THE TRIALS... 1972 spring. In May, Coach Farrell organized a four-day Olympic development camp at St. Andrews, Tennessee. More than 60 top Olympic prospects attended the camp. Farrell and others contend that it provided invaluable experience in Olympic-style techniques for everyone. Qualifiers from the Regional Trials and some designated national tournaments were eligible to compete in the Final Freestyle Trials. These matches were scheduled to be held in Anoka, Minnesota on June 22-24. The Final Greco-Roman tournament was scheduled for Anoka on June 26-27 and was open to anyone who showed up. After a one-month hiatus, the top place winners at the Trials advanced to the final round of wrestle-offs in Minneapolis to determine the 20 wrestlers who would represent the two 1972 US Olympic wrestling teams in Munich. The Final Olympic Team Trials, Anoka, Minnesota, June 22-27, 1972
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ORE than 400 wrestlers entered the Final Trials held at the high school gymnasium in Anoka, a suburban town about 20 miles northwest of Minneapolis. There were 294 Freestyle entries and 139 in GrecoRoman style in ten weight classes. Distinguished University of Minnesota coach Wally Johnson directed the tournament. Jim Duschen, a competitor in both Freestyle and Greco, remembers the tournament well: The facility at Anoka was pretty good. There was a nice size gym and the crowds, as I recall, were large. Like me, a bunch of the wrestlers competed in both Freestyle and Greco, especially since you didn’t have to pre-qualify to enter the Greco tournament. Most of our best Greco wrestlers were from Minnesota. Alan Rice was regarded as the premier Greco instructor in the country and he and his Greco club wrestlers had a strong following in the area. That clearly helped boost the attendance.
70 Wrestlers At The Trials
Alan Rice and Wayne Baughman – two of the US Greco-Roman icons of the ’60s and ’70s Photograph courtesy of Amateur Wrestling News
Dave and Jim Hazewinkel wrestled for and graduated from the host Anoka high school in the mid-’60s. The twin brothers are recognized as our two best Greco-Roman wrestlers coming out of the ’60s. Each was a two-time medalist in the World Games between 1966 and 1970. Dave was the first American to win a Greco silver medal in the World Championships, and Jim was the first to make the Greco World team at three different weight classes. Jim Hazewinkel recalls: It was a real thrill to have the Olympic Trials in our hometown and to wrestle back in our high school gym in front of a lot of friends and family. One of our best friends was Chuck Coffee who was a few years older than us. Chuck took up Greco after college and was good enough to make the US World team in 1966 and 1967. In the ’68 Trials, we both competed at 136 and I beat him to make the Olympic team. Well, in 1972, Chuck decides to drop down to the 125.5 pound weight class. This time Dave beats him to make the Olympic team. I know Chuck figures if it weren’t for the two of us Hazewinkels that he’d be an Olympian.
THE TRIALS... 1972 Leo Kocher, then a junior at Northwestern University, talks about his experiences at the tournament: I was just a so-so wrestler at Northwestern, known more for my looks as a bearded, longhair-type guy. But I wanted to give the Trials a try, so I qualified and went to the Minnesota tournament. It was a huge thing for me. I started out strong and beat a Big Ten Conference champion and then a NYAC wrestler. I think it was Jerry Bell, a veteran who had been on the US Pan-Am team. Those matches that I did win gave me a huge boost of confidence. In the fourth round I came up against Jeff Callard of Oklahoma. Early in the match, he hits me with an under-arm spin and catches me in an arm bar and is hurting my shoulder something awful. I am grimacing in pain but the referee won’t stop the match. He was probably an AAU ref who saw Ken Kraft (a USWF supporter) in my corner and didn’t show us any mercy. Anyway, Callard keeps cranking on me and sure enough pins me and I am eliminated. I guess you could say that was my introduction to the ‘I would just as soon break your neck as pin you’ school of wrestling. In the early rounds Wells beat Wells… and Hicks beat Hicks. That is, Oklahoma star Wayne Wells dominated Joe Wells of the Mayor Daley Club, 21-3. Greg Hicks of Athletes-In-Action downed Wayne Hicks of Navy, 7-2. And in a featured match at 149.5, Dan Gable overran Larry Owings, 7-1. Owings recalls his 1972 experience: I didn’t realize the magnitude of what I had done in beating Gable in the 1970 NCAA finals. I was basically a country bumpkin not accustomed to any celebrity status. Anyway, in the fall of 1970 I got married and soon after my wife became pregnant. It was a rocky marriage and she didn’t want me leaving home to go wrestle. Consequently, I no longer practiced like I should have. I lost my focus and it took away my fine edge. And, I was really tired of everyone coming up and asking me about this Gable thing. All along I was planning to tryout for the Olympics at 136.5 pounds. Despite my wife’s objections I went to the tournament, but missed
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I do think that if I had the drive that I had as a high school senior in 1968, I would have made that ’72 team. – LARRY OWINGS
weight by a pound or two and was forced up to 149.5. I knew that Gable was looking for me. He was out to get me, no doubt. I gave him a reason to beat me and he did. I was the only person to score a point on him, though. [Author’s note: Gable dominated everyone. He won by pin (2.55), pin (4.33), 21-0, 27-0, 7-1, pin (2:48) and a 13-0 victory over Joe Seay in the finals.] Owens continues: I remember a couple other incidents. Lloyd Keaser, the Navy wrestler, came up to me in the shower early in the tournament and told me that if we met each other on the mat, he would pound on me. Well, we did meet in a late round, but I pounded on him – bad. I had him crying on the mat. His earlier remarks gave me the needed incentive to win. I then had to wrestle Joe Seay and he beat me. I just didn’t have the necessary edge in that match. I ended up finishing 3rd behind Gable and Seay which entitled me to go to the Finals Camp. However, I didn’t go; too much pressure from home, a loss of drive, a number of things. I do think that if I had the drive that I had as a high school senior in 1968, I would have made that ’72 team. Two brothers from Wisconsin, John and Ben Peterson, emerged on the international wrestling scene in the early ’70s to vie for spots on the ’72 Olympic team. They embarked on divergent routes during their college careers, but hooked on to Dan Gable in the homestretch leading up to the Trials. John Peterson talks about his wrestling days and the ’72 Trials: My oldest brother, Phil was a great athlete – an all Big Ten right guard at the University of Wisconsin. He was probably the best athlete ever to come out of our local school, Cumberland High. The next brother, Tom, was a year behind. He was trying to be different from his Wrestlers At The Trials 71