Takedown Report

Chapman: Since the beginning, WIN has promoted wrestling

What kind of a year was 1994? Well, try this: Bill Clinton was President of the United States, “Schindler’s List” won the Academy Award for best film and Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers was the MVP of the National Football League.

Mike and Bev Chapman

The nation was rocked by the brutal murders of O. J. Simpson’s former wife Nicole and her friend, Ron Brown, and riveted by the chase of Simpson’s white Bronco down a California highway. It was also the year that Richard Nixon, the nation’s 37th president, and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, former first lady, died.

More important to this column, it was the year that Pat Smith of Oklahoma State became the first wrestler to win four NCAA Division I titles, helping the Cowboys to a runaway team title, with Iowa and Penn State taking second and third, respectively.  And it was also the year that WIN was born.  The date was November 15, 1994, when that premiere issue debuted. The cover was adorned by a tremendous photo of Bruce Baumgartner doing a back lift on Tom Erikson, with this headline: “Bruce Baumgartner: Is He the Best Big Guy Ever?”

The Top 25 Greatest Wrestling Moments in the history of WIN

I was the publisher and my wife, Bev, the office manager. At the time, I was executive editor of Sauk Valley Newspapers in Dixon, Ill., and had pondered starting a new wrestling magazine for several years. There were several reasons for taking on such a new venture:

First, I had 25 years of experience producing a daily newspaper and felt I could put my journalism background to good use;  Rest of the story at https://www.win-magazine.com/2018/11/chapman-since-the-beginning-win-has-promoted-wrestling/?mc_cid=4e0244dd3c&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

November 23, 2018 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized