KeithLowrance

Dale, Thanks for the kind words. You were always a good friend and great teammate. Your ability to perform in matches was matchless. One of the things that I ( and Dale Carr) were always proud of was that we taught you the Granby and you used it 3 times against Yatabe. I loved the thread you had going on the old forum about coaches etc. I should have jumped in, I have some good stories ones too. It is interesting you brought Uetake's name up. He and I are good friends. The friendship started at the World training camp in 1966 at U of Michigan. Basically we got in a major fight after I took him down 3 straight times( he claims it was the only time he was ever taken down, I think he meant by an American). He punched me and I tore into him and knocked him down. Myron Roderick and Doug Blubaugh pulled us apart. We wrestled everyday for about 10 days, I definitely held my own. Stan, I remember the 72 trials well. I agree, the match between Donnie and Rich at 125.5 was as good as any match I've ever seen. They were both wrestling with the Gold Medal in mind. Both had previously won Silver. Donnie was my teammate for 3 years at MSU. We worked out everyday.

Not sure which year it was, but Rich did wrestle Gene in the finals at Oklahoma State at 136.5. I was in the weight and the 3 of us made it to the round robin. In those days we wrestled under the blackmark system. If you accumulated 6 blackmarks you were out. When Rich and I met, I had 4 blackmarks, 3 from an earlier 7-4 loss to Gene. Rich had 3. Ties were allowed, but cost you 2 blackmarks. There was no stalling in freestyle, so Rich's strategy was to wrestle for a tie, knock me out and wrestle Gene in the finals. It worked, except at the end I made a desperation shot and Rich scored on a counter. Rich was by no means a little guy. He had to cut weight to make 136.5. Gene, however, was a very big 136.5 pounder. I do not recall the announcing, but I do recall that Rich wrestled well and beat Gene in the finals. The tournament was the Federation Nationals not the AAU. Rich's weight cutting practices were legendary. At the trials for the Pan Am team in Minnesota a couple of us were running when we came across Rich. He was hiding something in the bushes. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was said Keith you always need a plan for weight cutting. He went on to say the was driving around his route he planned to run hiding cans of beer every 2 miles. He said that could keep him going for 10 to 12 miles and he could lose the 10 plus pounds he needed to lose by the next day. He jumped in his car and went to his next hiding spot.