THE TRIALS... 1968
THE TRIALS... 1968 The Final Trials – The Armory, Ames, Iowa, May 9-14, 1968
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From the official program of the 1968 Olympic Trials in Ames, Iowa Courtesy of Jay Hammond
team, so now the Committee needed to find a replacement for Evans. In May they chose veteran Henry Wittenberg, a Freestyle gold medalist in the 1948 Olympics and silver medalist in the 1952 Games. Wrestlers across the country began their quest to make the ’68 Olympic team as early as January, 1968. The US Olympic Wrestling Committee organized a series of 20 Regional 48 Wrestlers At The Trials
Qualifying tournaments whereby Freestyle wrestlers would qualify for the Final Trials by finishing 1st or 2nd in their Regional tournament. Then, the top two in each weight class at the Final Trials, plus some specialcase invitees, would advance to the Final Camp at Adams State College in remote Alamosa, Colorado for intensive training and final challenge matches.
The Committee reversed its 1964 decision to hold the Final Camp immediately after the Final Trials tournament. Seeing the success that the 1960 team enjoyed with a summer break in formal training, the Committee voted to have a four-month layoff between the Final Trials and the Camp. The Final Camp did not commence until midSeptember.
pproximately 350 wrestlers qualified to wrestle in eight weight classes at the Final Trials. The majority entered in Freestyle, about 100 in Greco-Roman, and a couple dozen or so wrestlers chose to compete in both styles. Using the black mark system, in each Freestyle weight class there were five or six elimination rounds and then a round-robin involving the three wrestlers with the least amount of black marks. A couple of weight classes were particularly loaded, such as 138.5 and 191.5. At 138.5 Bobby Douglas, a veteran from the 1964 squad, was the clear favorite. His competition included the fearsome Iowan Tom Huff, NCAA champions Dan Gable and Gene Davis, plus a pair of highly touted high school prodigies – Larry Owings from Hubbard, Oregon, and the youngest competitor, Charles Holmes, a junior at Carl Albert high school in Midwest City, Oklahoma. The 191.5 weight class was probably the deepest. Wayne Baughman, Jeff Baum, Russ Camilleri, Bill Harlow, Chuck Jean, Tom Peckham and Charlie Tribble were amongst the entries. Each was a national champion and/or Olympic team member at one time or another in their career. There was also a high school senior from River Falls, Wisconsin, entered at 191.5. He had just finished as runner-up (his highest placing ever) at the Wisconsin State Tournament. He decided to enter Olympic Trials through the local Regional Qualifier. He was fortunate that there were no wrestlers at his weight class with previous Freestyle experience. He won all his matches and thus won the right to advance to the Final Trials. Once at Ames, his high school coach, Jack Walsh, introduced him to the Iowa State coaching staff and the next day he was introduced to highly-skilled Freestyle wrestlers on the mat. He was pinned in his first match. He then had to go up against Chuck Jean, a tough Iowa State wrestler who would be Wrestlers At The Trials 49