Takedown Report

Championship Wrestling Coaches – NAIA

The NAIA National Championships were first held in 1958.  In the 62 years there have been 63 championship teams. In 1994 two teams tied for the title.  Several of the championship teams have left the NAIA for an affiliation with the NCAA.  These departures decreased the number of NAIA schools with wrestling from 50-60 teams in the late 1950s to a low of 20 by the end of the century.  Since then the number of teams have tripled. The NAIA have also started a women’s division championship last season.  Previous articles discussed the championship coaches in the NCAA Division I (D-I), Division II (D-II) and Division III (D-III) levels.  This list completes a review of all four-year college and university programs.
Current defending championship team coach Nick Mitchell of Grand View University leads all coaches with eight championship titles.  His teams have dominated the NAIA in recent years as these titles have been consecutive.  This year’s championship brought Grand View to tie with Central State of Oklahoma and Adams State of Colorado for the most team titles.  Grand View is heavily favored to continue their string of titles this season.
Coaches tied for 2^nd place are David James of Central State of Oklahoma, in the 1980s, and Joe Parsi of Lindenwood University with five titles each.  Lindenwood won five titles in eight seasons in the first decade after 2000. Central State has moved on into the NCAA D-II afflation while Lindenwood still seeks further NAIA titles.  David Ray of Montana State-Northern led his teams to four titles to claim 4^th place in team championships.
Coaches tied for 5^th place with a trio of titles each are Richard Ulrich of Adams State, Russ Houck of Bloomsburg State, Eddie Griffin of Central State and Mike Machholz of Missouri Valley College.  Bloomsburg won their titles in the 1960s before moving to D-I. 
Nine coaches are tied for 9^th place with a pair of titles each.  Robert “Rummy” Macias led Mankato State to the very first two titles in the late 1950s.  Former Olympian and wrestling legend Gray Simmons won two consecutive titles with Lock Haven.  Frank Powell followed up for the next two titles with Adams State College in the late 1960s.  Eric Beardsley won two non-consecutive titles in the early 1970s with Central Washington. Bob Riehm and Mike Ritchey each won two titles for Southern Oregon State in a span from 1978 to 2001. Jason Liles coached Montana State-Northern (MS-N) to a pair of titles in the early 1990s while Mike Jones brought Simon Fraser University a title before and after MS-N won their titles.  Simon Fraser also has the most individual titles, (38), won before transitioning to D-II. Coach Frank Romano brought Notre Dame College in Ohio two consecutive titles at the start of this decade before moving on to win a championship with the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) as they transitioned to the NCAA Division II.  Once there he led his teams to two more titles and two runner-up finishes.
Eleven coaches won one title each to tie for 18^th place on the list.  Gene Moses, Louie Long and Rodger Jehlicka each won a championship for Adams State.  Hubert Jack and Charles Ridenour each won a title for Lock Haven in the early 1960s before Gray Simmons’ reign.  Six coaches won the only title ever for their school. Bill Garland won a title for Minnesota State at Moorehead before they moved to NCAA D-II affiliation.  Don Benning won Nebraska-Omaha’s solo title in the NAIA before the school moved on to seven championships in the NCAA D-II division.  Curt Byrnes won Eastern Washington’s title in 1977 when they hosted the championship tournament!  Sadly Eastern Washington has dropped wrestling since that time.  T.J. Nelson coached Western Montana to a title shared or tied in 1994.  The following year John Jeffire led Findlay University to their title.  Findlay has moved on to compete in the D-II affiliation.  Dana College won their only title in 2006.  It will be their only title as the school closed in 2010.  Coach Steve Costanza won that title and then continued his success with four more at St. Cloud State in the NCAA D-II.  
The coaches that have guided their teams to National Championships are commendable and worth recognition.  Our next articles will look at coaches of championship wrestling teams in the National Junior College Division.  The number of dual meets won will be the focus of the next series of articles.
All-Time Individual Champs (by school): 1. Simon Fraser (39), 2. Southern Oregon (36), 3. Montana State-Northern (32),  4.(tie) Adams State, Grand View, Lindenwood (28),
7. Lock Haven (26),  8. Cent. Oklahoma (24),  9. Missouri Valley (17),  10. Central Wash. (15),  11. Mary (N.D.) (14),  12.(tie) Bloomsburg, Nebr.-Omaha (12),  14. (tie) Minn. St.-Moorhead, St. Cloud State, Wisconsin-Parkside (10),  17.(tie) Dickinson State, Findlay (9), 19. Color. St.-Pueblo, Cumberlands, Embry-Riddle, Menlo, West. Montana (8).

(I) = school now competes on the Division I level

(II) = school now competes on the Division II level
(cl) = the school has closed
            ** = school no longer has a team
            * = teams tied for the titles
             # = active coach

Championships by schools 1^st ; Grand View University, Adams State College, Central State Univ. (Ok.) … 8 each
4^th;  Montana State-Northern … 6                  5^th;  Lindenwood University … 5
6^th;  Southern Oregon State, Lock Haven State … 4 each
8^th;  Missouri Valley College,  Bloomsburg State …  3 each
10^th;  Notre Dame Coll. (Oh.), Simon Fraser, Central Washington, Minn. St. – Mankato… 2 ea.
14^th;  Dana College, Eastern Washington, Findlay University,  Minnesota State-Moorehead, Nebraska-Omaha, Western Montana …  1 each

We welcome input about college wrestling history.  We are compiling a historical record of each year a college has had a wrestling team, their dual meet win-loss record and the name of the head coaches.   

Martin K. Fleming, Editor
E-mail us at martinkfleming@gmail.com or takedownreport@gmail.com

October 19, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized