Wrestling’s reversal

I enjoyed reading the Feb. 8 Extra Point column by Merrell Noden ’78, “Wrestlers go from flat on their backs to a comeback,” so much that I carried it around with me for two weeks. I was the wrestling team captain in 1993, when the program was proposed to be downsized and/or cut from the varsity level. Our team members, inspired by the amazing support of the wrestling alumni (spearheaded by H. Clay ­McEldowney ’69), worked very hard coordinating a number of activities that spring, including designing and distributing “Save Princeton Wrestling” buttons, T-shirts, and posters for the P-rade, and the unprecedented 24-hour wrestling marathon. This epic event had at least two people wrestling at all times, but also many other activities. I should have been finishing my thesis, but instead I was up most of the night taking part in a historic occasion! 

I can’t recall if the wrestlers have had a full-page article in PAW since 1989, so it was very rewarding to see one in the recent issue. The “dark years” of the mid-1990s, when Eric Pearson ’87 was interim coach (putting his “real” career on hold and possibly having the most difficult two years ever, as the future seemed doomed), were certainly tough for all P.U. wrestling fans. But now, after many years of hard work and dedication by the wrestling community, it is so much more satisfying to see the program back on its feet and finishing “the reversal,” as the article’s author stated.

The “relentless scrappers” (wrestlers, coaches, students, parents, fans, and alumni) have been patiently, but optimistically, waiting more than 15 years for this “reversal”: Two points scored.