2019 Distinguished Member Rich Lorenzo
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
Release Date: 07/01/2020
2019 Distinguished Member Rich Lorenzo
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
An outstanding high school and collegiate wrestler, Rich Lorenzo became an icon in college wrestling as the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1978 to 1992. His exemplary career has earned Lorenzo induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a 2019 Distinguished Member. During his coaching career, he helped 53 Penn State wrestlers earn All-America honors, including two-time NCAA champion Jeff Prescott and national champions Carl DeStefanis, Scott Lynch and Jim Martin. He led the Nittany Lions to 11 Top 10 NCAA finishes, including six Top Five finishes. Penn State won 11...
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2019 Distinguished Member Brandon Paulson
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
Successful at virtually every level of his storied career, Brandon Paulson is recognized for his wrestling prowess and coaching expertise by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a 2019 Distinguished Member. The highlight of his wrestling career was winning the silver medal at 114.5 pounds in Greco-Roman competition at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He also competed three times in Greco-Roman at the World Championships, winning a silver medal in 2001 and finishing eighth in 2002. A four-time U.S. Open champion, Paulson excelled at every age-group level of USA Wrestling, winning Cadet,...
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1979 Distinguished Member Charles "Doc" Speidel
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
He devoted a lifetime to the sport of wrestling. But in more than 60 years as an athlete, coach and teacher, Charlie Speidel contributed far more to the lives of others than ever can be recorded in the statistics of achievement. He was a pioneer for wrestling and helped it gain stature as a major sport in the high schools and colleges of Pennsylvania and across the eastern states. He traveled extensively, often with arch rival Billy Sheridan, to present clinics and introduce the sport. The record shows that "Doc" Speidel coached 38 years at Penn State University. His teams won 191 dual meets...
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1979 Distinguished Member Dr. Albert deFerrari
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
His interest in wrestling surfaced in 1922 from deep in the waters of San Francisco Bay. After more than half a century of service to the sport, Dr. Albert deFerrari's impact on wrestling had spanned the globe. His first exposure to the sport followed a shipwreck near the Golden Gate. The ship's cargo of cotton was declared free to any takers. Already a champion swimmer and diver, deFerrari retrieved a truckload. The mothers of his neighborhood then remade the wrestling mats of the area, stuffing in the free cotton and sewing the canvas covers with heavy thread. Such interest attracted the...
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1979 Distinguished Member Keith Young, three-time NCAA champion
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
He packed more wrestling success into five years than most athletes manage in a lifetime of competition. Keith Young spent the next three decades returning those rewards to the sport with full interest. His Algona High School team didn't offer wrestling until his senior year, and when he joined the University of Northern Iowa you'd hardly expect a youngster of such limited experience to fill the shoes of one of wrestling's all-time greats, Bill Koll. But fill them he did, winning six national championships in three seasons. Undefeated in collegiate competition, he was NCAA champion at 145...
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1979 Distinguished Member Frank Lewis, Olympic Champion
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
As a tall, skinny college freshman, Frank Lewis was "a little tired" after six years of wrestling and planned to give full attention to his studies at Oklahoma State University. But he needed a physical education credit and a wrestling class would provide an easy grade. Members of the class were required to compete in the all-college intramurals and when he failed to win the championship his pride was stung. He decided to concentrate on wrestling again. Frank Lewis concentrated so well that he became a national champion and the gold medalist in the 1936 Olympic Games at Berlin. A state high...
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1979 Distinguished Member Doug Blubaugh, Olympic Champion
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
In the shadowed ruins of Rome's ancient Basilica, Doug Blubaugh battled the world champion from Iran for the Olympic gold medal. Emamali Habibi had never known defeat. Three times the Persian attacked, each time throwing the young American into danger. Then a swift counterattack from Blubaugh hurled his opponent to his back ... suddenly the struggle was ended. Thus did an Oklahoma farm boy reach the apex of a brilliant athletic career, earning the 1960 Olympic gold medal at 160.5 pounds, and with it recognition as the outstanding wrestler in the world. Doug Blubaugh was no stranger to the...
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1978 Hall of Fame Distinguished Member Introductions
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
In another unearthed tape from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the introduction video for the Class of 1978 Distinguished Members has been released as a special episode of Hall of Fame Legends. This episode previews the inductions of the third induction class which featured true legends Glen Brand, Ross Flood, Stanley Henson, Harold Nichols, Robin Reed, Gray Simons and Bill Smith. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW | | | | | | | Contribute And if you're a fan of the extensive and broad-based reach of the shows on the Mat Talk Podcast Network, . There are various levels of perks for the...
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2017 Medal of Courage recipient, Thomas Irving Green
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
A real-life profile of courage, Thomas Irving Green truly personifies the word. As the all-time wins leader at Weedsport High School in New York, Green wrestled collegiately at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, New York, and at SUNY Cortland. After college, he turned his attention to officiating and was moving up the ranks, including serving as an assistant mat official at the Division III NCAA Championships in 1996. Just a few weeks after the end of the 1997 wrestling season, his life changed forever. On May 15, 1997, a container filled with a caustic chemical burst and sprayed Green’s...
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2017 Outstanding American, Dom Gorie
Legends: National Wrestling Hall of Fame
The latest episode of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Legends Podcast is with 2017 Outstanding American Dom Gorie. Beginning his wrestling career in junior high school, Dominic (Pudwill) Gorie always set his sights high. As a wrestler at Palmetto High School in Miami, he forged a standout career record of 41-9-1. He received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in 1975 and wrestled four years for legendary coach Ed Peery, who was inducted as Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1980. Gorie received a Bachelor of Science degree in ocean engineering...
info_outlineAn outstanding high school and collegiate wrestler, Rich Lorenzo became an icon in college wrestling as the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1978 to 1992. His exemplary career has earned Lorenzo induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a 2019 Distinguished Member.
During his coaching career, he helped 53 Penn State wrestlers earn All-America honors, including two-time NCAA champion Jeff Prescott and national champions Carl DeStefanis, Scott Lynch and Jim Martin. He led the Nittany Lions to 11 Top 10 NCAA finishes, including six Top Five finishes. Penn State won 11 consecutive Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association team titles and two National Dual Meet championships. Lorenzo was named EIWA Coach of the Year six times and was named National Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1992. Prior to becoming head coach, he was an assistant coach for Penn State from 1968-74 and helped the Nittany Lions finish in the Top 10 at the NCAA tournament four times while winning two EIWA team titles and finishing second three times.
He was co-executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association from 1993-95, raising one half of the coaches' $1 million capital campaign challenge, and served as the association’s membership chair and treasurer from 1993-99. Lorenzo was executive director and treasurer for the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, serving as the major fundraiser to fully endow the wrestling program. He was the chief fundraiser for a $4 million wrestling facility, which was named the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex.
On the mat, Lorenzo was a two-time district champion and a state runner-up for Newton (New Jersey) High School. Top-seeded at 191 pounds in the 1968 NCAA Championships, Lorenzo lost a close 2-1 decision in the semifinals and finished fourth. Earlier, he won an EIWA championship and was named Outstanding Wrestler and winner of the trophy for Most Falls. Lorenzo was an East-West dual meet winner in 1968 and a three-time EIWA place winner while going undefeated in dual meets as a junior and senior for the Nittany Lions.
Lorenzo was also a four-time Future Farmers of America state public speaking champion and was named the New Jersey Future Farmers of America Star State Farmer in 1964. He received the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1995, and was inducted into both the EWL Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1996.
Video compilation by Dave “Doc” Bennett.
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Recorded June 2019 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.