Tomorrow, Jan. 15, is a typical Thursday around the state of Iowa, with numerous wrestling meets going on throughout the state. On that date 94 years ago, it all got started. Here is a short tale I wrote about a first in Iowa high school wrestling history. Mason City High School was not favored Jan. 14, 1921, when its wrestling team left for Fort Dodge and a new thing called a dual meet the next day. Such was the tenor of the meet’s advance in that day’s Mason City Globe Gazette and Times. “Although the meet tomorrow officially introduces the grappling game among the high schools of the state, high school students of Fort Dodge have been given training in wrestling for the past two years,” the paper’s story stated. “Many of the lads who have had two years’ teaching in the art are now in school, so it can be seen that the team which Mason City faces Saturday will be composed of veterans who have a comparatively good knowledge of the game.” Perhaps the visitors got some good luck in the form of the black tights provided by the school for the contest. Voy Newman’s decision and a forfeit to Ted Haynes helped Coach Otto Matte’s Mohawks to a 24-19 victory at Fort Dodge Armory in what started a staple of winter in Iowa – the high school dual meet. That meet was the prelude to a basketball game between the communities. Mason City stunned fans in the “Gypsum city” – the Mason City newspaper used that moniker often – with an 18-17 hoops win, allegedly the first home loss in three years for the Dodgers. The basketball game was played in two 20-minute halves. This season on the mat, Jan. 15 falls on a Thursday, usually the busiest night for duals state-wide. There are to be 14 individual matches in a meet, twice the total of the first contest. A match today has three 2-minute periods, compared to the 5-minute bouts in 1921, and a decision is worth three points and a pin six more. There are no more scoring deadlocks, which was the outcome of four of the seven matches in 1921. At Fort Dodge, a pin scored seven team points and a referee’s decision was worth six. Each of the draws gave the teams three points. Newman proved to be an excellent starter for Mason City, gaining the win at 95 pounds with a time advantage of 3 minutes 18 seconds over Lloyd Peterson. The Dodgers took the lead with a history-making effort from Clifford Sampson, who notched the first pin in a dual meet by stopping future state champion and Olympic Trials semifinalist Richard Burke in 1 minute 12 seconds at 115 pounds. The bouts between Lewis Minkel (FD) and Roland Strickland (MC) at 125; John Prazak (FD) and Harold Saylor (MC) at 135; John Kirchner (FD) and Raymond Buirge (MC) at 145 and Wilford Jennings (FD) and Leo Allstot (MC) at 175 were deadlocked. Fort Dodge had to forfeit the 158-pound match to Haynes because Jennings was one-half pound overweight, according to an account of the meet in the Fort Dodge Messenger. C. E. Middleton of the Fort Dodge YMCA was the referee for the historic wrestling meet. Mason City’s squad must have enjoyed the competition. After placing second in the first state meet put on by Iowa State College in Ames three weeks later, the Mohawks had a second dual – this time a 20-20 draw at home against Eldora Training School.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 18:32:48 +0000