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Gallagher Memories

oberebo

Heisman Candidate
Gold Member
Oct 30, 2005
9,457
1,578
113
Shawnee,OK
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. This year is my 60th year of watching Cowboy wrestling. I graduated from High School in 1959 from St. Gregory's, a Catholic boarding school in Shawnee. I grew up in Oklahoma City and when I entered OK State in the fall of 1960(after a non-productive year at Central State) I had never seen a wrestling match. One of my friends at East Bennett Hall where I resided told me I needed to go to the Bedlam wrestling match at Gallagher Hall.
The match with OU was sold out and at that time you could only go every other match on your student ID due to the popularity and capacity. I was one of 8,600 fans attending that night which set an attendance record. That was the year the Fire dept. stepped in and stopped floor seating so I believe this record stood for many years. I was wowed by the crowd and the excitement before I ever saw a match. The first match was at 115 pounds as that was the lowest weight
at that time. Mark McCracken was the 115 pounder for us and he won his match. At 123 pounds Masaaki Hatta, the first of our Japanese contingent was next and I was already "hooked" on wrestling. I had a passing acquaintance with our next wrestler at 130 pounds. Even though I grew up in OKC I was born in Blackwell where my uncle was the doctor who delivered me. I spent summers and holidays with my cousin in Blackwell who was older. They lived on E. Blackwell Street and a close neighbor was Ted Pierce. My cruel cousin promoted wrestling matches between Ted and me starting when I was about eight. Luckily, these affairs lasted only a few seconds until I was pinned but my gracious cousin thought it should be 2 out of 3 and the results were quickly the same. When Ted Pierce stepped on the mat at 130 pounds and won I was proud to be a Cowboy wrestling fan. Doug Wilson was the 137 pound wrestler for us, followed by Bob Wilson at 147. A freshman, Phil Kinyon wrestled at 157(more on him later), followed by Bruce Campbell at 167 and his match ended in a draw, which sounds crazy now but this Bedlam had two draws. At 177, another freshman in the lineup was Bob Johnson from Amarillo, Texas and he was outstanding as was the 191 pounder, Ronnie Clinton who was also from
Blackwell. Turns out Ronnie was wrestling up two weights but he won in style. The third wrestler from Blackwell was at Heavyweight and Ted Ellis had a draw that night with Dale Lewis from OU and the score was 1-1. The team score was 27-7 in favor of Oklahoma State. I do not believe I missed another dual in Stillwater in the next four years as a student. That year the Cowboys won the Big 8 with OU second and they had 6 Big 8 champions and no OSU wrestler finished lower than third. That year in Oregon we won the National tournament and Phil Kinyon and Bob Johnson were National champions. They had competed all that year to earn the 157 pound slot and Kinyon finally got the call to be it. Johnson moved up two weights to 177 where he won as a freshman. Ronnie Clinton and Bruce Campbell were both 165 pounders and Clinton wrestled all the way up to191 pounds where he placed third in the NCAA as a freshman. Clinton was a national champion at 167 in future years and in 1964 at the National tournament in Stillwater he won the Championship at 165, wrestling with one hand as he had suffered a severe cut on his hand doing home repairs in Stillwater just before the tournament. I believe in all the years I have watched wrestling he was the best takedown technician I have seen.
I have only missed a handful of NCAA tournaments since 1961 and still believe it is the best collegiate sport. I have met a lot of friends through the sport including some from other schools and I will continue to attend the duals in Stillwater and the tournament in KC this year. A lot of memories and a lot of great wrestling.
I dislike ending this on a sad note but as many of you know Ted Pierce, that neighbor of my cousin) lost his life just 7 years later. He was the coach at Ponca City High School and was in a caravan of three cars taking his wrestlers to the Geary tournament in January of 1968 when a jack-knifed truck hit his car and he was instantly killed and the other passengers severely injured. One of the passengers never recovered from severe head injuries and died from these injuries 26 years later. RIP Ted Pierce and Mike Davis.
 
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