By MATT OTTE
Special to The Gazette
People who follow high school wrestling know all too well that Wisconsin Rapids is the kingpin these days in this popular prep sport.
But 50 years ago this winter it was not Rapids but Stevens Point that was reigning as defending champion of the mat sport in Wisconsin.
The Panthers of P.J. Jacobs in 1949 had scored 34 points - almost twice as many as runner-up Milwaukee South (18) - to capture the sport's sixth State Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association title.
That year marked the first time wrestling's final meet had been held in the UW Field House in Madison where it would continue to take place until moving to the Kohl Center in 1998. Previous to 1949, the State Tournament had been conducted at primarily high school locations in Appleton (Lawrence College), West Milwaukee, Neenah and Racine Park. The 1949 season also marked the first time sectionals preceded the State meet. Stevens Point was one of about only a dozen schools sponsoring wrestling that year, and the Panthers were channeled through the Madison West Sectional.
Henry Yetter at 95 pounds, Robert Mau at 115 and heavyweight Cliff Mancheski won individual titles for Coach John Roberts' champions in 1949. Eugene (Butch) Sorenson had won the 145 title in 1948 (when Mancheski as a junior picked up a third) but Sorenson had to settle for second at 155 in 1949. Freshman Loren Giese at 105, Jimmy Grubba at 125 and Harold Pitcher at 180 also took seconds while Jerry Polum was third at 165 in that glory season.
But now (50 years ago) it was 1950! With six returning State place-winners - Yetter, Giese, Mau, Grubba, Sorenson and Pitcher, it had to look promising for a Panther repeat. Wrestling, however, is a little different than most sports. Boys usually move up a weight class or two through normal growth. And some who don't for whatever reason may cause situations where two boys who were champions or high finishers one year to be in the same bracket the following season.
The Panthers did all right at State in 1950. They qualified all nine wrestlers at the sectionals, and two of them won titles. But Milwaukee South did better, scoring 36 points to 22 for Roberts' boys, who finished as runners-up. Sorenson, now at 165, and Giese, at 115, both won back titles they had lost in 1949. But Yetter (105) and Mau (125) weren't able to repeat and settled for second and third, respectively. Also picking up thirds were Grubba (145), Pitcher (180) and heavyweight Henry Olson. Milwaukee South's champions had six individual titlists (out of nine) that year.
The 1949-50 season was an important one for WIAA wrestling. Participation virtually doubled to 25 schools. The State Meet was held on the same weekend as the State Boys Basketball Tournament with semifinals on Saturday morning and finals in the afternoon ahead of the basketball championships in the evening. Holding the State finals at the same time/place as basketball was a smart move. A record 910 people paid to watch the two sessions at the field house. That's not many compared to the 60,000 or so who will watch the 2000 State Tournament over five sessions at the Kohl Center later this month. But 900-plus was a big crowd in 1950 when the sport was finishing just its seventh season.
Stevens Point was the only central Wisconsin school in wrestling those early years. The Panthers' closest competition came from schools 100 miles away - Madison to the south and Luxemburg and Sturgeon Bay to the east.
Roberts, who came to Stevens Point in 1946 as physical education teacher and head football coach, began wrestling in his first year. During his Badger years, besides playing on Wisconsin's great 1942 football team (ranked second in the nation), he had become the university's first NCAA finalist in wrestling. He managed to interest about 20 boys to take up wrestling early in 1947, and he took eight of them to Luxemburg for the only regular meet of the season. The Panthers surprised a lot of people by losing only 20-19 to an established wrestling school. Had Stevens Point not forfeited at 135 pounds (because of no contestant), this inaugural wrestling dual for P.J. Jacobs might have resulted in a win.
That first Panther mat team consisted of John Klein (95), Jimmy Grubba (105), Joe Derezinski (115), Jerry Kaczmarek (125), Don Grubba (145), Wayne Dobeck (155), Warren Dobeck (165) and Ed Klasinski (180). Winning their matches were both Grubba boys, Derezinski, Wayne Dobeck and Klasinski.
Roberts took the Grubba boys, Derezinski and Klasinski to the State Tournament, which was being renewed after a four-year lapse because of World War II. The Panthers scored three points for sixth place with both Grubbas finishing third and Derezinski fourth. Klasinski lost his first match to the boy who finished as champion.
A year later the 1948 Panthers wound up fourth in the State with nine points. Besides Sorenson's title and Mancheski's third, Point got a fourth from Alvin Woyak.
A year later came the championship performance and in 1950 the runner-up show. Then it was another second-place effort in 1951 (25 points compared to 35 for Milwaukee South, which won the second of its five straight titles in the early 1950s). The big individual news in 1951 was made by Jerry Miller. A member of the Panthers' fine 1949-50 basketball team the previous year, Miller came out for wrestling for the first time as a senior. It was a good move. He took the State title at 155 pounds. That year defending champions Sorenson and Giese both dropped to second places at 180 and 120. Wayne Giese (136) also got a second while Delmar Worden (103) took a third and Brooks (112), Jim Hetzer (165) and Ken Hurlbut (heavyweight) all had fourths.
The 1950-51 season was Roberts' final one as a season-long coach at P.J. Jacobs. After the first semester of 1951-52, he moved down Main Street to Central State College (now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) and started wrestling there, too. The 1952 Panthers, meanwhile, - with Dick Berndt finishing the season as coach - scored seven points (sixth place) at State. Loren Giese (120) won another title, and Bruce Summers (155) took a fourth. Thus Giese joined Sorenson as a four-time State Tournament finalist, each with two firsts and two seconds in their championship matches.
In the years that followed, Stevens Point continued having good wrestling teams. But they were not of the caliber of 1949-50-51. Individual titles also dwindled. Naturally, the fast-increasing number of schools sponsoring the sport played a big role in that situation. Giese's 1952 title gave Stevens Point eight champions in five seasons. In the 48 years since then, there have been nine more, and five of them came later in the 1950s. Those five were Dave Mancheski (155) and Jim Uptharove (180) in 1955, Jim Borchardt (136) in 1956, Roy Hickey (165) in 1958 and Ed Alderman (165) in 1958. Bernie Landerman (145) won in 1974. The most recent Panther winners have been Roths - Rick (heavyweight) in 1984, Rodney (180) in 1986 and Nate (l7l) last year.
Even though individual titles have been more difficult to attain in recent years, only eight schools in the state have more such titles than the 17 of Stevens Point and only five of them are Division I schools - Milwaukee South with 39, Stoughton with 32, Wisconsin Rapids with 22, Milwaukee Washington with 21 and Racine Park with 20.
Wisconsin Rapids not only has won 10 State WIAA team championships in wrestling but also will be looking for its sixth consecutive title when the 1999-2000 season concludes with the team tournament in West Allis the first weekend in March.
(Matt Otte, who retired from the WIAA staff in 1992, was sports editor of the Stevens Point Journal from late 1951 to mid-1957. He authored the book "More Than A Game," a history of the WIAA from 1896 to 1996.)