Northwestern Wrestling – The Beginning

[TomM]

For Immediate Release | December 18, 2015

Contact: Carsten Parmenter (cparmenter@northwestern.edu)
Story Link: (http://bit.ly/1Ido5wE)

NU WRESTLING: Northwestern Wrestling – The Beginning

By David Herder

One hundred hours before their first meet, Northwestern wrestling Coach E. E. Jones had some roster decisions to make.

Particularly, who to put on it.

Jones, the chairman of the Big Ten's wrestling committee, had enabled Northwestern to begin a wrestling program. For their meet against the University of Chicago on Saturday, January 22, 1916, Northwestern would need wrestlers. As of Wednesday, the 19th, they had none.

That night, at eight o'clock in the old Bartlett Gymnasium, the program held its second tryout. The previous year, Jones had selected seven men for the team, but they did not compete. For this second season, Coach Jones had been working with upwards of two dozen potential wrestlers in the nights leading up, but only ten turned up to try out.

With the meager numbers, only one of the seven weight classes had more than two entrants, and no cuts were made.  The 175 and Unlimited (now heavyweight) classes only had one entrant each: Ole Olson and Putnam of the football team, respectively. Despite the thin roster, Northwestern had a team.

Jones was succeeded by Henry Szymanski in 1922, with Szymanski having wrestled in purple in 1916 before joining the Army for World War I.

After the war, Szymanski continued to represent the United States by fighting in Europe, but this time by wrestling in the 1920 Olympics in Belgium. After reaching the semifinals, he returned stateside, coaching Northwestern without pay in order to retain his amateur status.

With a bona fide coach at the helm, it was time for Northwestern to become a bona fide program as well. The winter 1922 season was the first year of Varsity sanctioned wrestling, and they wasted no time claiming their first victory.

After dropping their first two matches against Illinois and Chicago, Northwestern played host to the Nebraska "Cornshuckers" in Patten Gymnasium on January 21. Led by Ray "Shorty" Meyer and Bryan Hines with a pin and decision, respectively, Northwestern stormed out to an early lead. Nebraska fought back, and the match's result was to be decided by the final dual. Jack Hathaway came up against Nebraska's Pucelik, a 210 lbs. All-American Guard in football. In a tight match, Hathaway was able to scrounge out a win, giving Northwestern their first official wrestling victory.

The scintillating form of Szymanski's team didn't end on that night in Evanston. Meyer continued pinning opponents throughout the year, en route to becoming Northwestern's first national champion (NCAA championships would not be recognized until 1928), winning the 125 lbs. title. His running mate, Bryan Hines, didn't see individual titles that year, but in '23 toppled all challengers in an undefeated season, claiming the Big Ten title, before repeating in '24, while staking claim to the national title and earning a spot on the 1924 Olympic team, taking bronze in Paris.

Like Szymanski had, Hines returned to Evanston in 1926 to coach the wrestling squad after Olympic success. But Hines wasn't taking the head job. He was to serve under Orion Stuteville.

Stuteville was another Olympic alum, part of the 175 lbs. class in Paris, but never actually seeing time on the European mat, having to pull out with injuries. Returning to school in Oklahoma, he graduating just weeks before being given the Northwestern job.

Under the tutelage of a non-Northwestern alum for the first time in program history, the team was able to rise to new heights. Despite a roster decimated by injuries in 1928, the Purple were able to claw out a second place finish in the Big Ten. Bolstered by the strong season, two wrestlers, Rudy Schuler and Ralph Lupton, earned spots in the Big Ten Conference meet, with Lupton needing only a solitary victory at the event to progress to the National Championships.

Lupton had swept through the season undefeated and didn't stop at the conference tournament, beating Michigan's Hewitt to lift the 125 lbs. title, while Schuler did the same as a heavyweight. From there, Lupton advanced to Ames, Iowa, for the National Championships. He started by beating Cornell's Cornick and Hewitt again to advance to the title match. There, facing Kansas' Paxton, Lupton won via decision, becoming Northwestern's second 125 lbs. National Champion, and the Purple's first NCAA Champion.

Having gone a full season undefeated, Lupton returned for his senior season in 1929 attempting to replicate the feat. And he did. With a defeat of Indiana's Connor in March of '29, Lupton claimed his second consecutive Big Ten title, capping his career on a 32-match winning streak.

Despite graduating the greatest wrestler in program history at that time, Northwestern did not slump. In fact, they managed to get even better, putting together one of the program's finest seasons.

In 1931, Lupton and Schuler had moved on, but in their stead were Jack Riley, Wes Brown, and Bob Miller. The triad stormed into the Big Ten, dominating the Heavyweight, 175 lbs., and 155 lbs. weight classes. Stuteville had seen Riley on the football field, where he was a star, having led Northwestern to one of its best seasons on the gridiron. At Stuteville's suggestion, the 245 pound lineman took up the sport to maintain fitness in the offseason, and soon became an integral member of the team. After trouncing through the regular season, they entered the conference tournament with the team as a whole in an injury crisis, with many others sidelined.

Despite absences, those who could wrestle put forth an inspired performance. Coach Stuteville had taught the team a new hold, a Japanese Wristlock, which paid dividends on the mat. Riley "manhandled" opponents according to the Daily Northwestern, including a 49 second pin of Chicago's Erickson, to take the conference title. Brown did the same, defeating George Belishaw of Indiana to capture a title of his own, and Miller scraped his way into the final.

There, facing Indiana's Ross, Miller started strong, but was being outwrestled. But soon, Ross took offense to some action of Miller's, and the Indiana man threw a punch square into Miller's face, gifting Miller Northwestern's third conference championship of the year. Northwestern's three individual titles were more than any other conference school could claim that year.

At the National Championships, Riley continued to shine. While his teammates stumbled, the heavyweight toppled his opposition, pinning Haverford's Harry Fields with an arm bar to take home the national title after an undefeated season.

1932 brought more of the same for Northwestern, with Riley and Brown continuing to dominate the mats. The duo repeated the domination of the year prior, continuing to run roughshod over the conference. Entering the conference tournament, both were expected to claim back to back titles. Brown did so, defeating Carl Gabel of Chicago for the crown, as well as being named an All-American.

In the heavyweight division, Riley had to defeat Bob Jones of Indiana to place first, but a shock upset in overtime saw the conference title head to Indiana with Riley in second. Defeat in the Big Ten tournament wouldn't stop Riley. Fueled by the defeat, he steamrolled his opponents, pinning Northern Iowa's Art Gerber in the finals to become Northwestern's only back to back national champion.

Riley's exploits didn't end in Indiana, as he was selected for the 1932 Olympic team. Riley proved that not only was he the best in the country, but among the best in the world, falling only to Sweden's Johan Richthoff and taking the Silver in the Los Angeles games. Eventually, his alma mater created the Jack Riley award, to be given to the wrestler with the most falls in a season.

While Riley had graduated, Brown was still taking to the mats in Evanston in 1932. He again entered the conference tournament undefeated, earning falls in each match. In the semifinals, he pinned Illinois's Fredricks in a mere 35 seconds, before using overtime to defeat Indiana's Volivia and, in the process, became Northwestern's first three-time conference champion.

Brown may never have gotten the opportunity to compete in the Olympics, but he spent more time on the mat than any of his fellow Wildcats. The former wrestler turned referee for the 1960, '64, and '68 Olympics, before becoming chairman of the U.S. Olympic committee in 1972.

After almost a decade in charge of the Wrestling team, Stuteville took a position in the Dental School in 1933, becoming chairman in 1950. While he had led the Wildcats to a flourishing beginning, it was time for another to lead them to even greater heights.