Wrestling historian Brian Preece takes a look at what Utah high school wrestling was like 50 years ago.
Well, this piece is a bit bittersweet. My father Dennis Preece won nine state titles in 12 years as a head coach at Uintah High. His first two seasons as head coach his Utes lost to Delta. Then in 1974 he had his lowest finish as head coach at Uintah when the Utes took third place.
It was the year before that Utah went from two to four classifications. Granger (4A), Uintah (3A), Wasatch (2A) and Monticello (1A) won those first state meets.
But in 1974 a new dynasty was born in 4A with the Brighton Bengals winning its first ever state title led by the legendary Don Neff. Brighton (63) nudged past Orem (61.5), then coached by another Hall of Famer in Fred Rowland.
Hillcrest (50.5) was led by its young coach Bob Kawa, probably better known as one of the best officials ever. And he had a nice small role in the movie “Take Down”. For some reason takedown was two words in the movie title. But those of us that grew up in the late 1970’s early 1980’s love it nonetheless. One of my assistant coaches at Provo, and also one time head coach at Kearns, Ron Twitchell, was also in the movie. Well he was in it twice in one scene, once as a wrestler for Orem and then he joked he was later in the crowd watching himself supposedly wrestle (so you know, movies take lots of time to shoot a very few seconds of actual movie).
But I digress. West, led by Don Holtry, tied Hillcrest with 50.5 points while Provo placed fifth with 44 points (I’m not sure if Provo was still coached by Joe Martinez then or by Gary Roylance, his eventual successor).
Before we go any further, it was in some ways harder to take state, place at state and get to state. Only four wrestlers, instead of six, placed in state. A different scoring system was used so scores were lower and the state brackets at this time were just eight wrestlers, meaning in 4A, only the top two wrestlers from the region meets advanced to the state tournament. Also, there were only 12 weight classes, and believe it or not, there was an “Unlimited” weight class where you could actually weigh say way more than 285 pounds. There were also two weight classes lower than the lowest weight class of today (106) as way back when there was a 98-pound and 105-pound divisions. Some tournaments, like the Rockwell Rumble, have brought back the 98-pound class but it’s not an official weight class.
I will also offer this social commentary. 50 years ago, we had a lot more Latino wrestlers and you will see quite a few Latino wrestlers placing in the 4A ranks, and a substantial amount in 3A as well. And this is when Latinos made a small fraction of Utah’s overall population.
Brighton crowned three individual champions with Don Christensen (132 pounds), Jeff Savage (155) and Judd Mackintosh (167). Orem had two champions with Gary Ratcliffe (112), who would later become the head coach of Springville where his own son was a multiple time state placer, and Andy Watts (138). Not sure if Watts is related to Wayne and Michael who wrestled at Bingham/Riverton. Manuel Soto, who was a state champion for West at 105 pounds, was much like a wrestler that went through Payson’s program recently, Aaron Garcia, as he was better known as a boxer and a Golden Gloves champion. Placing third at 145 pounds was East’s Jim Swayden, who would become the head coach at Hillcrest in the early 1990’s and later at Dixie.
In 3A, Pleasant Grove (75) won the title giving the great Darold Henry his third state title as coach. His previous two titles came in the “A” division when there were just two classifications. Uintah, with my Dad Dennis Preece, had a streak going at six state titles, five in the “B” classification and then the first 3A state title when Uintah and Pleasant Grove were put together. But Uintah (65.5) was nudged by a mere .5 point by Jordan, led by coaches Dan May and Kent Sundlen (not sure who was the head coach then though May would later become the head coach). And if May is the head coach it means Jordan High School with May and Chris Babinski has had just these two head coaches in 50 years. Think about that one for a minute!
Springville (34) snuck past Bingham (33) for fifth but as you can see, a bit back in the pack.
Pleasant Grove had three individual champions in Vaughan Maxfield (112), Dave Norton (126) and Marty Christensen (132). The Utes also had three champions with Jim Tripp (98), Eugene Woody (105) and Richard Logan (167). One notable Pleasant Grove wrestler was Ralph Spencer (105), the father of those great Spencer brothers (Eric, Nate and Kip) at Pleasant Grove in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Eric and Kip became head coaches at the Fork schools (American Fork and Spanish Fork) and Kip’s still at it (and Spanish Fork looks good for a title this year).
Jordan had two individual champions with Ed Romero (119) and Scott Bonham (145). Pleasant Grove’s edge on Jordan and Uintah was a bit different for each. Uintah matched Pleasant Grove in finalists 5-5 while Jordan had four. But Pleasant Grove and Jordan had two wrestlers place third while Uintah didn’t have any. Pleasant Grove had nine state placers and that was considered way impressive back then because again there were just 12 weight classes and teams could only bring one wrestler to the state tournament. Jordan also had nine total placers while Uintah mustered just six and that was enough for the Beetdiggers to win the silver trophy.
A wrestler of note was American Fork’s Stan Kitchen, who placed second at 155 pounds. He would succeed his own coach Tim Pontius as the head coach for his alma mater.
Delta, led by its new (and later Hall of Fame) head coach Ron Petersen, would get back on top of 2A again after being toppled by Wasatch the season before. The Rabbits scored 97 points and eased past the defending champions, who pointed 52.5. Morgan was next with 42.5 while Millard and San Juan scored 37 and 31 points respectively to round out the top five. Richard Tree was the coach at Wasatch, but regrettably I really don’t know who the coaches of these other teams are. (Note: These stories are easy to edit so information is welcome!).
Delta had five state champions with Gary Cox (112), Spencer Nielson (126), Mike Christensen (132), Scott Droubay (145) and Mike Barney (155). Names like Cox, Nielsen and Christensen are very prominent in the Delta wrestling community over the decades.
Wasatch had two champions with Ed Clyde (I imagine Heath Clyde who just went through Wasatch has to be a relation) at 119 pounds and Roger Tree at 185 pounds. And one of the state champions was Jefferson Roanhorse, who attended Intermountain, a Native American boarding school in Brigham City which often churned out some good wrestlers. Intermountain shut down as a school in the early to mid 1980’s I believe. Interestingly enough, Juab was 14th (or dead last of schools that scored) in 1974. Wow, how things have changed!
Joe Wolfe Davis, who wrestled at Uintah for Lou Mele and finished with Dennis Preece (my Dad’s second official state champion he coached) was now the head coach at Monticello and had just won his second straight state title. The Buckaroos would win six in a row from 1973-1978 and Davis coached seven state title teams in wrestling total. Monticello scored 104.5 points to Wayne’s 80.5. The Badgers were led by a young Kerry Anderson who would win a state-record 16 state titles over his career. North Summit (71) was a strong third while North Sevier and Gunnison tied for fourth with 24.5 points.
Monticello had four individual champions with Ozzie Trujillo (98), Fred Snyder (126), Eddie Purcell (145) and Derek Lovell (185). The Buckaroos also had three other finalists in Brent Muhlstein (112), Andy Black (155) and Mike Neal (167).
Wayne’s two champions were Vernon Howard (119) and Rene Van Dyke (167). One of Wayne’s three runner-ups was George Chappell (105), who later became the very successful head coach at North Sevier and currently is a volunteer assistant at Snow College for the women’s team. Chappell and I both coached some of the first female high school wrestlers in the state and his daughter Kate was one of the first wrestlers to qualify for state and later became the state’s first female varsity-level official.
North Summit crowned three champions with Mike Roath (105), Ronnie Moore (112) and Mike Jones (132).
Oh, by the way, the 3A and 4A meets were held together at what is now the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah, while Delta hosted the 2A meet and Monticello the 1A meet.
4A Individual Champions:
98–Alex Maestas (Layton)
105–Manuel Soto (West)
112–Gary Ratcliffe (Orem)
119–Terry Ellison (Provo)
126–Rod Burgi (Orem)
132–Don Christensen (Brighton)
138–Andy Watts (Orem)
145–Kim Rolfe (Hillcrest)
155–Jeff Savage (Brighton)
167–Judd Mackintosh (Brighton)
185–Mike Bailey (Hillcrest)
Unl.--Ryan Booth (Olympus)
4A Team Scores: 1. Brighton (63) 2 Orem (61.5) 3 (T) Hillcrest 50.5 3 (T) West (50.5) 5. Provo (44) 6. East (38.5) 7 (T) Sky View (29.5) 7 (T). Layton (29.5) 9. Olympus (28) 10. Cottonwood (20) 11. Granger (19.5) 12. Clearfield (19) 13. Box Elder (18) 14 (T) Granite 16 14 (T) Skyline (16) 16. Bonneville (15) 17. Kearns 13 18. Highland (8) 19. Bountiful (6) 20, Ben Lomond (5) 21. Weber (4.5) 22. Bear River (4) 23 (T) Murray (3) 23 (T) Viewmont (3) 25. Ogden (1).
3A Individual Champions:
98–Jim Tripp (Uintah)
105–Eugene Woody (Uintah)
112–Vaughan Maxfield (Pleasant Grove)
119–Ed Romero (Jordan)
126–Dave Norton (Pleasant Grove)
132–Marty Christensen (Pleasant Grove)
138–Charles Hunt (Cyprus)
145–Scott Bonham (Jordan)
155-Scott Gerber (Lehi)
167–Richard Logan (Uintah)
185–Jeff Bennett (American Fork)
Unl.--Steve Kyriopaulos (Bingham)
3A Team Scores: 1 Pleasant Grove (75) 2. Jordan (66) 3. Uintah (65.5) 4. Springville (34) 5. Bingham (33) 6. American Fork (26) 7. Spanish Fork (24) 8. Davis (21.5) 9. Cyprus (20) 10. Lehi (15) 11. Tooele (12) 12. Carbon (11) 13. Judge Memorial (7) 14. Payson (7).
2A Individual Champions:
98–Delbert Jones (San Juan)
105–Jefferson Roanhorse (Intermountain)
112–Gary Cox (Delta)
119–Ed Clyde (Wasatch)
126–Spencer Nielson (Delta)
132–Mike Christensen (Delta)
138–Chuck Hardy (Hurricane)
145–Scott Droubay (Delta)
155–Mike Barney (Delta)
167–Craig Simpson (San Juan)
185–Roger Tree (Wasatch)
Unl.--Ken Thompson (Dixie)
2A Team Scores: 1. Delta (97) 2. Wasatch (52.5) 3. Morgan (42.5) 4. Millard (37) 5. San Juan (31) 6. Richfield (29) 7. Emery (19.5) 8 (T) Grand County (16) 8 (T) Hurricane 16 10. Union (14.5) 11. Intermountain (13.5) 12. Cedar City (5) 13. North Sanpete (4) 14. Juab (3).
1A Individual Champions:
98–Ozzie Trujillo (Monticello)
105–Mike Roath (North Summit)
112–Ronnie Moore (North Summit)
119–Vernon Howard (Wayne)
126–Fred Snyder (Monticello)
132–Mike Jones (North Summit)
138–Max Jackson (Kanab)
145–Eddie Purcell (Monticello)
155–Terry Pickett (Gunnison)
167–Rene Van Dyke (Wayne)
185–Derk Lovell (Monticello)
Unl.--Clyde Crane (North Sevier)
1A Team Scores: 1 Monticello (104.5) 2. Wayne (80.5) 3. North Summit (71) 4 (T) 24.5 4 (T) North Sevier (24.5) 6. South Summit (23) 7 (T) Piute (20) 7 (T) South Sevier 20 9. Parowan (18.5) 10. Milford (15) 11. Kanab (13.5) 12. Duchesne (12) 13.Altamont (2) 14 (T) East Carbon (1) 14 (T) South Rich (1).