THE TRIALS... 1984 ADDENDUM
C
Steve Combs
ombs was a Big Ten wrestling champion at the University of Iowa and runner-up in the NCAAs at 167 pounds in 1963. He won the National AAUs in 1966 and made the 1968 US Freestyle Olympic team. In 1974, Combs took over the leadership of the USWF and was most instrumental in their successful battle to emerge as the governing body for amateur wrestling in the US. In 1984, Combs was the Executive Director of the newly formed USA Wrestling organization. He was not present at the Trials but was intimately involved in all the controversy. After the arbitration hearing Combs wrote a personal, ‘f**k you, strong letter to follow’ type of letter to Gable that was widely reported by the media during the Olympic Games. Combs talks about his point of view on the whole subject: The Lewis-Smith controversy was probably the lowest point in what was the greatest experience of my career – heading the USWF and USA Wrestling organizations. I had quite a few encounters in the 12-year period battling the AAU, but nothing like the controversy surrounding the ’84 Trials. I am very proud of my accomplishments in finally getting the Federation acknowledged as the US governing body. I felt that what I was doing was in the best interest of wrestling. The crux of the Lewis-Smith arbitration was the 1978 Amateur Sports Act. What happened with Gable was extremely frustrating and disappointing. The position I had taken with the Board members, 24 to 26 people representing all aspects of wrestling, was at the heart of this disappointment. Let me go back to 1983 in order to frame the whole story about the controversy. Gable was selected as Olympic team coach well before the Trials. That was a difficult decision for our Federation Board members. The Board at that time was made up of numerous administrators who had fought the AAU for years, plus some new grass-roots members and active athletes. Through the years of battle with the AAU, Dan was both an
164 Wrestlers At The Trials
active competitor and eventually a coach in Iowa. He was never behind the USWF even though his first international experience was a trip to the Soviet Union under USWF leadership. No one could ever recall him saying that the USWF was doing the right thing for wrestling. Many of our folks saw Dan aligned with the AAU, though no one ever heard him say bad things about us either. Hence, Dan was not ‘one of us’ from the beginning and many of the Board members wanted one of ‘our people’ named as coach. In contrast, Russ Hellickson and J Robinson had been extremely proactive in supporting the USWF and the Federation programs over the years. I personally considered Russ and J as the two most important people in the wrestling world to go to for advice on issues regarding National level programs. So when it came time for the final selection of our Olympic team coach, I went to Russ and J for their advice. I told them that Gable was a strong candidate but our Board didn’t think he was the right man and that they didn’t identify with him. Russ and J both told me that Dan was the best and only guy to coach the team. They were very emphatic about it and said that the athletes identified with him and that he was undoubtedly our best choice. Because of the diverging opinions, I got caught up emotionally in the selection process. Based on the strong support from the active athletes, I went to the Board members and sold Dan’s candidacy to them. It was finally resolved; the Board appointed Dan Gable as our Olympic team head coach. I personally did not go to the Final Trials tournament in Michigan; it was being handled by our Director of National Teams, Greg Strobel. I stayed back in Stillwater at USA Wrestling headquarters. On the first day of competition I received a phone call from my staff in Michigan informing me, ‘We have a problem. We are spending a lot of time in the back room reviewing videos of protested matches. And Randy Lewis, with the support of Dan Gable, is protesting Lee Roy Smith’s victory.’ It all ended up in my hands. Here I was trying to establish a new organization built on honesty and fair play, something we didn’t see exist in the old AAU. And now, we were being accused of the same things by our own head coach. I was not against the process of going to ar-
THE TRIALS... 1984 ADDENDUM bitration. I accepted that as being okay, especially since the Federation used arbitration to win its battle against the AAU years earlier. What I could not understand was Gable’s involvement in the process. He was now the Olympic coach, not the coach of Iowa wrestlers. He should not have been involved in the Trials selection process. His job was to train and inspire the wrestlers selected for the team. I can understand J Robinson taking on Lewis’s side; after all, he was his coach at Iowa and had not yet been designated a National team coach. But Dan should not have been challenging the organization that appointed him as head coach. As we know, the arbitration went in Lewis’ favor. I was very disappointed and found it difficult to accept on two levels: 1) that Smith lost due to a great extent on Gable’s reputation and how vigorously he fought before the Arbitrator on behalf of Lewis, and 2) that the Arbitrator decided to have the two wrestlers re-wrestle from the point of protest. Starting with Lewis ahead and only 84 seconds of wrestling to go made everything more ridiculous to accept. If the Arbitrator didn’t want to give Smith the win, then he at least should have given the wrestlers a full match to decide the outcome. It was an absurd, ridiculous verdict. Even these many years later, as I am reminded of the letter I sent to Gable following the verdict, I am as disappointed and embarrassed by my active support of his selection as Olympic coach as I was then.
S
Greg Strobel
trobel was a three-time All-American at Oregon State University, winning NCAA titles in ’73 and ’74. He went on to be an assistant coach at Oregon State and also a high school coach prior to joining USA Wrestling. He attended the ’84 Trials as Combs’ delegate from USA Wrestling and was part of the Protest Committee and the arbitration hearings. Strobel relates his story about the ’84 Trials: In March of 1983, I took the job as USA Wrestling National Teams Director. I was a full-time staff person, working for Steve Combs.
I had liaison responsibility for the Coach Selection Committees and the Sports Committees, which established the Trials procedures. As the liaison, I did not write or revise any rules, but merely expedited the process. We set up the ladder system and the video system all as part of making things as fair as possible. I can tell you that the full intent of USA Wrestling’s procedures was to make the team selection process fair and equitable for everyone. People were tired of the AAU days when coaches at times interfered in the selection of World and Olympic team members. As the USA Wrestling liaison at the Trials, I would attend all Protest Committee meetings, but did not have a vote. I was an expert on the process and procedures, but was not a category E official, so I could provide input on the protest process but was really not qualified to vote on bout scoring matters. Basically, the Protest Committee people felt that the second Lewis-Smith bout was so topsy-turvy that the fairest thing to do was to rewrestle it. This was not the only bout that the Committee voted to uphold the protest. USA Wrestling made the mistake of being unprepared for the arbitration. We should have had our attorneys there like the Lewis side did. The other side had all the firepower; we had the short straw. And on top of that, the most famous name in wrestling, Dan Gable, was there representing the other side. I think Combs and Holzer [USA Wrestling President] didn’t believe they needed attorneys there. They thought it was a cut and dried issue – we followed our procedures the way we designed them. They were overconfident. When you go to court anything can happen – and it did. Plus, the Arbitrator can do anything he wants. He was convinced by Lewis and his attorneys and his supporters that he [Lewis] was treated unfairly. The Arbitrator really only heard one side of the story. Why the judge ruled to start wrestling again with 84 seconds left is beyond me. Lee Roy, being behind by a point, had no chance to win under those conditions. A more fair decision would have been the Arbitrator saying to both wrestlers, ‘In one week from today, re-wrestle the match’. It would have been nice to have both Lewis Wrestlers At The Trials 165