delaWarr

It has been a while, but this is not the first in Maury County. Columbia Military Academy was active in the early days of TSSAA sponsorship. Great news, however, that wrestling is returning to Maury County.

Good read. Thanks for posting.

"...approx 48 years running." 46 years, to be exact. First held in January, 1970.

Maplewood '69-'70 (1 yr.); Hillwood '70-'71 thru '79-'80 (10 yrs.); Whites Creek '80-'81 thru '86-'87 (7 yrs.); Brentwood '87-88 thru '13-'14 (27 yrs). Brief historical trivia of Tennessee's 3 longest running invitationals: School year 1868-69; Coach John Farr held an invitational at Red Bank; School year _?_, Coach Farr transferred to Chattanooga Central and continued the tournament there. It has has been set up annually* through each succeeding coach from its beginning. *There have been a couple of cancellations beyond the control of school and tournament personel because of weather-related schoolboard regulations. School year '69-70: The NIL tournament, which the mid-state coaches had held for three years, was cancelled after the January 1969 event. This opened up the possibility for invitational tournaments in the mid-state Maplewood held an invitational in December 1969. See above in this entry. Father Ryan held an vitational during January 1970. The tournament was first held at the school on Elliston Place and continued uninterrupted when the school moved to the current location. Although, weather-related school closings have occurred at the time of both mid-state tournaments, both have enjoyed the good fortune of being able to continue with all tournaments.

Congratulations and thanks to Joe Blair and his efficient staff for another well-organized, well-run tournament.

Coach Joe Black Hayes passed away on Monday, 9 December 2013. He was 98. He was a wrestling pioneer in Middle Tennessee. He iniated a program in the late 1940s at Middle Tennessee State. His program was discontinued by the school in 1954, but he was host to the conference tournament for his last season, and his team finished 2nd to Auburn. He continued his ties with wrestling through officiating during the next two decades and was assigning offical in Murfreesboro in closing out his career in the sport. Coach Hayes played football at the University of Tennessee for General Neyland during the late 1930s. He won a heavyweight championship in wrestling for UT while competing there. He was inducted into the Tennessee Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009. He received many accolades throughout his career in coaching, as well as in his many civic activities in service to the community. The Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro, Wednesday 11 December 2013 has his obituary and has a story in the sports section.

Really enjoyed and appreciate this outstanding piece. Thanks for making it available.

The traditional divisions for wrestling in Tennessee have been Upper East (including Knoxville area), Chattanooga Area, Middle Tennessee, and Memphis (West Tennessee).

Congratulations to these newest members of the Tennessee Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma in recognition of their Lifetime Service to Wrestling. A sincere thank you, also, to the HOF members and others who put in the untold time and effort toward making this another special event this past Friday, 2nd March. What a great way to spend an evening: the camaraderie in a Gathering of gung-ho wrestling folks and their guests who enjoy talking wrestling, followed by honoring wrestling individuals in a manner which they richly deserve.

Jeff Lloyd received the state Outstanding American Award. The Medal of Courage was given to former Tennessee School for the Blind coach, Ralph Brewer.

hoosierdad, You answered my question when you asked Soms for verification on Franklin's being in the same region with Smyrna (Region V, prior to re-alignment). I already knew which region Franklin was in. I couldn't understand what you knew. In your PS, you questioned the toughness of the Smyrna Region, then you used Franklin (who is not in the Smyrna region) as the singular standard for measuring other teams in the region (Outside of Franklin, who else has won anything, much less placed."). I couldn't follow your logic. Now that you have clarified that you were referring to Region V prior to re-alignment, I can address my point. The Region V you refer to was put into place during the 1989-90 season. During the first ten years Brentwood Academy won two Small School State Duals. Brentwood High was runner-up in the Large School Duals two times, third once. Brentwood High also place third and fourth, along with other top ten placements, in the Traditional. This is offered to answer your rhetorical question "who else has won anything, much less placed." Franklin's consistent top-end presence in Region V emerged during the Region's final five years or so. And to respond to the toughness of Region V: As it continued to grow in team numbers and programs continued to hire competitive coaches, it became increasingly tougher for top-end teams to get competitive numbers qualified for the State. I agree with you and Soms that Franklin is once again in a tough region. That region has traded their old region with most teams having 2, 3, or 4 tough kids for a region with fewer teams, but with more teams having 8 -10 quality competitors.

More Cumberland High players: Many of the old oldtimers claimed over the years that possibly the best athlete to play at Cumberland High was Bud Walton, whose playing days were prior to 1940. He went on to play at Florida. LF West, Jr. returned from service to resume play in 1946, then continued on the next level at UT-Martin. Raymond Farmer played during the late '40s and early 1950s and went on to play for the University of Louisville. Some other top players during the mid to late 1950s were Jerry Flatt, Sammy Flatt, Bobby Scott, and LeRoy Overstreet. Bellevue: I don't recall seeing on anybody's list a couple of top players for Bellevue from the early 1950s. Charlie Johnson and Lloyd Hill were on a championship team, I believe, in 1951. If recall is correct, they were undefeated.

Does the attached observation assume that Franklin is in the same region or not in the same region with Smyrna?

Thanks to BB Branton for the great Hall Of Fame Honorees story, and to CoachDelgado for posting it on the board. Good reading, plus some validation for those of us interested in the history of Tennessee Wrestling.

Help may be on the way.

What are the meanings of groupings SE, NE, MS, W, and MN?

Aren't public schools the public's gift to its future, an attempt to offer, at least, a minimal education to all young people, while often offering a very good education and sometimes even offering an exemplary education? Aren't independent schools the parents' gift to their own child's future, outside or beyond what they feel the public schools can offer? The outside and beyond may be a more stringent curriculum, an education in a religious environment, greater individual attention through smaller class sizes, an offering of specialized attention, an offering of cultural commonalities, or whatever may lead parents to choose a given independent school. This comes close to what my observations have indicated to me.

Successes in assembling and administering tournaments such as our duals and our individuals are dependent on crucial components falling into place. And one area that aids tremendously in allowing a well-oiled tournament machine to function in a manner to which we've grown accustomed is a host administration that is wrestling friendly and wrestling knowledgeable/savvy. McClellan had a heads up from the beginning because there was a home wrestling team already using it, educating all concerned institutional personnel as to what wrestling was about. There was a friendly, in-place coach receptive to the site use. It is obvious that the AD(s) has/have continued to buy into the value of the event, possibly as a complementary extention to their own program and/or possibly for highly visible public relations reasons. At any rate, the UTC decision-makers bought into and gave support up front to the idea of allowing the use of campus facilities to host the tournament and the whole show appears to be functioning in fine fashion. Much of the same kind of atmosphere appears to be in place at Clarksville High, which also enjoys the benefits of a wrestling-friendly, wrestling-savvy support system. The Duals also appear to be functioning in fine fachion (except for the much discussed bleacher situation). The point: The current hosts of the two State Tournaments have wrestling-friendly administrations. They understand, therefore they oblige. If a tournament moves to a wrestling-indifferent educational venue, it is moving into a big unknown. There are a host of things concerning a wrestling tournament about which the uninitiated do not have any frame of reference to rely on. Compare setting up a facility for a one-game-at-a-time State basketball tournament vs setting up a facility for either State Wrestling Tournament. Even if the current tournaments personnels moved, in toto, to a wrestling-indifferent venue, the unforeseen obstacles, the unintended obstacles created by wrestling tournament-clueless venue decision-makers, could become tremendous additional burdens for those working to pull it off. Can a State be pulled off at a wrestling-indifferent venue? No doubt one of these days we will find out.

Thanks, fiscon, for the timely information on Region VI Tournament. Your endeavor sure models a great precedent.

I certainly challenge your assumption on the historical draw. Back when the Traditional tournament was alternating between Nashville and Chattanooga, there was little or no detectable difference in the draw. At the time the tournament left the packed house at David Lipscomb in Nashville and settled at Mac, Chattanooga did not outdraw "any other venue". Since the tournament has been at Mac or the Roundhouse ever since, there is no way to compare from that point to the present. As early as the 1978 State, which was held in Nashville, the director of the TSSAA at the time told the host administrator that the tournament had given the TSSAA its best take to date. Also the numbers of participants have increased multiple times since Chattanooga became an annual pilgramage for the rest of wrestling. So, of course, attendance has grown. What is it about this "superlative" myth that is so important to some folks that it has to be perpetuated ad nauseam?

Coach Blair, You are the epitome of the scholar coach.

I missed seeing the Russians on that first International match at old Mac, but I remember the huge disappointment of some of the Mid-State guys who were there. Not enough action...boring 1 - 0 matches...etc. I never quite bought into their take for some reason, and later came to realize their appreciation of what they saw was probably handicapped by their lack of knowledge and understanding of the style and skills. It was my good fortune to see most of the International competitions which followed at McClellan. Wasn't the World Cup hosted there a couple of times? Many wrestlers and fans have favorite stories about the Southern Open. It truly was a premier event at given times. I guess my most memorable experience was watching a match between Billy Martin, Jr. and Jimmy Carr, maybe during or near the mid-seventies. I was sitting with Billy Martin, Sr. Billy, Jr. had fallen behind and wasn't having much success in scoring catch-up points. Sr. confidently told me not to be concerned about the score, that Jr. was going to have Jimmy in a cradle at any time. And sure enough, as Sr. had predicted, Jr. ended the match before time expired by seizing the exact instant that set-up and timing came together (or that opportunity and timing came together), locked in the cradle, and cranked. Billy Sr. believed in the value of the cradle. He had claimed in the past that it was (is) "the best pinning combination" in wrestling. A convincing testimony of the claim...

Aside from the obvious later start and the struggle to catch up on knowledge, savvy, and just a simple understanding of what the sport was about on the part of the Mid-State, the Mid-State wrestling minds of the early '70s determined that the greatest advantage that Chattanooga had over the rest of us was the presence of the UTC program. The program gave the Chattanooga community a central rallying point, to which the community responded with enthusiasm. Their organizational efforts went beyond the high-profile success at UTC and brought in world class international competition. The Southern Open brought in some of the best college wrestlers and best wrestling minds in he country. Through their own efforts, Chattanooga became a very proud wrestling community, and justly so. To recognize that the Chattanooga community gave scholastic wrestling its jump start, to be grateful for their organizational commitment that carried the visability of the sport to a level that the rest of the state has never come close to equaling historically, to respect and honor them for their impressive scholastic successes...all in order and well deserved. But, to accept some assignment of inferiority on the mat for the rest of us? Not hardly. Not again in this lifetime. Not since the late '60s when an expanding Mid-State was beginning to measure up, followed by the rest of the state.

Point of historical accuracy: Old Region V was a two-day tournament from the first year it was designated as such by the TSSAA beginning in the 1989-90 season. Region III was the predecessor of the former Regions V, VI, and VII. It was a two-day tournament from year of designation through the 1988-89 season. The Region III of the 1970s and 1980s was preceeded by Region II from mid-1960s into the early 1970s when there were only two regions in the state. Region II of those early years held a two-day tournament to qualify for the State also. Summation: Old Region V and its predessors always held two-day tourrnaments.

A guy who has been around able guitar players for a period of time may very competently critique guitar performance without ever performing himself or without ever holding a guitar in his hand. By the same token, a guy who has been around good wrestling officials for a period of time may very well critique an official's performance on the mat without ever officiating himself or without ever needing to "put on the stripes." The general concern comes from observation (constructive criticism) that there are some officials who may benefit from continuing education in the understanding of and interpretation of rules/practice/science/art* of officiating. *delaWarr's Higher Order of Progression for Wrestling Officials