.  I am saying however, that during my life time, I will see it.  I will live to see a sanctioned high school state championship held in Mississippi.  I will live to see a university or college in the state field a varsity wrestling program. 

My prediction? I say it happens in the next twenty years. I say that by the time I'm in my mid fifties or maybe even slightly before, we'll see wrestling at the collegiate level in Mississippi. 

Where? 

Well that's the question.  Division I where everyone would love to see it, is the most unrealistic.  I don't see it here.  It'd be nice to have a University of Arkansas-Little Rock situation one day pop up, but I don't want to get greedy with what few miracles come around for the sport in terms of addition.  

Division II is unlikely and I think Division III is as well. 

What would really be a treat is if we could somehow, someway get wrestling into all of the NJCAA programs in Mississippi. Their are 15 NJCAA schools in the state.  That's enough for a full conference schedule & a conference tournament.  They could wrestle everything with exception to the NJCAA tournament itself right there in the state.   Again, wishful thinking. 

What I think IS realistic and quite doable in twenty years time or less is getting wrestling in Mississippi at the NAIA level. 


Blue Mountain College and William Carey University to be specific.  Both are in the Southern States conference for most of their sports, which includes Brewton-Parker.  Brewton-Parker the only school in the Southern States conference to field varsity wrestling, is in the Mid-South conference for wrestling.  

The Midsouth includes Brewton-Parker, Campbellsville, Cumberland, Cumberlands, Life, Lindsay Wilson, Midway, Southeastern, Thomas More, Rido Grande, St Thomas and Keiser.   The addition of Blue Mountain and William Carey would make for a total of 14 teams in the conference.  

Very doable schedule for both teams. 

That's my prediction.