JT#1 Question & Answer: Strangest Place TO have Wrestling Vs Strangest Place to NOT have Wrestling

 
Was asked an interesting question tonight and here is my best attempt to answer it. Collegiately speaking... "Where is the strangest place to have wrestling? Where is the strangest place to not have wrestling?" I'd have to conclude that Alaska-Pacific is the strangest place to have had wrestling. Way up in Anchorage, it is completely isolated. There aren't any nearby teams. I mean you have all of Canada (minus Simon Fraser that was NAIA at the time too) to go through to get to the nearest duel. Even stranger is that they were good! 87' NAIA runner ups! Plus a 4th place finish and two 8th's. The travel issue eventually led to the team's demise, but to know that they even had a team and that they were good is rather mind-blowing. Hawaii could get a vote here as well. To my knowledge the Rainbow Warriors had varsity wrestling at two different periods. 1938-1950 and then again for a very short time in the 70's. To my understanding they only wrestled a handful of duels that they'd fly into the mainland for + the PAC-12 tournament to which they usually finished in last place with no place-winners. NOW... as to the strangest place NOT to have had wrestling? Gonna have to go with the University of Tulsa. You look through the history of high school wrestling in Oklahoma, many of the high schools in Tulsa have been competitive since the 40's. Some even earlier than that. Many of these kids went on to become All Americans. Then you have Oklahoma State a little over an hour away, Oklahoma about 2 hours away. Scheduling would have been a breeze. So between recruiting, scheduling, and being home to one of the largest national tournaments in the United States, it makes no sense why this school never fielded varsity wrestling.