Friday From the Archives: Your memories go beyond just ‘Fargo’
Editor’s Note: This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 27 Issue 9, which printed on July 6, 2021.
By Sandy Stevens
Oh, the memories!
From swatting mosquitoes after the Fargo Flood to Fred Feeney explaining to Willie Nelson that the white-clad referees were not selling ice cream, recollections of the Junior Nationals over nearly 50 years surfaced when I recently posed this question on Facebook:
“If you’ve ever wrestled, coached, officiated, paired, volunteered, photographed, covered or cheered at the National Junior Freestyle Championships in the past 50 years, what was your most memorable experience?”
Recollections traversed the five decades and five sites of the Junior Nationals, as the tournament took place in Iowa City (1971-82), Cedar Falls (1983-90), Warrensburg (1991) and St. Paul (1992) before moving to Fargo in 1993.
Here’s a sampling of those memories, beginning with Morrie Adams, who cited the earliest: “Help recruit volunteers and set up the first Junior Nationals Tournament in Iowa City.”
Ed Kane: “Officiating the first Junior Nationals. Vince Zuaro said, ‘Good job kid,’ but he was sitting me down because I wasn’t quite ready to officiate the finals!”
Mike Pickford: “In Iowa City at the (un-air-conditioned) recreation center, when it was so hot and we were still going after 10 p.m.”
Pamela Jean Gibbons: “(Being told that) I was going to run the UNI Dome scoreboard for freestyle finals.”
Randall Balch: “Many years ago, starting the finals before you introduced the wrestlers. The match was over in like 20 seconds, and you said, ‘And the wrestlers for this match were….’ I’ll never start a match early again!”
Colleen Holst Flathers: “So many fun memories as a student trainer in the UNI Dome, including an orthopedic surgeon from New York who didn’t realize that corn grew on a plant. We took him to a cornfield before his flight back home.”
Ken Chertow: “Sandy Stevens asking me how to pronounce my name at Junior Nationals. Then days later, announcing that I was the first Junior National champion ever from West Virginia. A few days later, I won freestyle and OW, too. Memories of a lifetime!”
Nate Spieth: “Having to take cover in the tunnels because there was a tornado outside.”
TJ Bramblec: “A pen fell off my shirt collar while (officiating). Circling the mat, I nonchalantly changed levels and flipped it off the mat, not realizing that the direction of ‘the flying object’ was on a dead line with (referee) Belinda Brown’s forehead. I think she gave a 2 on my evaluation for friendly fire.”
Sue Tellgren: “Being on the floor of the Fargodome, just prior to the start of the Juniors tournament — so many familiar faces, famous coaches, tension, excitement. The whole floor was just a super-cell of energy.”
Nick Esposio: “After a long trip, getting to the Fargodome and walking through the tunnel to see the full arena laid out for the first time. Gave me chills. My first match there, I had a five-point throw to a touch fall in 31 seconds.
Gary Brownell: “One of the early Fargo years, the Red River had flooded and the Dome was awash as water flowed down the loading dock ramp and into the facility. Mats were floating, and the dome was freezing. All the built-in heating did was evaporate the water, which rose to the rafters, created clouds and then rained back down! It was fine the next day, but you could see the water marks on the walls.”
Dwight Hinson: “It was Summer ’93, right after the floods and it was so cold in the Fargodome because they were trying to dry it out. I had to get off my weight outside, which was crazy humid and the mosquitoes were on steroids! No worries. I still went back to Okie with that national title!
Stephanie Quesinberry Price, 2019 Team Arkansas photographer: “The floor is so crowded. Once I got behind Tom Erickson and got to the mats in record time because everyone got out of his way.”
Sara Bailey: “One of the best memories was when a wrestler ‘lost’ all his belongings. Runners started bringing donations from the stands to the head table. The best part was when the young man, who had worked to pay for his competition, returned the money that was more than he lost.” (Editor’s note: His coach, Jon Hayden, notes that Justin Agens is now “one of my heroes, an awesome father and man.”)
Gail Meminger Rush: “(Son) Clayton’s braces getting stuck on the back of his opponent’s singlet and him trying to call time out, and he couldn’t talk! This seriously went on for at least half of a period.”
Larry Allen: “Officiating and meeting many great mat officials from all over the USA. My best memories are when the girls were allowed to wrestle in Fargo, and the first gold went to Minnesota’s Rachael Holthaus.”
Gregory Scott VanHouten: “Between athlete and official, I can’t really pick just one specific memory. But it’s been one amazing ride!”
(Sandy Stevens is a long-time public address announcer of national and international events and was named to the National Hall of Fame in 1998.)
