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"Fans since 2011"...

PSUer1989

PSUer1989

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Feb 6, 2017
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I am a State College native, and have been aware and casually followed PSU wrestling my whole life. Rob Kohl and I were in the same school and classes since elementary school. Bill Kohl was a teacher of mine and I had class with Jimmy Martin. I moved out of state after college and get back to town every few months.

I read on HR (and other sites) about all of the PSU fans "jumping on the band wagon" since 2011. I realized that that is when I started being able to follow all of PSU sports again. The answer wasn't Cael (though he had made following them amazing) it was simply that I could now watch a ton of PSU sports in BTN2Go.

I wonder how many other people, like me, really started feeling the connection to the program again, not because they were winning, but you could watch them all season long and get to know the athletes and their stories?

Sorry for the long post, but just curious...
 
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PSUer1989 said:
I am a State College native, and have been aware and casually followed PS WrestleStat by my whole life. Rob Kohl and I were in the same school and classes since elementary school. Kohl was a teacher of mine and I had class with Jimmy Martin. I moved out of state after college and get back to town every few months.

I read on HR (and other sites) about all of the PSU fans "jumping on the band wagon" since 2011. I realized that that is when I started being able to follow all of PSU sports again. The answer wasn't Cael (though he had made following them amazing) it was simply that I could now watch a ton of PSU sports in BTN2Go.

I wonder how many other people, like me, really started feeling the connection to the program again, not because they were winning, but you could watch them all season long and get to know the athletes and their stories?

Sorry for the long post, but just curious...
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I started following the team that year as well. I've lived in Virginia since 1978. I got to see the team in December'10 when they were in the Virginia duals. Molinaro, Taylor, Ruth, Wright and company hooked me on their brand of wrestling and I've followed them ever since! Cael, indeed knows Wrestling!
 
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I remember watching Penn State and Lehigh on PBS circa late 70s early 80s. I guess my "bandwagon" era was during my matriculation (shout out to Hank Stram), when I went over to see the Kolat, Abe, Hughes brothers teams. But until I saw how good they all were the initial draw was Kolat. My first dual at Rec was against Lehigh and Lock Haven (92-93 I think). Kolat almost got pinned against Lehigh. After college I drifted away a bit. Then I went to National Duals a couple years in a row at Bryce Jordan (2000,2001) and have been "on the bandwagon" ever since. Myself and a couple family members (including my late father) were so in to watching Cael, we went to Columbus to catch the Nat Duals Caels senior year. Penn State wasn't even in the Duals that year (So I was on the Cael "bandwagon" early as well). I remember my Dad having a lengthy conversation with Joe Heskett (very classy guy like Cael). Great memories for me.
Enjoy!!
 
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This is nothing more than something posters on HR like to say so they can feel better about being thrown off the top of the mountain.

It stems from jealousy, which is rampant on the HR board. Well, that an delusion.
 
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TangSoo said:
I remember watching Penn State and Lehigh on PBS circa late 70s early 80s. I guess my "bandwagon" era was during my matriculation (shout out to Hank Stram), when I went over to see the Kolat, Abe, Hughes brothers teams. But until I saw how good they all were the initial draw was Kolat. My first dual at Rec was against Lehigh and Lock Haven (92-93 I think). Kolat almost got pinned against Lehigh. After college I drifted away a bit. Then I went to National Duals a couple years in a row at Bryce Jordan (2000,2001) and have been "on the bandwagon" ever since. Myself and a couple family members (including my late father) were so in to watching Cael, we went to Columbus to catch the Nat Duals Caels senior year. Penn State wasn't even in the Duals that year (So I was on the Cael "bandwagon" early as well). I remember my Dad having a lengthy conversation with Joe Heskett (very classy guy like Cael). Great memories for me.
Enjoy!!
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for jogging my memory. I also now remember watching the Penn State duals on PBS versus Lehigh!
 
I have been following PSU wrestling since 1986, first match was PSU upsetting #1 Iowa in December of 86. Rec Hall was packed, great match, remember Royce Alger almost sticking Greg Elinsky. I went to most of the matches when I was at PSU.

Granted my interest level has certainly increased since Cael was hired and that also corresponds with being able to watch it on BTN and BTN2GO. I certainly would not call label myself as someone jumping on the bandwagon.

I too remember watching Lehigh wrestling on PBS. It was must see TV after church in the late 70's and early 80's.
 
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I was a college wrestling fan of the local team - PSU while in HS. After HS I didn't go out of my way to look at the sport. Had kids and got sucked back in to wonders of the sport. Happened ~2005. Also, became more of a fan once in Va... homerism from a roots persective! BTW - I use to like the football Cowboys (not favorite) until I moved to Dallas. Took all of ~3 weeks before I became a fan of the team they couldn't beat (at the time... 1982).
 
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I suppose I would fit the definition of a "Band wagon" fan, though I don't feel that I am. I was from a PA high school that won sectionals every year. At one time there were 3 guys from my high school wrestling at PSU. I was a non-wrestling student/fan at PSU from the 70s. I lived in NY after graduation and only kept minimally aware of wrestling. Then came the happy coincidence of my kids going off to school, David Taylor, Ed Ruth, Cael, and an early season match at Bloomsberg (not too long a drive from NY). I sat next to DT's dad. The place was mobbed. DT's dad expected every win. The discussion here was that they'll win nationals. I immediately got season tickets, which was the last month that was possible.
 
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Being from Bellefonte, it was natural to be a PSU fan. My interest in the PSU wrestling started when I started undergraduate work in 1969. I recall many local wrestlers popping up in the lie up (Dave Weber, The Packer brothers,Dave Joyner and Mr. "no fat" Andy Bingham who tested at 4% body fat and my go to Bellefonte boy....Denny Schabica). The interest grew the more contact I had with Coach Koll and and Rich Lorenzo as I had them for classes as I was a Health and Physical Ed major.

Periodically I would go to matches to see the likes of John Fritz, Andy Mater, Clyde Frantz, and Jerry White. Was stunned when coach Koll tossed a very talented Bill Bertran of the team (thought I proud he had the guts to do the right thing regardless of his wrestling abilities).

In the early 80s I got married to a former team manager for State High's wrestling team. With everything else she brought to the table, she was a sports enthusiast;) Had season tickets after we got married and lost touch during child rearing stage as my son was int football and basketball. We did make it to Kerry McCoy's National title NCAAs. The dates are scrambled but saw a good bit of Jimmy Martin, Cary Kolat Troy Sunderland. My father-in-Law left PSU to teach at Michigan and spent Thanksgiving/Christmas? in Witmore Lake. There was a diversion to UM to watch the National Duals . Remember distinctly Troy running laps to either warm up or make weight sporting a very black and blue face.

Finally fast forward.....with children grown we returned in earnest during the Q era and have not missed a match since and have been to all 6 of the NCAA titles since Cael signed on!!
 
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My first match at Rec Hall was during the 1983-84 season against Cleveland State. Not great in the memory department but what I do remember was the match was an exciting win for PSU against a college I had never heard of before. We were sitting up top so the match had to be pretty crowded although I have no idea what capacity was at that time.

My roommates buddy was on the team at the time. Can't remember his last name - we called him Woody - but do think that he was a District XI champ from Dieruff. That was a pretty good team from the early years of the Lorenzo era. I looked it up and there were 7 AAs from PSU that year.
 
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BDB57 said:
Being from Bellefonte, it was natural to be a PSU fan. My interest in the PSU wrestling started when I started undergraduate work in 1969. I recall many local wrestlers popping up in the lie up (Dave Weber, The Packer brothers,Dave Joyner and Mr. "no fat" Andy Bingham who tested at 4% body fat and my go to Bellefonte boy....Denny Schabica). The interest grew the more contact I had with Coach Koll and and Rich Lorenzo as I had them for classes as I was a Health and Physical Ed major.

Periodically I would go to matches to see the likes of John Fritz, Andy Mater, Clyde Frantz, and Jerry White. Was stunned when coach Koll tossed a very talented Bill Bertran of the team (thought I proud he had the guts to do the right thing regardless of his wrestling abilities).

In the early 80s I got married to a former team manager for State High's wrestling team. With everything else she brought to the table, she was a sports enthusiast;) Had season tickets after we got married and lost touch during child rearing stage as my son was int football and basketball. We did make it to Kerry McCoy's National title NCAAs. The dates are scrambled but saw a good bit of Jimmy Martin, Cary Kolat Troy Sunderland. My father-in-Law left PSU to teach at Michigan and spent Thanksgiving/Christmas? in Witmore Lake. There was a diversion to UM to watch the National Duals . Remember distinctly Troy running laps to either warm up or make weight sporting a very black and blue face.

Finally fast forward.....with children grown we returned in earnest during the Q era and have not missed a match since and have been to all 6 of the NCAA titles since Cael signed on!!
Click to expand...
I was a PE major as well...What class did you have Coach Koll for? I had him for squash... I still laugh about his ladders with "weasels" and "wolves" No one wanted to be on the Weasel side!
 
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NoVa Lion said:
Your point is? I assume from this post that you think it is true, which makes you the delusional one. My first PSU dual was in 1966 long before Iowa had the huge following it has now.
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Im assuming you think most negative thoughts about Penn State originate on HR. No way any other fanbase could feel that way!
 
WildTurk said:
Im assuming you think most negative thoughts about Penn State originate on HR. No way any other fanbase could feel that way!
Click to expand...
Why so angry on a PSU board? What did you expect to find when you clicked on this site, rainbows and unicorns? Well, we do have unicorns, but the point remains...
 
jammenz said:
I must be a bandwagoner cause I didn't even know that Penn State had a wrestling team until a few years ago.
Click to expand...
This is what happened to the Gopher bandwagon trying to keep up:

giphy.gif
 
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The whole 2011 thing is funny to me also. My Dad is from Lock Haven and I grew up on stories of Gray Simons, Mike Johnson, etc. Everyone wrestled, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd, and so on. My Dad coached the little guys.

Everyone knew wrestlers even if football was the big sport. First time in Rec hall was 1980. I remember when it seemed like half of the ranked teams were from PA. Bloom, the Haven, Boro, PSU, Lehigh, the Rock, Clarion, etc, etc. The best teams were from Iowa and Ok, but tons of PA wrestlers. PA talent was always spread out all over the place.

The difference is I didn’t hate the other teams, even if they beat PSU. I loved watching the Bonomo’s, CD Mock, Nate Carr, the Schultz’s, Zalesky, Barry Davis, and especially the Banach’s. Tab Thacker, Haselrig, and I could go on.

I still don’t hate Iowa or other schools. I find the hatred of everything PSU a form of flattery. It is different when you are rivals forever like Flyers/Rangers, Eagles/Giants/Cowboys, and probably Iowa/ISU. Then you hate the other team or you aren’t normal. :) To hate a team just because they have a good run seems strange to me.

It gets a little old when trying to read the useful posts of the regulars on HR because the one thing that pulls out the negativity and nastiness of the fringe is PSU, but I do my best to ignore it since I enjoy the wrestling talk and many of the posters over there.

I appreciate all the reminiscing here. Brought back some good memories for me, especially of time with my Dad.
 
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WildTurk said:
Im assuming you think most negative thoughts about Penn State originate on HR. No way any other fanbase could feel that way!
Click to expand...
I don't care how negative your friends are towards PSU over there or how much whining they do about Cael cheating the system. I just wished they'd let PSU fans defend our position on things (much like you are allowed to do here) without them crying like sissys and begging the mods to ban us.
 
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I'm sure the majority of the folks here remember being mat side just itching for your turn to compete only because you weren't old enough just yet. The sport of wrestling in Pennsylvania has always been huge and PSU has always been a big part of that. The crew on HR like to say we just recently discovered the sport yet they dismiss the fact that they are pinning their hopes of a Hawkeyes resurgence on recruits that come from "our" gene pool.
 
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Guilty as charged. Junior high wrestler and cael brought me back into the sport. Loyal season ticket holder since 2012. Although, I've never been to a match in rec hall since I live on the west coast. My dad attends all the matches. Only time I have ever seen psu wrestle live was the 2012 big 10 championships at purdue.
 
Bob_Anderson said:
Guilty as charged. Junior high wrestler and cael brought me back into the sport. Loyal season ticket holder since 2012. Although, I've never been to a match in rec hall since I live on the west coast. My dad attends all the matches. Only time I have ever seen psu wrestle live was the 2012 big 10 championships at purdue.
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Well glad you came aboard!! And that brings up something else HR should know. Our newest fans are just as much a part of the "family" as the oldest of the old!
 
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Gebmo said:
The whole 2011 thing is funny to me also. My Dad is from Lock Haven and I grew up on stories of Gray Simons, Mike Johnson, etc. Everyone wrestled, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd, and so on. My Dad coached the little guys.

Everyone knew wrestlers even if football was the big sport. First time in Rec hall was 1980. I remember when it seemed like half of the ranked teams were from PA. Bloom, the Haven, Boro, PSU, Lehigh, the Rock, Clarion, etc, etc. The best teams were from Iowa and Ok, but tons of PA wrestlers. PA talent was always spread out all over the place.

The difference is I didn’t hate the other teams, even if they beat PSU. I loved watching the Bonomo’s, CD Mock, Nate Carr, the Schultz’s, Zalesky, Barry Davis, and especially the Banach’s. Tab Thacker, Haselrig, and I could go on.

I still don’t hate Iowa or other schools. I find the hatred of everything PSU a form of flattery. It is different when you are rivals forever like Flyers/Rangers, Eagles/Giants/Cowboys, and probably Iowa/ISU. Then you hate the other team or you aren’t normal. :) To hate a team just because they have a good run seems strange to me.

It gets a little old when trying to read the useful posts of the regulars on HR because the one thing that pulls out the negativity and nastiness of the fringe is PSU, but I do my best to ignore it since I enjoy the wrestling talk and many of the posters over there.

I appreciate all the reminiscing here. Brought back some good memories for me, especially of time with my Dad.
Click to expand...
went to hs with mike, then college with gray,freddie powell,the blacksmith brothers, adam waltz. continued to follow lh, but began to donate to ps in the 70's. was at princeton when fritzie won the nc and continue to this day. guess i'm a bandwagon jumper, as well :p.
 
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dicemen99 said:
My first match at Rec Hall was during the 1983-84 season against Cleveland State. Not great in the memory department but what I do remember was the match was an exciting win for PSU against a college I had never heard of before. We were sitting up top so the match had to be pretty crowded although I have no idea what capacity was at that time.

My roommates buddy was on the team at the time. Can't remember his last name - we called him Woody - but do think that he was a District XI champ from Dieruff. That was a pretty good team from the early years of the Lorenzo era. I looked it up and there were 7 AAs from PSU that year.
Click to expand...
Kirby Wood, maybe? Also, with credit to the PSWC Website, here's the bout scores from that dual;

Weight PSU Wrestler Opponent Result
118 Carl DeStefanis Velimesis WBF 4:29
126 Nick Vodantis Foldesy, Dan LSD 1-24
134 Scott Webster Budnar LMD 4-12
142 Eric Childs Richards L 4-7
150 Chris Bevilacqua Babyak T 3-3
158 Greg Elinsky Cole WSD 17-3
167 Eric Brugel Miller WBF 1:46
177 Bob Harr Dulka W 8-4
190 John Place Render L 2-3
UNL Kirby Wood Ghaffari LMD 1-12
 
Roots go back to my freshman year, 1974, though I saw matches before that.

Penn State is arguably the 4th or 5th most successful program all-time, so those thinking (and saying) we are Johnny-come-lately's don't know their wrestling history.

That said, there is no doubt the fan base has expanded in exponential fashion (everyone likes a winner, right?), and there are lots of, shall I say, bandwagon fans. Evidence is in;
Attendance at duals, including sellouts at all Rec Hall Duals in something like the past 5+ years.
The waiting list to get season tickets.
A couple sellouts at the BJC, not even close to that prior to Cael.
The activity level of this forum and FOS.
The throngs that travel and attend away duals, the B1G Championships and the NCAA Championships.
The membership growth of the PSWC.
And I'm sure there's more.
 
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I documented my pre 2011 fandum by recording Penn State vs Iowa back in 2007 (Brands first year) and eventually putting it on youtube. Here's a link to the first video for anyone that needs a wrestling fix.



It's hard to follow on line, so here are all of the matches for Penn State vs Iowa (2007)

125 match: Mark McKnight v Charlie Falck

133 match: Jake Strayer v Mario Galanakis

141 match: Bryan Heller v Alex Tsirtsis

149 match: Dan Vallimont v Alex Grunder

157 match: Bubba Jenkins v Ryan Morningstar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO7MrbFegAo

157 cont, 165 match: Dave Rella v Mark Perry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcFZe3iNv2c

165 match continued https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxu-rb33d4k

174 match: James Yonushonis v Eric Luedke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mq9owHj2SI

184 match: Brian Cantalupi v Phil Keddy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lri5dsNMtL4

197 match: Phil Davis v Rick Loera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgT0O_7C96c

285 match: Aaron Anspach v Matt Fields https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07VfjAQA_P8
 
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I am on the bandwagon.......otherwise I would be a bandwag and that sounds slutty.

I became a season ticket holder when Carl showed up.

I don't care, why should anyone else?
 
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NittanyLion84 said:
My wife's aunt married Gray Simons, so fortunately, I get to see him every now and then, when they come to visit his wife's side of the family. Quite a guy.
Click to expand...

My Dad always said he was the greatest p4p wrestler he ever saw.
 
SRATH said:
I am on the bandwagon.......otherwise I would be a bandwag and that sounds slutty.

I became a season ticket holder when Carl showed up.

I don't care, why should anyone else?
Click to expand...
Right on...you shouldn't and no one else should. The expanded fan base has been awesome, totally and completely.
 
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I started being a PSU fan during my first season of high school wrestling (I literally did not know my school had a wrestling team before then) in the 1970-71 season (hence my screenname). Like others, my first exposure to PSU was through public tv (Hershey for me) and broadcasts of the PSU/Lehigh matches. Stayed a fan ever since and have been a season ticket holder since the Sunderland years.
 
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Thank God my boys started wrestling in 2011. It got me back into wrestling, re-discovering PSU wrestling. And, I've been a band wagon fan ever since. But, I think I've caught up pretty well.
 
Guess you can include me in the bandwagon. I watched a good bit of high school wrestling since a bunch of my friends were on the team (Chestnut Ridge '94). Went to UPJ and went to every match i could. I kind of fell away from it after that until I took my current job in 2010 and a co-worker got me back into it. Been following the team ever since.
 
NoVa Lion said:
Your point is? I assume from this post that you think it is true, which makes you the delusional one. My first PSU dual was in 1966 long before Iowa had the huge following it has now.
Click to expand...

You don't have to explain yourself. You don't owe anyone, especially Iowa fans, anything. You can become a fan tomorrow. That's how this works. I'll say it again, this is nothing more than something posters on HR say (and apparently other message boards) so that they can feel better about PSU climbing the mountain and tossing the rest of the country, especially Iowa, off the top.
 
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