An Overwhelming Weekend for Wrestling Alums

Being there, one of a record 113,743 fans over three days in the Bok Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, watching with uncertainty the long and difficult progress of Quincy Monday ’23 and Pat Glory ’23 as they wrestled through their respective brackets in the NCAA Championships (Sports, April issue), was transfixing. Quincy was confronted with the deepest pool of talent at 165 pounds, with three titlists in his weight class, and Pat, at 125 pounds, was in a class with arguably the best wrestler of the decade, a three-time national champion from Iowa.

Princeton hadn’t had a champ in 72 years, and only once before had two Tigers reached the semifinals — Quincy and Pat the prior year. The odds of success were against both, yet they prevailed — Quincy coming back from a narrow loss to take third place, and Pat taking the title. It was a stunning moment for me when the ref raised Pat’s hand and he broke into an expression of elation I’ll never forget. Tears welled in my eyes. To see where Princeton wrestling has come, from a warped tome in the early ’90s to the epitome of success, was overwhelming.

(Photo of Pat Glory ’23, courtesy of Lisa Elfstrum)