Ron Pifer was a great wrestler at Penn State from 1960 to 1962 as you'll find out in several of my other blogs. I attended PSU at the same time he did and saw him wrestle a great deal while I was a student there.
He forte was leg wrestling and quickness and for those who want to learn more about leg wrestling from an expert, Ron has put together a four hour tutorial on two CDs called "Ron Pifer's Leg Wrestling Techniques".
It can be obtained by contacting Ron at rvp12@scasd.org or by writing to him at:
Ron Pifer
2360 West Branch Road
State College, PA 16801
The video set costs $49.99 including shipping and handling. If you're interested, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
Enjoy. :)
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Penn State Wrestling - Circa 1960
I first became interested in freestyle wrestling when I was a junior at Mount Lebanon High School in suburban Pittsburgh, PA. This was in the fall of 1956. Our coach was a great guy named George Lamprinakos (Lampy, to all of us who had him as a Phys Ed instructor). Lampy would go on to coach Kurt Angle to a PIAA state championship in 1987 and is mentioned in Angle's autobiography in glowing terms.
But he was a young coach with a first year team in Mount Lebanon in the fall of 1956. How do you take a bunch of guys who have never wrestled before and win with them? But Lampy had to start somewhere and the gaggle of guys who turned out for team tryouts were oh so inexperienced, save one guy by the name of Turney Duff who had just transferred to Mount Lebanon that fall from I believe it was Pennsbury High School in Eastern Pennsylvania, just north of Philly. Turney was pretty good and for that year acted as an assistant caoch and generally whipped anyone who he went up against in the wrestling room, even the heavyweight aspirants. He just knew that much more than the rest of us. Interestingly enough, my freshman year room mate at Penn State, two years later, Bill Blackmon, was a graduate of Pennsbury High also. And Bill had a good friend from high school, Pete Hunt, who he introduced me to and who turned out to be on the same wrestling squad at Pennsbury as Turney Duff. Small world, indeed.
Anyhow, while Turney was chewing up just about all the new Mount Lebanon wrestlers, Lampy had gotten us into pretty good shape and was starting to conduct wrestleoffs. He put me up against George Schein, a terrific athlete and a guy who seemed much bigger than me, at 145 pounds (if I remember correctly). George proceeded to quickly dispatch me with a lightening fast pin. This wasn't the most devastating thing in the world but it gave me an idea where I stood, from a wrestling talent standpoint. It wasn't long until I got a nasty knee infection that kept me out of the wrestling room for several weeks and I soon quit the team, but my interest in the wrestling bloosomed even though it didn't seem a sport that I was cut out for, physically or, more important, mentally.
Fast forward two years and I'm now a freshman at Penn State studying electrical engineering but still incredibly interested in all sports. One day I'm having a conversation about the Penn State wrestling team with a guy in my dorm by the name of Ed Bradley, and he's telling me about a guy who'll be wrestling for the Nittany Lions starting in the fall of 1959 by the name of Ron Pifer. "Pifer", Bradley says, "is a two time PIAA (Pensylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) champ from nearby Bellfonte, PA and is really going to excite Penn State wrestling fans." I store this information away for future reference.
Now it's late in the fall or early in the winter of 1959 and Penn State has it's first wrestling match of the season. It's at home in the friendly confines of Rec Hall and it's against Michigan. Ronnie Pifer is starting for the Nittany Lions and a bunch of the Nittany 33 dorm gang are in our seats, anxiously awaiting the start of the match. As we're waiting, I see a Michigan wrestler walk out onto the floor to look things over. The guy looks big and tough and I wonder what weight class he's going to wrestle. Then the Michigan wrestler goes back to his locker room and the match soon begins. I don't remember if Penn State beat Michigan that night but I sure do remember seeing Ron Pifer wrestle in his first match for the Lions. It turns out that he wrestles at 167 and goes up against the Michigan bruiser that I saw walk onto the floor before the match. I think it was late in the first period of the 167 pound match that Ron threw what appeared to be a "grapevine" onto the guy from Michigan and pinned him. Rec Hall went crazy and the Lion fans knew that they had a special athete on the wrestling team in Ron Pifer, our new sophomore sensation.
Ron continued to do extremely well for the Lions as his career progressed, much of it wrestled at 157 pounds with an occasional match wrestled at 147 or 167 pounds. He didn't lose very often and was a great leg wrestler who pinned a fair number of his opponents. He won All American honors three times at the NCAA wrestling tournaments of 1960 - 1962, finishing fourth and third at the NCAA's in 1960 and 1962 and took second in the nation in 1961 losing at 147 pounds to Larry Hayes of Iowa State in the tournament finals. Hayes was a senior that year and won his third NCAA championship when he beat Ron 4-0.
I recently had the need to gather some information about Ron's career that I am using in a book that I'm writing and found Ron's E-mail address online. He was very gracious in supplying me with that information just recently and it's something that makes a budding journalist's life so much more easy. Many thanks go out from me to Ron for giving a PSU classmate that he'd never met some information that I'd have had a great deal of trouble locating otherwise.
Ron is now retired from coaching and from his high school principal's job but still works part of the year as an assistant wrestling coach at State College High in State College, PA, the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions. And for you real wrestling fans, the ones who really know the intricacies of wrestling techniques, you might be interested in Ron's two CD four hour wrestling video titled "Ron Pifer's Leg Wrestling Techniques". It's $ 49.99 including shipping and can be gotten by contacting Ron at rvp12@scasd.org or writing to him at Ron Pifer, 2360 West Branch Road, State College, PA 16801.
While at Penn State I was not only fortunate enough to see Ron wrestle numerous times but was also able to see some other really good wrestlers such as Jerry Seckler who, rumor had it, wrestled at 167 and did very well at that spot for the Lions but had to wrestle there since he couldn't beat Pifer out in the 157 pound Lion wrestle offs. I also got to see some good wrestling from a former neighbor of mine in Canonsburg, PA, Bob Haney, who wrestled for Penn State and graduated in 1963, a year behind me.
In the process of seeing most of the wrestling matches that the Nittany Lions wrestled at Rec Hall I got to see two time NCAA champions Dave Auble of Cornell and Mike Natvig of Army, and one time NCAA winners Larry Lauchle of Pitt and Kirk Pendleton of Lehigh when they wrestled Penn State as well as some other really good wrestlers such as Dick Martin and Darryl Kelvington of Pitt and Thad Turner, Dave Angell and Billy Merriman of Lehigh.
I can still hear the PA announcer, when I daydream about those long ago evenings spent at Rec Hall, intoning, " .....and now at 157 pounds Mr. Makarainnen of Cornell versus Mr. Pifer of Penn State." Great memories. :)
But he was a young coach with a first year team in Mount Lebanon in the fall of 1956. How do you take a bunch of guys who have never wrestled before and win with them? But Lampy had to start somewhere and the gaggle of guys who turned out for team tryouts were oh so inexperienced, save one guy by the name of Turney Duff who had just transferred to Mount Lebanon that fall from I believe it was Pennsbury High School in Eastern Pennsylvania, just north of Philly. Turney was pretty good and for that year acted as an assistant caoch and generally whipped anyone who he went up against in the wrestling room, even the heavyweight aspirants. He just knew that much more than the rest of us. Interestingly enough, my freshman year room mate at Penn State, two years later, Bill Blackmon, was a graduate of Pennsbury High also. And Bill had a good friend from high school, Pete Hunt, who he introduced me to and who turned out to be on the same wrestling squad at Pennsbury as Turney Duff. Small world, indeed.
Anyhow, while Turney was chewing up just about all the new Mount Lebanon wrestlers, Lampy had gotten us into pretty good shape and was starting to conduct wrestleoffs. He put me up against George Schein, a terrific athlete and a guy who seemed much bigger than me, at 145 pounds (if I remember correctly). George proceeded to quickly dispatch me with a lightening fast pin. This wasn't the most devastating thing in the world but it gave me an idea where I stood, from a wrestling talent standpoint. It wasn't long until I got a nasty knee infection that kept me out of the wrestling room for several weeks and I soon quit the team, but my interest in the wrestling bloosomed even though it didn't seem a sport that I was cut out for, physically or, more important, mentally.
Fast forward two years and I'm now a freshman at Penn State studying electrical engineering but still incredibly interested in all sports. One day I'm having a conversation about the Penn State wrestling team with a guy in my dorm by the name of Ed Bradley, and he's telling me about a guy who'll be wrestling for the Nittany Lions starting in the fall of 1959 by the name of Ron Pifer. "Pifer", Bradley says, "is a two time PIAA (Pensylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) champ from nearby Bellfonte, PA and is really going to excite Penn State wrestling fans." I store this information away for future reference.
Now it's late in the fall or early in the winter of 1959 and Penn State has it's first wrestling match of the season. It's at home in the friendly confines of Rec Hall and it's against Michigan. Ronnie Pifer is starting for the Nittany Lions and a bunch of the Nittany 33 dorm gang are in our seats, anxiously awaiting the start of the match. As we're waiting, I see a Michigan wrestler walk out onto the floor to look things over. The guy looks big and tough and I wonder what weight class he's going to wrestle. Then the Michigan wrestler goes back to his locker room and the match soon begins. I don't remember if Penn State beat Michigan that night but I sure do remember seeing Ron Pifer wrestle in his first match for the Lions. It turns out that he wrestles at 167 and goes up against the Michigan bruiser that I saw walk onto the floor before the match. I think it was late in the first period of the 167 pound match that Ron threw what appeared to be a "grapevine" onto the guy from Michigan and pinned him. Rec Hall went crazy and the Lion fans knew that they had a special athete on the wrestling team in Ron Pifer, our new sophomore sensation.
Ron continued to do extremely well for the Lions as his career progressed, much of it wrestled at 157 pounds with an occasional match wrestled at 147 or 167 pounds. He didn't lose very often and was a great leg wrestler who pinned a fair number of his opponents. He won All American honors three times at the NCAA wrestling tournaments of 1960 - 1962, finishing fourth and third at the NCAA's in 1960 and 1962 and took second in the nation in 1961 losing at 147 pounds to Larry Hayes of Iowa State in the tournament finals. Hayes was a senior that year and won his third NCAA championship when he beat Ron 4-0.
I recently had the need to gather some information about Ron's career that I am using in a book that I'm writing and found Ron's E-mail address online. He was very gracious in supplying me with that information just recently and it's something that makes a budding journalist's life so much more easy. Many thanks go out from me to Ron for giving a PSU classmate that he'd never met some information that I'd have had a great deal of trouble locating otherwise.
Ron is now retired from coaching and from his high school principal's job but still works part of the year as an assistant wrestling coach at State College High in State College, PA, the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions. And for you real wrestling fans, the ones who really know the intricacies of wrestling techniques, you might be interested in Ron's two CD four hour wrestling video titled "Ron Pifer's Leg Wrestling Techniques". It's $ 49.99 including shipping and can be gotten by contacting Ron at rvp12@scasd.org or writing to him at Ron Pifer, 2360 West Branch Road, State College, PA 16801.
While at Penn State I was not only fortunate enough to see Ron wrestle numerous times but was also able to see some other really good wrestlers such as Jerry Seckler who, rumor had it, wrestled at 167 and did very well at that spot for the Lions but had to wrestle there since he couldn't beat Pifer out in the 157 pound Lion wrestle offs. I also got to see some good wrestling from a former neighbor of mine in Canonsburg, PA, Bob Haney, who wrestled for Penn State and graduated in 1963, a year behind me.
In the process of seeing most of the wrestling matches that the Nittany Lions wrestled at Rec Hall I got to see two time NCAA champions Dave Auble of Cornell and Mike Natvig of Army, and one time NCAA winners Larry Lauchle of Pitt and Kirk Pendleton of Lehigh when they wrestled Penn State as well as some other really good wrestlers such as Dick Martin and Darryl Kelvington of Pitt and Thad Turner, Dave Angell and Billy Merriman of Lehigh.
I can still hear the PA announcer, when I daydream about those long ago evenings spent at Rec Hall, intoning, " .....and now at 157 pounds Mr. Makarainnen of Cornell versus Mr. Pifer of Penn State." Great memories. :)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
The Patriots
I've seen some great pro football teams since I became interested in the sport in the late 1940's. And the New England Patriots certainly look like the belong right up there with the teams that I've considered to be dynasties over the years. Their 16-0 record so far this year and the way they have always been coached to really focus on playing football the right way demands that the world give them incredible respect.
Bill Belichick seems to have the ability to have all his players buy into the almost Zen concept that no one's really a star; that each guy, even Tom Brady, is just a cog in a well oiled machine. Belichick appears to be the modern day paradigm for the position of head coach.
Of course, the Patriots will look even better to historians if they win this year's Super Bowl but if they stumble, then the taking of their place in my pantheon of really great football teams will have to be put on hold.
The teams that the Pats look like they're going to join in Pro Football Valhalla are the Green Bay Packers of Vince Lombardi (who by the way, could, in my opinion, be winning Super Bowls if he were coaching today, instead of in the 1960's), the great 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers of Chuck Noll and the wonderfully talented 1980's San Francisco Forty Niner teams led by Bill Walsh.
I think the Pats will do it this year even though my heart is with the Steelers of the town where I was born. And if they don't do it this year, I can't imagine them them not doing it next year. It seems that as long as the Pats have Belichick and Brady they are capable of almost anything.
The next five weeks will tell us if the Pats will march to the Vince Lombardi Trophy and join my three Super Teams in Kurt's Hall of Pro Football Dynasties.
Go Steeler's, but you probably won't beat the Pats. They're too good this year for anyone to beat. Even Peyton Manning and his wonderful Colts. :)
Bill Belichick seems to have the ability to have all his players buy into the almost Zen concept that no one's really a star; that each guy, even Tom Brady, is just a cog in a well oiled machine. Belichick appears to be the modern day paradigm for the position of head coach.
Of course, the Patriots will look even better to historians if they win this year's Super Bowl but if they stumble, then the taking of their place in my pantheon of really great football teams will have to be put on hold.
The teams that the Pats look like they're going to join in Pro Football Valhalla are the Green Bay Packers of Vince Lombardi (who by the way, could, in my opinion, be winning Super Bowls if he were coaching today, instead of in the 1960's), the great 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers of Chuck Noll and the wonderfully talented 1980's San Francisco Forty Niner teams led by Bill Walsh.
I think the Pats will do it this year even though my heart is with the Steelers of the town where I was born. And if they don't do it this year, I can't imagine them them not doing it next year. It seems that as long as the Pats have Belichick and Brady they are capable of almost anything.
The next five weeks will tell us if the Pats will march to the Vince Lombardi Trophy and join my three Super Teams in Kurt's Hall of Pro Football Dynasties.
Go Steeler's, but you probably won't beat the Pats. They're too good this year for anyone to beat. Even Peyton Manning and his wonderful Colts. :)
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