THE TRIALS... 1984 ADDENDUM
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Stan Dziedzic
ziedzic was the manager of the 1984 US Olympic Freestyle wrestling team. He was finishing up his tenure as National team coach at the time of the Trials and was an on-the-scene observer. Dziedzic discusses the controversy from his point-of-view: At the time of the Trials, I was still on the payroll of USA Wrestling. Though I was deemed to be at the arbitration hearing on behalf of Lewis, it correctly could be considered that I was also there on behalf of USA Wrestling and, thus, Smith. The arbitration was thought by most as a ‘we versus they’ deal; the people even sat on separate sides of the table – Gable, Robinson and myself on one side; Combs, Holzer, Strobel on the other. I didn’t see it that way so much. I did not initiate, seek or request to be part of the arbitration but, once called, was required by the Amateur Sports Act. I suspect I could have requested to be deposed in lieu of appearing at the hearing but as the USA National coach I felt that would have been a dereliction of my duties. And given their positions, it would have been equally derelict for Werner, Steve, Greg, Dan or J not to attend. Regarding the arbitration hearing, a key point to consider is this – the judge didn’t rule on the merits of the match or the officiating, He was arbitrating the 1978 Amateur Sports Act. In effect he was deciding if Lewis was given full and fair treatment under the Amateur Sports Act. The judge admitted that he knew little about amateur wrestling and was not interested in watching the video tapes. Some background is important. This was the first year that US Wrestling ran the Trials. They wanted to take away any notion that coaches would decide who made the Olympic team. They wanted to eliminate any sense or perception of bias. Their Trials procedures ba162 Wrestlers At The Trials
sically said that the Olympic coaches could only be spectators. I believe this is a good thing. Now, I believe Bob Dellinger [deceased Hall Of Fame wrestling writer and Director of the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame in Stillwater from 1976 to 1993] was the Tournament Director in Michigan. He had a relationship with the Smith family and may even have been the godfather to Lee Roy or one of his brothers. Anyway, as Tournament Director, Dellinger could exert his powers. This plays an important part in the whole arbitration scenario. The night before the Lewis-Smith matches, Jim Scherr and Melvin Douglas were wrestling the last of several matches against each other and the match went into several overtimes. Now, the USA Wrestling rules said that certain rounds had to be completed by certain days, and the Scherr-Douglas matches had to be completed that night. However, I remember Dellinger saying that if the score of the Scherr-Douglas match was still tied at the end of the next overtime, he was going to make the executive decision to over-ride the rules and continue the match on the following day. That was probably a good, fair decision. However, it set a precedent. The next day, Lewis and Smith wrestle. Lewis wins the first match, then there is the protested match. At the end of the match, Lewis is ahead, but Smith’s coach [Joe Seay] files a protest with the Protest Committee. After viewing the tapes of the match, the Committee overturns the bout score and announces that the bout must be re-wrestled according to the rules. Lewis and his father, obviously upset with the ruling by the Protest Committee, ask to have the rematch moved to the next day in order to give Randy time to recover. Dellinger denied the request. Smith went on to beat Lewis that day and was subsequently declared the winner of the Trials at 136.5. As I mentioned before, the arbitration hearing was about the Amateur Sports Act and potential bias against Lewis. I believe the arbitrator, in making his decision, looked at two key factors: 1) Should Dellinger, because of his relation-
THE TRIALS... 1984 ADDENDUM ship with the Smith family, have recused himself before making the decision to deny Lewis’ request to move the make-up match until the following day? 2) The make-up of the Protest Committee. I do not think that the make-up of the Protest Committee necessarily followed the guidelines set out by USA Wrestling. I believe that there were suppose to be at least four officials on the Committee and the presence of Strobel, who lived in Stillwater, Smith’s home town, led the judge to believe that Lewis was not given fair treatment. Lewis could still have gone to arbitration even without those points in his favor, but his case would not have been nearly as strong. Remember Rick Tucci and Chuck Almeida were two of the most capable officials in the world. I certainly did not agree with the Arbitrator’s decision to re-wrestle the bout from the time of the dispute. He should have said, ‘Wrestle the full bout over or the best twoout-of-three bouts.’ I think people argued over the wrong issue, like did Gable’s presence influence the Arbitrator. That didn’t happen. Or if Gable should even have been there. The Arbitrator later sent a letter to Gable saying that he had the right, and even the obligation, to be there at the hearing. He said the organization [USA Wrestling] can’t rebuke you. During the arbitration process, Lee Roy was with the team members out in California, but my sense was he felt like he was an outsider. It was a trying period for him. I believe he was psychologically so affected by the whole thing that he could not perform up to par in his 84-second rematch. For me it wouldn’t have mattered but I sensed it bothered Lee Roy. My only regret is that the wrestlers were not insulated from the effect the process may have had on their performance. Lastly, a few words about Steve Combs. I had, and still have, a lot of respect for Steve. He went totally out of character with his censure and his letter to Gable. I didn’t understand why there was so much anger vetted against Dan. I think that led to Steve’s departure from USA Wrestling.
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Rick Tucci
ucci was one of the most highly regarded wrestling officials in the world. A resident of Hollywood, Florida, Tucci started refereeing high school matches in 1965. He received his ‘E’ rating from FILA at the ’76 PanAm Games in Mexico City, and he refereed every Freestyle World Championship from 1977-1983. Tucci was the mat official for the second Lewis-Smith bout. He recalls: I remember parts of the match. The action was back and forth. The deciding move started with Smith on bottom, Lewis on top. There was a bit of a flurry. Lee Roy blocked Randy’s arm and sat back into him. Randy was caught offbalance, his hand went back, and his elbow hit the mat. Then he got back on top. I scored it two points for Smith for the exposure and one point for Lewis coming back up. I felt that Lee Roy initiated the pressure and was deserving of the points. However, the points were not confirmed by the mat judge and mat chairman. It got pretty nasty after that. Gable got intimately involved, fighting for Lewis, his own Iowa wrestler. That left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouth. One of the things that aggravated me the most occurred at the arbitration hearing. The Lewis team brought in another official, Chad Crow, as an expert witness. He said the call I made was wrong. Crow wasn’t regarded as one of our top officials. He did a lot of Iowa’s home matches, though. Other senior officials were around – like Evanoff, Garber, Zuaro – who really were the experts. But they didn’t get called to testify. The other bad thing was the California wrestle-off. They started with Randy in the lead, and made it very difficult for Smith to win. He had to give all his Olympic training equipment and everything back after he lost. It was not a good situation all the way around. It turned many people against Gable for his involvement, which was too bad. Wrestlers At The Trials 163