Was on the internet looking up some past champions in Northwest Ohio, when I came across a link to a match on Youtube for the 1973 A-AA championship match between Paul Luther of Cardinal Stritch and Dick Engle of Cincinnati Reading. I knew Paul from junior high and had no idea he was going to Stritch instead of Clay until he was not showing up at Clay. He has been under-rated on some of the all-time best rankings because of when he wrestled (72-74) and it was fairly rare for anyone to win 2 or more state championships. He took a third at 138 as a soph. then won championships at 145 then 155 his junior and senior years. He lettered at Ohio State as a freshman in 1974-75 (started out 7-2 and I couldn't find his record after that) then dropped out of college after his freshman year and did not wrestle after that (he may have wrestled internationally with a US team after his freshman year - not sure when he was selected for that) I don't know if he got injured doing that or just tired of wrestling and cutting weight. I seem to recall him being unable to wrestle against the Russian team so he may have been injured along the way - then stopped wrestling after that. Not sure.
Anyway, it's a cool video to see and it makes you think you are watching something out of the 50's instead of '73. Here is the link to the video. If there are any others that anyone can find - would be interesting to see. This won't hold much interest for those that never heard of Luther, but the difference in wrestling technique over the years is in stark contrast to the techniques used now. This match went to OT and his last takedown seemed to have been missed on film. Luther dominated the entire match but barely won. Seems they called stalemate a little too quickly more than once and I didn't see the penalty point Luther gave up for locking hands. Just couldn't see it on the film.
BTW - the music gets a little irritating after awhile.
Anyway, it's a cool video to see and it makes you think you are watching something out of the 50's instead of '73. Here is the link to the video. If there are any others that anyone can find - would be interesting to see. This won't hold much interest for those that never heard of Luther, but the difference in wrestling technique over the years is in stark contrast to the techniques used now. This match went to OT and his last takedown seemed to have been missed on film. Luther dominated the entire match but barely won. Seems they called stalemate a little too quickly more than once and I didn't see the penalty point Luther gave up for locking hands. Just couldn't see it on the film.
BTW - the music gets a little irritating after awhile.