I call it "Hoosiers with wrestling mats".

It's where Tennessee's state wrestling tournament had its' humble, low-key, but great beginning.

As a I sit in the wooden bleachers of this near-empty gym at old Red Bank High School (now Red Bank Middle), I imagine it's the second weekend in March of 1961 and there's Jimmy Chitwood on the far end hitting one more practice jumper from 20 before heading down the steps to one of four locker rooms located below (two each for home and away boys and girls basketball teams).

On the opposite end, coach John Farr's teenage Lions from Red Bank are ready to roll out two - yes, two -mats and prepare the gym for something called the inaugural state high school tournament.

Fast forward for a minute to this week's 50th state tournament (starts Thursday at 4 p.m. central time) which will have three events (D-I, D-II and girls) on at least 10 mats in front of 4,000 plus fans, with computerized stats, media from across Tennessee in a state-of-the-art arena at the Williamson County Agricultural Center Expo in Franklin.

Now remember what coach Farr and company had at hand.

A small scorers table used for basketball games, a memeographed tournament program and a used black board wedged in one corner ready for some team manager to write, erase and write again updated team scores throughout the two-day event.

"We probably had a full house of maybe 300 fans max each session sitting on these old bleachers with the old heaters on the back row and with nine teams in this little cracker box of a place there is no telling where we (wrestlers) sat," said 1961 Red Bank state champ George Farr who reflected back five decades to his senior wrestling season.

"But, you know, we wouldn't have wanted it any other way," the former Southern champion at University of Chattanooga stated with a smile.

As I look around, the future legends of the sport are arriving for weigh-ins administered on those old hospital scales (which Red Bank Middle wrestlers still use today).

In one corner of the gym, the tough- as-nails kids from Tennessee School for the Blind - going though stretching exercises from the three-hour car ride from Donelson - are led by future state champs including Ralph Brewer, Randy Thompson and Chester Lewis.

As well as a 105-pound kid named Mitchell Cole who by Saturday night would let everyone know that he was the best the tourney had to offer, winning the first outstanding wrestler award.

Checking on the brackets, I see a Friendsville High School senior named Clint Abbott who would place fourth that weekend, before a hall of fame career as a wrestling official in high school and the NCAA tournament and is still involved in evaluating the guys in the striped shirts at the state tournament.

And a handful of Baylor wrestlers enter with legendary coach Luke Worsham, fresh from winning their second straight Mid South (prep school conference) title three weeks earlier. Jack McGauley would be Baylor's first state champ at 185.

And a few McCallie wrestlers - including John McCall, who would be the first Tornado state champ, and Paul Tessmann, the first two-time winner from any school - in their familiar blue and white warm-ups climb the stairs from the lockers below.

"McCallie and Baylor students were on spring break that week in March and several of my teammates were off to Florida or Myrtle Beach (S.C.), but I stayed home," said McCall, now in his 41st year as a McCallie teacher and the school's longtime wrestling scorekeeper.

And that high school senior's decision had historical ramifications on his career.

"McCallie coach Col. David Spencer asked me if I wanted to wrestle in a tournament at Red Bank and I agreed, not knowing that it was the first state tournament," said McCall who had placed second at the eastern prep tournament in Lehigh, Pa. a week before, losing on riding time, and was a 1960 Mid South champion and who would, three decades later, serve as the state tournament public address announcer.

All total, 57 wrestlers from nine schools (from Donelson to Chattanooga to Friendsville) would battle for team and individual state supremacy as fans paid 75 cents a session or put down two bucks for a tourney pass.

"The wrestling coaches association sponsored the first few state tournaments and I feel we did a pretty good job of getting the state tournament started," said coach Farr, who served on the NCAA wrestling rules committee and was an official at the NCAA D-I championship.

"In those early years, we really didn't think about how this would grow, but a half century later it's going strong and hopefully we had a hand in all this."

Chattanooga City High School, under coach Bill Von Schaaf, won it all with two champions - undefeated Jim Eldridge and Lance Schaeffer - and 77 points, edging host Red Bank by two points.

McCallie was a distant third (47 points), followed by TSB, Everett, Notre Dame (whose first wrestlers wore the green and white in 1940), Baylor and Friendsville to round out the field.

The Maroon and White Dynamos from City, in only their third year of existence, won it with depth, as 11 wrestlers placed fourth or better.

"We had a solid team that year and for me it was a great ending to my undefeated senior season," said Eldridge who claimed a 1961 City Prep finals pin against McCallie's Phil Greek, who was a two-time Mid South champ, 1962 state champ and SEC winner at Georgia Tech.

Lest one think that that old gym has been retired as have the aforementioned wrestlers, the Red Bank Middle School Lions call that former state tournament site their practice facility and gym for home matches.

Jim Wulf, who is a former recreation director at New York's Attica State Maximum Security Prison, is the Lions coach and has led his grapplers to a handful of city championships in the past 18 years at the school.

This year's squad has its final home match against Tyner on Feb. 22. at 6 p.m.

Two of Wulf's champions on the 1996 city title team - Kevin Ward and Darren McKnight - went on to claim three state titles each and wrestle in the NCAA D-I tournament.

Ward, who wrestled for Steve Henry at Soddy Daisy (winning the state in 1999-00-01), was a Big 12 champion on the 1995 Oklahoma State undefeated NCAA championship squad.

Surprised that his old gym at Red Bank was the site of the first state tournament, Ward recalled that
coach Wulf was "a tough, but fair coach who worked us hard.

"I think he had us run up and down those old bleachers what seemed to be a 100 times a day," said Ward with a laugh.

McKnight won three titles at Red Bank (1999-00-01) before a career at Michigan State which included being team captain, medaling in the Big 10 tournament and winning a couple of NCAA tournament matches.

"I worked real hard in college, perfected a few moves that suited my style of wrestling and had good success," said McKnight.

For the last half century, teenagers across the state have been diligent in their efforts to be the best and win that coveted title of state champion.

The record books show that the first state final at 98-pounds in 1961 resulted in Red Bank's Bill Bunch pinning McCallie seventh grader Lawman Wells in a then tournament record 59 seconds.

Now one looks forward to the close of the first half century of the state tournament on Saturday night as 56 teenagers in 14 weight classes in two divisions will be introduced prior their final match in their quest to have their name etched alongside the many past champions who have wrestled and won.

Contact B.B. Branton at William.branton@comcast.net

Checking Weight: Former state champion and wrestling official George Farr (left) makes sure that City High state champ Jim Eldridge is right on weight. Farr won the 132-pound class state title for Red Bank in 1961, while Eldridge tipped the scales at 126 that same year.
- Photo2 by Dennis Norwood